Happy Feast of St. Francis de Sales, 

Patron Saint of Catholic Writers!

Okay, so he's one of my absolute, all-time favorite saints. That is why I'm posting this jet-lagged picture of myself my very first day in Annecy, his hometown, in 2015. 😀 What an amazing spiritual friend he is. The special preface for his feast, celebrated in the Convents of the Visitation Nuns (which he co-founded with St. Jane de Chantal), mentions how he had the gift "to reinforce piety by his writings, by his words and by his example, and to make the rough ways flat."

Choosing a "words of encouragement" excerpt from him is like trying to choose a leaf in a forest. Whole books have been filled with his uplifting and inspiring words.

I flipped open one of my many books on this saint, and found his farewell to the Sisters of the Visitation in Annecy (the first convent the two saints founded). He knew his health was failing, and yet he obediently set off on a trip to meet the French King and the Duke of Savoy as he was asked. Isn't it appropriate that the road on which their first convent stands is called "Street of Providence"?

When he was ready to leave, knowing he probably wouldn't see these dear nuns again, he said Mass for them. Afterward he said:

"My dear daughters, ask for nothing, refuse nothing, desire nothing, resign your cares to Divine Providence, allow God to do with you whatever He pleases. A heart indifferent to all things is like a ball of wax in the hands of God, capable of receiving all the impressions of His eternal good pleasure. It does not place its love in the things which God wills but in the will of God which decrees them. My dear children, always act as God and your superiors wish. Let the aim of your life be to love God more and more, your ambition to possess Him. Adieu, my daughters, until eternity."
(Source: Rev. James F. Cassidy, B.A., St. Francis de Sales: the Doctor of Devotion, imprimatur 1944)

This effigy of St. Francis de Sales is located in the museum adjacent to the Basilica where he is buried. The alb the figure is wearing was his...and the chasuble was made for the second centenary of his canonization. I believe the mitre is his as well, because there is one like it in Rome that belonged to the saint, in the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls.

What a gift this saint has been to the Christian world! Imagine being such a profound writer and sublime influence, that you're uplifting, encouraging, and saving souls after you've been dead for centuries...