No. 35 • March 2019

Founded in 1997 and published biannually by the International Commission for Salesian Studies (ICSS) of the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales

The De Sales Oblates: A Retrieval and Contemporizing of St. Francis de Sales in 19th-century France

This article forms a special issue of the ICSS Newsletter. It presents a comprehensive historical study and analysis of Mother Mary de Sales Chappuis and Bl. Louis Brisson’s foundational vision for the De Sales Oblates, in the ecclesial-pastoral context of 19th-century French Catholicism, as a retrieval (ressourcement) and contemporizing (aggiornamento) of St. Francis de Sales. The impetus for undertaking this research was twofold. The first was the revision of the De Sales Oblate Constitutions, and the other, preparation of a volume on the 19th-century Salesian Pentecost for Paulist Press’s “Classics of Western Spirituality” series that is a collaborative project by Dr. Wendy M. Wright, Fr. Joseph Boenzi, SDB, and Fr. Joseph F. Chorpenning, OSFS, who is responsible for the Oblate and Fransalian sections of the volume. An “executive summary” of this research was presented at the 20th General Chapter of the De Sales Oblates, held in Annecy (France) during July 2018, with the provision that the fully developed text, with supporting documentation, would subse- quently be published in the ICSS Newsletter.

Does history matter? The response to this question by Figure 1. Mural of Salesian Saints and Founders (detail). Troyes (France), Mother- Bl. Louis Brisson, OSFS (1817-1908), founder of the Oblates house of the Oblate Sisters of St. Francis de Sales. (From left to right: St. Francis and Oblate Sisters of St. Francis de Sales, is a resounding de Sales and St. Jane Frances de Chantal [standing], Bl. Louis Brisson, OSFS, “Yes!” Speaking to the first generation of De Sales Oblates, Mother Mary de Sales Chappuis, VHM, and St. Léonie Frances de Sales Aviat, OSFS [kneeling]). (Photo: courtesy Herbert Winklehner, OSFS) Brisson insists that it is imperative that they constantly return to “our origin [and] our creation” because “history, more than resources,”4 as a permanent feature of the Church’s life. It is anything else, has an immense advantage: it more precisely not happenstance that the Council’s clearest endorsement of identifies our aim and the means to attain it.”1 ressourcement is found in its Decree on the Up-to-Date Renewal This return ad fontes, “to the sources,” became widely of Religious Life (Perfectae caritatis [28 October 1965]): known in the 20th century as ressourcement [French for, literally, return to the sources], which has been “behind every appropriate renewal of religious life comprises both 2 reform movement in Western Christianity.” This is certainly a constant return to the sources of the whole of the true of the early modern Catholic reform, which was the Christian life and to the original inspiration of the context in which the Salesian spiritual charism was born. institutes [that is, “the spirit and aims of (the) founder”] Closer to our own time, ressourcement paved the way for the and their adaptation to the changed conditions of our Second Vatican Council (1962-65), while also becoming one time (n. 2). of its hallmarks.3 For its part, Vatican II identifiesressourcement , which the Here Vatican II links ressourcement to another major theme Council understands as a movement from “a less profound to of the Council, aggiornamento, Italian for updating or a more profound tradition; a discovery of the most profound contemporizing. 2 ICSS NEWSLETTER

In view of its impeccable ecclesial and Brissonian pedigree, ressourcement, together with aggiornamento, is an “[H]istory, more than anything else, has apt paradigm and invaluable resource for understanding an immense advantage: it more precisely and appreciating what Brisson describes as the “mystery” of identifies our aim and the means to the congregation’s foundation.5 In fact, the founding of the attain it.” ­— Bl. Louis Brisson, OSFS Oblates is a retrieval (ressourcement) and contemporizing (aggiornamento) of St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622) in the ecclesial-pastoral context of 19th-century French Cathol- own particular quality and uniqueness” (ibid.). icism, which was in critical need of a renewal that the Another way of describing this process, found in Oblate Salesian tradition was uniquely suited to provide (Figure 1). literature, is as “two distinct but interrelated renewals.” The “First Renewal” is the “constant return to the sources What Does “Return to the Sources” Mean of the […] primitive inspiration of the institutes, and their for Consecrated Life? adaptation to the changed conditions of our time” (Perfectae caritatis, n. 2). The “Second Renewal” is each individual Before turning to the “mystery” of the founding of the member’s “vital and very personal ownership of the Institute’s Oblates, it is helpful to consider briefly how Vatican II’s life and mission as they are articulated in the documents call for “a constant return” to the founder’s vision and its stemming from the First Renewal (Perfectae caritatis, n. 4). adaptation to modern times has been conceptualized as a This individual ownership is what constitutes the Second manner of proceeding. This process is usually seen as having Renewal.”7 two constitutive and interconnected components. No matter how this process is conceptualized, Vatican II The first is “the painstaking work of historical research.”6 regards it as a project that is (1) ever in progress and (2) ever The founder’s “life, the gradual unfolding of experiences, delving deeper into the sources. These qualities are in the which led him to recognize his call, his expression of his own foreground of the painstaking historical research into the vision of following Jesus and of serving [others], are just as founder’s vision, as well as of the challenge to appropriate and patient of historical research and documentation as is the life communicate insights recovered by this historical research in of any other historical figure” (Futrell, 65). a way that keeps the founder’s charism credible, vibrant, and alive today. The investigation into the historical documents concerning the founder must be a continuing research The Narrative of the Origin and Creation of many themes and an ongoing dialogue among the researchers, according to the remoteness and complexity of the Oblates of the evidence. […] Each [interpretation] must stand The narrative of the foundation of the De Sales Oblates on its own merits and each must be questioned in tends to be dominated by the episode of Brisson, the reluctant the dialogue of research, always in reference to the founder, who steadfastly resists the entreaties of Mother Mary historical documents through which we approach the de Sales Chappuis, VHM (1793-1875)—often referred to in founder. […] [E]ach effort at research can be questioned the Salesian tradition as the “Good Mother” (Figure 2)— by new research that enters into dialogue with it. This until the Lord appears to him, thus revealing that “he was no dialogue provides the evaluation of the research, at the longer the master in his own house, that he must surrender.”8 same time as it opens up new fields for further research This is sometimes coupled with a tendency to view Brisson (ibid., 66, note 2). in an ahistorical manner, whether it be in isolation from the broader Salesian spiritual tradition, the international The second component flows from the first: phenomenon of the 19th-century Salesian Pentecost, and/or the concrete ecclesial-pastoral context in which his life and The purpose of this [historical research] is to be able to articulate, in the language of our own times, the ministry unfold. authentic vision of the founder, in order to recognize While individual episodes in the narrative of Salesian 9 the spiritual continuity of the charism originating in spirituality may lend themselves to being plotted as a novel, him with this same charism as it is lived today: across this narrative as a whole has more in common with salvation 10 the radical discontinuity of its historical and cultural history than any other genre. God is the chief protagonist expressions (ibid., 65). in both, and they share the common trait of being simultane- ously definitiveand open-ended, i.e., still unfolding. Brisson’s If the charism is to have “a continuity of life originating from movement from resistance to surrender to the mission of the founder,” it must remain “truly alive in living persons” founding the Oblates, entrusted to him by God through (ibid., 69). A religious community must allow itself to be Mother Chappuis’s mediation, has been characterized as the shaped by “its great personalities, its saints,” if it is to have “its “sacred history of the Congregation.”11 But even more than ICSS NEWSLETTER 3

she already caught a glimpse of the foundation of the Oblates. God enabled her to see that this foundation was one of the fruits of the inner life of the three Persons of the Blessed Trinity, and especially of the Father in relation to the Word. These were sublime things.13

In what later became known as the Le petit Cahier de Fribourg [Notebook of Fribourg] (written c. 1823-26), the Visitandine novice recorded, under obedience, “the communications that she received from the divine persons, particularly what God still intends to give to the world.”14 Sr. Mary de Sales reflects:

Behold, I am being called to be an apostle and to contribute to the work that God will establish in order to communicate His graces and to diffuse His divine charity ever more. The Savior will bring forth merits not yet employed. The treasure of His charity will be lavished on the earth and given in all its fullness to the world.15

Mother Chappuis’s statement that she is “called to be an apostle” is of great importance. In a recent article, Fr. Alexander T. Pocetto, OSFS, explores this facet of Mother Chappuis’s life in depth, affirming that there is no contra- diction between her vocation as a contemplative, cloistered religious and as an apostle (Pocetto 2009, 324-25). In fact,

Figure 2. Sr. Jeanne-Augustine Lusser, OSFS, Venerable Mother Mary de Sales Chappuis, the “Good Mother,” 1937-47, oil painting on canvas. Troyes (France), “One day, in the Novitiate of Fribourg, Motherhouse of the Oblate Sisters of St. Francis de Sales. This painting is a copy, Sr. Mary de Sales Chappuis […] already with different background, of the portrait of Mother Chappuis painted in Paris during her six years (1838-44) as superior of the Visitation Monastery on the caught a glimpse of the foundation of the rue de Vaugirard. She was about fifty years of age at the time the portrait was Oblates [which] was one of the fruits of painted. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons) the inner life of the three Persons of the blessed Trinity.” ­— Bl. Louis Brisson, OSFS this, Brisson’s writings, as well as what he reports of Mother Chappuis, reveal that both of them understand the inspi- in his spiritual conference “On Hope,” Francis de Sales, ration, birth, and life of the Oblates to be the external fruit speaking of the Visitandine vocation, tells the Sisters: of the inner life of the blessed Trinity that was intended for the sanctification of the world. This point has not received Oh God, what grace is that which God bestows upon sufficient attention. you!, He makes you Apostles [apostresses], not in dignity The primordial event setting in motion the foundation but in office and merit. You will not preach, it is true, of the De Sales Oblates occurred decades before Mother for your gender does not permit it, although indeed Chappuis first shared the divine instructions she received St. Magdalen and her sister St. Martha did so, but you regarding this project with Brisson during his visit with will not cease to exercise the apostolic office by commu- her in Paris in 1842, as well as the actual foundation of the nicating your manner of life.16 congregation in Troyes in 1875. In Brisson’s own words to the first Oblates, “When does the history of our foundation Fr. Pocetto then documents how Mother Chappuis begin? This foundation dates a long way back; we must go integrated the contemplative and the apostolic as an apostle to a little Swiss village to find the first thought of it, the first of the Salesian spirit by a remarkable range of activity: the inspiration.”12 restoration of the Salesian spirit and teaching in the Troyes Visitation; recovery and popularization of the practice of the One day, in the Novitiate of Fribourg, Sr. Mary de Sales Spiritual Directory of St. Francis de Sales; apostolic endeavors, Chappuis received some great lights from the good God; such as the Association of St. Francis de Sales, pastoral care 4 ICSS NEWSLETTER

Church) include St. Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179), Mechthild of Magdeburg (c. 1207-c. 1281/94), St. Gertrude the Great (1256-1302), Julian of Norwich (c. 1342- c. 1416), St. Catherine of Siena (1347-80), and St. Teresa of Ávila (1515-82). Within the Salesian tradition, there is St. Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-90), who is renowned as the Apostle of the Sacred Heart. Standing at the head of the ecclesial tradition of female apostles is St. Mary Magdalen, who is referenced by Francis de Sales in his above quoted reflections on the Visitandines as apostles. Mary Magdalen is venerated, in both the East and the West, as the “first witness” prima( testis) to the Lord’s resurrection and “the Apostle to the Apostles”: she received from the risen Lord “the apostolic office” apostolatus[ officium] of announcing to the Apostles the good news of His resur- rection (Figure 3).18 In 2016, Pope Francis elevated her obligatory memorial to a feast, allowing her “to be ‘celebrated’ liturgically like the rest of the apostles.”19 Her feast-day Mass was enriched by a new proper preface, given the eloquent title “Apostle of the Apostles” [Apostolorum Apostola], whose source is St. Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225–74) (Roche [as in note 18 above]). Mother Chappuis shares a number of points in common with her predecessors in the tradition of female mystics- apostles, including, but not limited to, the following: Figure 3. The Risen Christ Appearing to Mary Magdalen in the Garden, c. 1760, engraving by W. Walker after Pietro da Cortona (1596-1669). (Photo: Wikimedia • The novice Sr. Mary de Sales records her experiences Commons) in the Notebook of Fribourg under obedience—in her Mary Magdalen is venerated, in both the East and the West, as “the case to the mother superior and the diocesan bishop, Apostle to the Apostles”: she received from the risen Lord “the apostolic office” [apostolatus officium] of announcing to the Apostles the good news of Jesus’s Pierre-Tobie Yenni (1774-1845; bishop of Lausanne resurrection. In 2016, Pope Francis elevated her obligatory memorial to a feast, and Geneva, 1815-45, with residence at Fribourg), who permitting her “to be ‘celebrated’ liturgically like the rest of the apostles.” examines and affirms the orthodoxy of what Sr. Mary de Sales writes (see Tilburg edition, 4:125-27). of young people in the work force, and the spiritual direction • Mother Chappuis receives the communication “from the of priests and bishops; the foundation of the Oblate Sisters divine persons” that “the foundation of the Oblates [...] and Oblates, etc. was one of the fruits of the inner life of the three persons The portrait of Mother Chappuis as apostle comes into of the Blessed Trinity.”20 even sharper focus when viewed from the perspective of the • The Lord entrusts her with the mission of being the long and venerable tradition of women mystics-apostles. mediator, messenger, apostle, who is to carry the message These women’s mystical experiences “mediate glimpses of of this new Trinitarian initiative in salvation history to God’s mysteries intended to expand mankind’s knowledge Brisson. Likewise, she is “a collaborator or co-creator of his plan for salvation history.”17 Consequently, the mystic with God in this particular mission” (Pocetto 2009, 339). becomes • Mother Chappuis has “absolute assurance” about her mission. She is convinced that this project is “her very a mediator, a messenger, indeed a new Apostola. She raison d’être” and “the work that the Lord was calling her is convinced that God’s talking to human beings did to from the time she entered the novitiate,” and thus “she not end with the prophet’s visions in the book of speaks [of it] with all of the confidence and certainty of Revelation, but is continued in the present. She is an Old Testament prophet” (Pocetto 2009, 338-39). therefore fulfilling a thoroughly prophetic mission, for the benefit of many people (ibid.). Mother Chappuis’s role in the foundation of the De Sales Oblates is customarily described as that of the “Inspiration” Examples of female mystics-apostles (several of whom [l’inspiratrice] (Beaudoin 1998, 194). Ordinarily, the founder have been declared not only saints, but also Doctors of the is the recipient of the inspiration and charism for a religious ICSS NEWSLETTER 5

congregation.21 Would Mother Chappuis’s role be more accurately described as “co-founder”? In this connection, Fr. Roger Balducelli, OSFS, observes:

If the Congregation was a “mystery,” the founda- tional role of Mother Marie de Sales was the key to it. […] There is, then, little doubt that the historical imagination of Father Brisson found the Congregation unthinkable apart from the role which Mother Marie de Sales had played in the origins of it. Politically, it might not be prudent to assert this role by referring to her as “our Foundress,” yet this is the title which correctly expresses what Father Brisson knows to be the truth.22 Figure 4. Louis Brisson as a young priest, painting made To return to the narrative, Mother Chappuis arrives in from a sketch. Troyes for the first time on 1 June 1826. At that moment, “she (Photo: Wikimedia Commons) understood that Troyes was the place that God had chosen for the accomplishment of His work, that in Troyes God had laid the first stone, and that there the effects of the blessed Trinity have any idea of. I constantly see our Holy Founder were to become manifest.”23 When Mother Chappuis saw for [= St. Francis de Sales] before our Lord, and our Lord the first time Brisson, the young priest from Troyes who came communicating to him what is needed to complete to visit her at the Second Monastery of Paris, where she was the work of sanctification that he began on earth. The Superior at the time, she immediately recognized him as the 70,000 heretics that he converted is only the beginning one chosen by God to realize the external projects revealed of even greater things.”26 to her by the Lord (Figure 4). She tells him: “You have been chosen by the good God to help me a great deal in the task Complementing the points enumerated above about yet to be undertaken. The time has come when the good God Mother Chappuis’s apostolic and prophetic role are the is going to start His work.”24 following, which are of equal if not greater significance, Shortly thereafter Mother Chappuis returns to Troyes about “the mystery of [the] enterprise” of the foundation of and speaks even more explicitly to Brisson, who in 1841 had the Oblates. been appointed as catechist and confessor at the Visitation boarding school and eventually became chaplain to the 1. The inspiration and initiative for the founding of the monastery itself, a position he held for forty-one years. Oblates is Trinitarian: this congregation is “one of the fruits of the inner life of the three persons of the Blessed I am going to take a lot of your time because I will Trinity, and especially of the Father in relation to the need to tell you what God wishes to do to reveal His Word.”27 charity and to employ the merits of the Savior. God 2. God Himself is the protagonist in the creation of the has looked into Himself and He has decided to open up Oblates, while Mother Chappuis and Brisson are the new sources of graces. He wants me to work with Him human cooperators in this project (she, the apostle, and and you to be the witness, and you to be responsible for he, the founder, albeit reluctant, with both roles having carrying out what will be necessary for communicating Biblical precedents28). In Mother Chappuis’s words, as to the world the results of this action.25 quoted by Brisson: In a letter of 17 October 1867, to Fr. Claude Perrot, OSB, God has looked into Himself and He has decided who had been engaged to draft the first Oblate Constitutions to open up new sources of graces. He wants me and asked for an explanation of “the mystery of this enter- to work with Him and you [= Brisson] to be the prise” [le mystère de cette œuvre], Brisson shares the specifics witness, and you to be responsible for carrying out of the project: what will be necessary for communicating to the 29 The creation of priests minstering in the spirit of world the results of this action. St. Francis de Sales was an idea [Mother Chappuis] 3. This fruit and new source of grace will be a congregation of had all her life […] The Good Mother repeated to me priests, who are formed in the spirit of St. Francis de Sales unceasingly: “It is God’s will that this Congregation and will continue the ministry of the Doctor of Divine exist and branch out; it is a great thing that you cannot Love at a moment in salvation history when there is a great 6 ICSS NEWSLETTER

need that “[t]he treasure of [divine] charity […] be lavished ground, resulting in universal rigorism. As far as we on the earth and given in all its fullness to the world.”30 can tell, furthermore, the principles of rigorist theolo- gians were often put into practice: it was difficult to get These events in Fribourg, Paris, and Troyes take place in absolution, and penitents might be required to return a a concrete historical ecclesial-pastoral context. While the number of times before it was given—if it was given at Salesian Pentecost in general and Brisson’s style of pastoral all (Gibson 1989, 260). ministry in particular have been linked with French Catholi- cism’s movement away from a “pastoral emphasis on fear and Viewed in the context of French Catholicism’s patho- the attempt to impose a rigidly ascetic ideal” to a “pastoral logical obsession with hellfire and damnation, purveyed emphasis […] upon the love and forgiveness of God,”31 this via a ferocious theology and religion of fear, as well as the context requires closer examination. moral rigorism of the confessional, the Trinitarian mystical communication to Mother Chappuis takes on a heretofore overlooked poignancy and immediacy. In an era that seems to The Ecclesial-Pastoral Context for the have lost sight of God’s goodness, love, and mercy, the Lord Founding of the Oblates reveals to Mother Chappuis that He wishes “to open up new Although the idea of judgment and punishment in the sources of graces”33 so that “[t]he treasure of His charity will afterlife is a staple of the Judeo-Christian tradition, from the be lavished on the earth and given in all its fullness to the late 17th century on, French Catholicism became obsessed world.”34 The means whereby this is to be accomplished is by with it to “a pathological degree.”32 The dominant message the foundation of a religious congregation of priests formed of Catholic preachers was damnation and hellfire, with a and ministering in the pastoral mold of St. Francis de Sales. stern emphasis on the small number of the saved. While this Why Francis de Sales? position is most often associated with Jansenism, “in fact the whole French Church was not very sanguine about the Francis de Sales’s Reform of Militant Catholicism average Christian’s chances of escaping eternal damnation” The Salesian spiritual tradition was born at an earlier (Gibson 1988, 385). moment in French Catholicism that was also the point of origin for the later théologie féroce and pastorale de la peur, [The] obsessional […] emphasis on hellfire and for which the De Sales Oblates were intended to serve as an damnation was merely the most striking aspect of a antidote. During the decade (1578-88) that Francis spent as generally uncompromising and frightening picture of a student at the Jesuit Collège de Clermont, Paris was in the the Catholic faith, based on fear rather than on divine throes of the Wars of Religion (1562-1629). Within French love. In some ways this was part of the influence of Catholicism, there were militant Catholics who subscribed Jansenist austerity, but Jansenists and bitter anti-Jan- to an ethos of violence, religious anxiety, and rigorous senists alike shared a vision of a judicial and even penitential asceticism to assuage God’s anger and avert divine vengeful God, one to be feared, rather than a loving God, an ever-present help in time of trouble. […] punishment of France. Then there were moderate Catholics [P]reachers and theologians purveyed […] “un théologie who favored a peaceful approach to Protestantism more in féroce” [a ferocious theology], and which subsequent keeping with the Gospel. Tensions reached new heights when historians have baptized “la pastorale de la peur” [the Catholic militants resolved to eliminate both Protestants and 35 religion of fear] (ibid.). moderate Catholics. Living, studying, and worshipping in the Latin Quarter, The aim of preaching on the fear of divine punishment a citadel of the most radical militant Catholicism, Francis and eternal damnation, rather than on the love of God, was gradually internalized the intractable divisions between to get recalcitrant Catholics into the confessional. But, for militant and moderate Catholics, with their conflicting views many, the sacrament of Penance had little appeal. Moral of a wrathful and punitive God and of a loving and merciful rigorism prevailed in the confessional, with absolution often God. The result was a debilitating temptation that he was being withheld or delayed. predestined to hell and had no hope of salvation. In time, Francis came to understand the Biblical truth that God’s The burden of proof, moreover, was placed on the name is “not He-who-damns [damnator], but Jesus,” He-who- penitent; a confessor had to be very sure of his penitent’s saves.36 Henceforth, Francis embraced the gentle and humble contrition before he should absolve. Seminary manuals Jesus revealed in the Gospels (see Matthew 11:29) as the true almost without exception—and not just those of face of God. Jansenist inspiration—adopted these attitudes; there Francis’s positive resolution of his Parisian spiritual seems in fact to have been a kind of rivalry between crisis was the defining moment of his life: it gave birth to Jansenists and anti-Jansenists to occupy the high moral the Salesian charism and its core values of humility before ICSS NEWSLETTER 7

God and gentleness toward neighbor, and it bore abundant His years spent as a student at Clermont, his success at fruit throughout his decades of ministry as a priest and bishop. converting Protestants in the Chablais region of Savoy, During the latter, Francis crafted a Catholic culture of douceur and his consequent influence upon the exiled Genevan that critiqued and stood in sharp contrast to militant Cathol- Catholics had made him quite well known even before icism and its tenets, which presaged emphasis by Jansenists this return. and anti-Jansenists alike on a judicial and vengeful God that Saint François de Sales began preaching, first in the dominated French Catholicism for centuries. queen’s own chapel, and then in the more fashionable Beatified in 1661 and canonized a saint in 1665, Francis parish churches. He became the preacher of the hour. was officially declared a Doctor of the Church in 1877. Great crowds of princes, judges, and common folk However, from at least the time of his beatification, he was rushed to hear him. […] acclaimed as the Doctor of Divine Love,37 which is now His sermons captivated [them] by their direct and commonplace in papal documents.38 Undoubtedly pivotal simple pronouncements about God’s love for man. In to the attribution of this accolade was Francis’s masterwork, elegant French, Saint François de Sales would exhort Treatise on the Love of God (1616), which sets forth an image his listeners to recall the sufferings of Christ, His of God that sharply contrasts with that of early modern compassion for the unfortunate, and the beauty of militant Catholicism and the rigorism of the later théologie the love of God for those whom He has created. This féroce and pastorale de la peur: seemed like poetry to the Parisians, who for decades had heard nothing but invective and hellfire. Saint In this exploration of “the history of the birth, progress, François de Sales attacked neither Calvinist doctrine decay, operations, properties, advantages and excel- nor its proponents. […] The impact of his sermons […] lencies of divine love,” [Francis] describes his view of was immediate, and, thanks to his works, particularly a loving God whose graciously inclining heart reaches the Traité de l’Amour de Dieu, published in 1616, the down into the fallen human condition and gently effect was often deep.42 but insistently urges each person back into loving relationship.39 Two years later, in 1604, Francis codified the principles of the Salesian ministry of the Word in his famous letter Upon the Treatise’s publication, the Sorbonne and the on preaching and the preacher. The letter is addressed to Jesuits declared that this work placed Francis among the ranks André Frémyot (1573-1641), the brother of St. Jane Frances of the four great doctors of the Western Church—Augustine de Chantal (1572-1641) who had been appointed archbishop (354-430), Jerome (ca. 345-420), Ambrose (ca. 339-397), of Bourges, which, as it happens, was a hotbed of militant and Gregory the Great (ca. 540-604).40 Catholicism and fanatical anti-Protestant hatred. While Francis not only wrote about God’s love and mercy, but also Francis does not explicitly mention the particular history of strikingly incarnated it in his ministry to such an outstanding Bourges, nonetheless, his appeal “for words of reconciliation degree that his contemporaries regarded him as “a living image in the pulpit” as “an effective instrument in bringing peace [of] the Son of God Our Lord […] [and] many people […] when and reconciliation” is not accidental: it is “his response to a seeing [him], seemed to see Our Lord on earth.”41 Significantly, very particular situation in French Catholicism.”43 this would become a primary theme in Mother Chappuis’s Among many important points that Francis enunciates articulation of what the Oblates are intended to be. But before in this letter is his understanding of preaching as a labor of getting too far ahead of ourselves, it would be useful to consider love and “the word of reconciliation” [la parole de reconcili- briefly three facets of Francis’s ministry that forged and insti- ation] (2 Corinthians 5:19) (Annecy edition, 12:325). Francis tutionalized a culture of douceur and that would likewise be urges preachers to speak with love and compassion, even for of paramount importance in the 19th-century ecclesial-pastoral Huguenots: “I like preaching that inclines more to love of context and in the ministry of the Oblate priest: (1) preaching; neighbor than to indignation, even of Huguenots, whom we (2) the Sacrament of Penance; and (3) the foundation of the should treat with great compassion.”44 Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary. As a newly ordained priest, Francis had pioneered this approach in the Chablais Mission (1594-98). This pastoral 1. Preaching: Proclaiming and Embodying Divine Love style has been described as “gentle relationality”—always Militant Catholic sermons were incendiary, inciting conversing and interacting in a respectful, civil manner violence against Huguenots because to tolerate them was with Huguenots, whom Francis regards as learned and to invite divine punishment by a punitive, wrathful God. gentlemen.45 For Francis, heresy was a pastoral issue, which Francis’s preaching stood in stark contrast to that of militant was most effectively addressed through preaching, education, Catholic preachers, as was clearly on display during his 1602 and dialogue, rather than through the violence espoused by visit to Paris. militant Catholicism.46 In his letter on preaching, Francis 8 ICSS NEWSLETTER

gives “gentle relationality” this memorable formulation for homiletics: “heart speaks to heart, and the tongue speaks only to the ears.”47

“God’s great mercy […] is infinitely greater […] than all the sins of the world.” ­—St. Francis de Sales

Of equal importance is Francis’s insistence that the preacher must preach not only by word but also by the example of his own life, which is to enflesh the Gospel that he proclaims (Figure 5).

In the age of the Catholic counter reform, de Sales believed that authentic Christianity had more to do with living the Gospel than disputing the orthodox meaning of texts. This is the key to understanding the overall method of [Francis’s] approach to reading Scripture. The true meaning of Scripture is to live Jesus, what may be called the living word or whole Gospel, as a way of life that cannot be limited to a text. Vincent de Paul called Francis de Sales, “the Gospel speaking,” because it was completely integrated into his life.48

2. Penance: The Sacrament of God’s Love and Mercy49 Figure 5. St. Francis de Sales Enveloped by Rays Emanating from the Crucifix For some priests during the French Wars of Religion, while Preaching during Lent 1606 in Chambéry, 18th century, bas-relief. confession and pastoral care consisted of inculcating in the Central panel of the pulpit of the cathedral of St. Peter, Annecy (France). laity a hatred of sin, intolerance of imperfection, and fear (Photo: author) of God’s judgment. In Francis’s eyes, however, an effective pastor must develop a Christ-like gentleness toward human aux Confesseurs, written in 1604.51 Francis instructs priests weakness and sin, allowing a disposition of douceur to guide that their primary charge in the Sacrament of Penance is to him as he shepherds sinners through self-examination, embody and communicate God’s mercy. This requires culti- negotiating sin, and achieving spiritual growth. vating an attitude of openness and compassion in preparation Saint Francis de Sales roots the sacramental for celebrating the Sacrament of Penance. In confession, ministry of Penance within the Church in the recon- the confessor must conduct himself “gently and amiably” ciling mission begun by Jesus. […] The ministers of this [doucement et amiablement] (Annecy edition, 23:283) and sacrament do what the Lord did, not in His memory but emphasize the depths of God’s patience and desire to heal really in His name. They are the messengers whom God those who have committed serious sin. Even in the case of has sent for reconciliation and the channels through such heinous sins as “massacres” [massacres] and “bestiality” which God’s mercy and peace as imaged and revealed [bestialités], the confessor is to assure the penitent that “God’s in Jesus Christ are communicated to the Church for its great mercy […] is infinitely greater […] than all the sins of 52 edification into the fullness of the Lord. […] the world.”

Because the minister is a human instrument continuing 3. The Order of the Visitation: Institutionalizing the ministry and mission of Jesus, his sacramental Salesian Douceur53 vocation demands that he be a living witness to the reconciliation that he ministers to God’s people in the In 1585, the teenager Francis spoke of his Catholic faith as person of the Lord.50 “militant” [militante] and “triumphant” [triomphante] (Annecy edition, 22:11-12), as he cheered on militant Catholics in their Nowhere is this facet of Francis’s pastoral practice better war against Huguenots and moderate Catholics. A quarter of illustrated than in his guidelines for confessors, Avertissements a century later, however, we find the bishop Francis professing ICSS NEWSLETTER 9 that the Church exists only to “carry the gentle Jesus […] The De Sales Oblates as Salesian ressourcement gently.”54 This conviction is institutionalized in 1610, when “St. Francis de Sales was a man of his time, but he is even Francis, together with Madame de Chantal, founds the Order more truly of our time than his own.”58 These words were of the Visitation of Holy Mary (Figure 6). Among the religious spoken by Brisson in his chapter of 17 July 1889 to the new orders in early modern Catholicism, the Visitation Order was congregation of the De Sales Oblates (Figure 7). Brisson was unique in its witness to the “gentle Savior” [doux Sauveur],55 not the only person who subscribed to this belief, which in the expressed through “profound humility before God” and “great 19th century ignited a Salesian Pentecost across Continental gentleness [douceur] for others.”56 Europe—Paris, Troyes, Annecy, Geneva, Turin—that spread to England, North and South America, Africa, and India.59 “St. Francis de Sales was a man of his As heirs of the Salesian Pentecost, the De Sales Oblates are time, but he is even more truly of our time responsible for keeping its flame aglow in the world in a very specific way: “We are to take [St. Francis de Sales’s] place and than his own.” be his successors; consequently, we must be like him as much —Bl. Louis Brisson, OSFS as possible.”60 A Social History of French Catholicism, 1789-1914, by the late Ralph Gibson (1943-95), is regarded as “the indispensable Religious orders figured prominently in militant Cathol- point of departure and guide for all serious investigations of the icism. Male orders, such as the Minims, Feuillants (a reformed social history of nineteenth-century French Catholicism.”61 branch of the Cistercians), and Franciscans coupled extreme penitential austerities, which were considered a necessary means for containing heresy as well as assuaging God’s wrath, with fiery preaching. Female orders also embraced this militant asceticism, and in the early 1600s France witnessed a boom in convents emphasizing expiation of sin through harsh, punishing mortification. In creating the Visitation Order with Mother de Chantal, Francis did not seek to duplicate the ascetic model of the Parisian dévots.

Indeed, he wished to offer the Catholic Church something significantly different. “The great estab- lished orders of the Church [may] honor our Lord with heroic practices and striking virtues” [Annecy edition, 17:16-17], Francis declared, but the Visitation would have douceur as its defining spirit [see Annecy edition, 6:229]. Given the emphasis in French Catholicism on destroying heresy and sin, Francis’s determination to create a religious community devoted to “gentleness” constituted a bold departure from the norm (Donlan 2017, 38).

The Visitation was the fruit of Francis’s spiritual direction of Jane, which began in 1604. In the course of this process, Francis’s vision of a Catholicism of douceur became clearer and more nuanced. At the same time, the interaction of the two saints fueled his desire to expand his reform of Catholic militancy. As Jane’s spiritual director, Francis challenged, perhaps more than ever before, the fearful attitudes and violent conduct that passed for holiness in militant Cathol- icism. More than simply a religious community for fragile or sickly women, the Visitation institutionalized Francis’s critique of militant Catholicism and his vision of a renewed, non-violent Christendom. As Francis instructs the nascent Figure 6. Noël Hallé (1711-81), St. Francis de Sales Giving to St. Jane Frances de Chantal the Rule of the Visitation Order, 18th century, oil on canvas. Paris, 57 Visitation, its “proper spirit” is a “spirit of douceur.” Église Saint-Louis-en-l’Île. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons) 10 ICSS NEWSLETTER

show the influence of Francis de Sales surpassing that of Ligouri. This possibility [is] unaddressed in Gibson’s analysis (Donlan 2018, 104).

And, second, Gibson’s Social History of French Catholicism predates the emergence of scholarship on the 19th-century Salesian Pentecost that only began to emerge in the 1990s and beyond (Donlan 2018, 105). It is left to future historical scholarship to provide a fuller and more accurate picture of the place that Salesian spiri- tuality has in the movement from a pastorale de la peur to a pastorale d’amour. Nonetheless, at this point it can be safely said that the foundation of the De Sales Oblates is an integral part of this picture. For Mother Chappuis and Brisson, the Oblates were not only to disseminate Salesian spirituality but to appropriate it so as to become its living embodiment, taking St. Francis de Sales’s place as his successors by being “like him as much as possible.”63 In the Lord’s communications to Mother Chappuis, she is instructed that the De Sales Oblates are to retrieve and restore to the Church and the world Francis de Sales’s model of priesthood so that the Savior is seen again Figure 7. Louis Brisson, c. 1870-80, photo. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons) walking the earth,64 as indeed He did in Francis’s ministry. According to Brisson, it is essential that there be an insep- While Gibson references Francis de Sales’s “loving vision of arable and intimate bond and identification between each God” and “acute sense of God’s love for sinful man” (1989, Oblate and Francis. 183, 273, respectively), he accords the pivotal role in the We must be thoroughly permeated with the doctrine of movement away from a religion of fear to a religion of love to St. Francis de Sales. […] We must apply ourselves to act St. Alphonsus Ligouri (1696-1787), founder of the Redemp- like St. Francis de Sales, and not simply quote him. We torist Order. Subsequent Salesian scholarship has nuanced must apply ourselves, above all, to recovering his solic- this point by highlighting that Ligouri was profoundly influ- itous attitude and charity toward souls, his patience in enced by Francis de Sales. To cite but one example: leading them to God, to lead them where God is calling During the nineteenth century, Ligouri’s moral them.65 theology became accepted for use in seminaries across the Catholic world [including the Troyes diocesan We place ourselves not only under the patronage of seminary, where it was introduced with Mother St. Francis de Sales, but also completely under the Chappuis’s encouragement], carrying with it the very direction of his thoughts, his doctrine, his manner of Salesian themes of the love of God, conformity to the acting and seeing. Not only will St. Francis de Sales be will of God, confidence in divine mercy and the idea our adjutorium [assistance] for the priestly and religious that sanctity is compatible with any state in life, as well virtues, but also we shall imbibe these virtues in his as a deeply Salesian sense of gentleness and the art of doctrine and in his example. He will be our model; winning hearts in pastoral care.62 we shall do what he did, and in him we shall find the grace of our priestly and religious virtues. Not only will At the same time, Gibson acknowledges that while the he be our patron, but we shall also identify as much as Redemptorists may have been lambs in the confessional, they possible with his person.66 were lions in the pulpit as “the leading specialists in hellfire preaching,” sometimes even being described as “Redempt-ter- Live Jesus!: The Foundation of Oblate Life rorists” (Gibson 1988, 387). More recently, historian Thomas Donlan has made two In her projects of rebuilding and sustaining the Troyes very important observations about Gibson’s analysis. First, Visitation in the aftermath of the French Revolution (the community had been disbanded in 1789 and was reorganized Salesian douceur was more instrumental in the “gentle in 1807) and persistent Jansenist tendencies (Wright 2004, turn” of nineteenth-century French Catholicism than 140; Pocetto 2009, 327-28), of forming Brisson for his mission has been appreciated and […] future research may even as founder of the De Sales Oblates, and of the foundation ICSS NEWSLETTER 11

of the Oblates and Oblate Sisters, Mother Chappuis drew for our care and labor, such as patience, gentleness, and drank deeply from the fount of the Salesian spiritual self-mortification, humility, obedience, poverty, chastity, tradition. In her own religious formation and life as a model compassion toward our neighbors, bearing with their Visitandine, Mary de Sales was firmly rooted in and witnessed imperfections, diligence, and holy fervor.72 to the Salesian sacred motto, “Live Jesus!” At the same time, she (and later Brisson) recognized and accepted the challenge Francis’s life and ministry witnesses to the efficacy of this of “contemporizing” this primordial principle of Salesian method, as the testimonies for the canonical process for his spirituality.67 beatification confirm: he was deemed to be a living image of the Savior in his interaction with others, specifically by his gentleness. For example, according to St. Vincent de Paul “[Our] special goal is […] to reproduce (1581-1660), as completely as possible the interior and exterior life of St. Francis de Sales. […] The Servant of God loved God with an ardent love […] You are continuing his work.” I deduce this from his burning desire of conformity to the image of the Son of God, and I observed how the — Bl. Louis Brisson, OSFS Servant of God conformed himself to Him in this way. Very often when he was in my presence, I marveled how Francis’s spiritual vision is, first and foremost, Christo- a mere creature could reach such a level of perfection centric. It is founded on the conviction that the vocation and so sublime a summit of loftiness of spirit, despite of every Christian—whether married or single, consecrated human frailty.73 religious, or ordained minister—is to “Live Jesus!,” which Francis contextualizes in a world or universe of conjoined This path of exchange of hearts that leads to becoming hearts: the heart of God and human hearts interconnected a living image of the Son of God, as was Francis de Sales, is by their common natures and, due to sin, now bridged by the what Mother Chappuis and Brisson set before the De Sales human-divine Heart of Jesus that makes it possible for human Oblates as the essence of the Salesian priestly and religious hearts to recover the ability to pulse and beat in union with vocation. Mother Chappuis and Brisson chart this course by the divine heart.68 To “live Jesus” is to exchange one’s own retrieving three elements of the Salesian tradition to serve as heart for the Heart of Jesus: resources both to facilitate this process of spiritual formation and to make readily accessible to a wider public the essence of Since the heart is the source of our actions, as the heart the Salesian spirit. The three elements are: (1) the Spiritual is so are they. […] [W]hoever has Jesus Christ in his Directory of St. Francis de Sales, (2) re-imprinting / to re-im- heart will soon have Him in all his outward ways. […] print the Gospel, and (3) a sacramental view of ordinary life, [J]ust as this gentle Jesus will live within your heart, so especially work. too He will live in all your conduct [...]. And you will be able to say reverently, in imitation of St. Paul, “It The Spiritual Directory of St. Francis de Sales is no longer I that live, but Christ who lives in me” [Galatians 2:20].69 In connection with the founding of the Visitation Order, Francis produced a series of short texts (opuscules), which Biblical in origin, the trope of the exchange of hearts was were subsequently collected by Mother de Chantal into more associated during Francis’s lifetime with hagiography, as what came to be known as the Custom Book. One of these a mystical experience of saints like Catherine of Siena.70 But texts is the Spiritual Directory for Daily Actions, which Francis Francis takes the exchange of hearts out of the realm of the intended for use by all Visitandines, but thought that it would extraordinary, and makes it integral to the lives of ordinary be especially helpful for initial formation in the novitiate. Christians by insisting that all are called to re-form their The Spiritual Directory’s purpose was to help maintain a sense hearts according to the gentle and humble heart of Jesus. This of God’s presence throughout the day and to infuse ordinary is achieved by two means. The first is activities with a spirit of prayer and communion with God. Composed toward the end of Francis’s life, the mental prayer and the prayer of the heart, particularly that centered on the life and Passion of our Lord. By Spiritual Directory represents a distillation into a brief often turning your eyes on Him in meditation, your and compact form of the fruits of Francis’s many years of whole soul will be filled with Him. You will learn His experience and wisdom in living the Christian life and ways and form your actions after the pattern of His.71 in guiding and directing others in that same endeavor. The Spiritual Directory thus holds a unique place among And, second, the practice of what Francis calls the Francis’s writings. It provides a privileged access to the 74 little virtues whose conquest our Lord has set forth style and method of this great spiritual master. 12 ICSS NEWSLETTER

Mother Chappuis found in the Spiritual Directory a use by diocesan priests and the laity. The early 20th century straightforward and extraordinarily effective resource for saw the publication in English of the Spiritual Guide for restoring the authentic Salesian spirit to the Troyes Visitation Priests: The Spiritual Directory of St. Francis de Sales Adapted (Wright 2004, 140; Pocetto 2009, 328). Subsequently, Brisson to the Use of Priests (1906), which had been preceded by adapted the Spiritual Directory from the Visitation Custom French (1896) and German (1905) editions, as well as The Book for use by the Oblates and Oblate Sisters. For Brisson, Directory or Spiritual Guide for Persons in the World (1st edition, it was the practice of the Spiritual Directory that makes the 1899).78 It is also worth pointing out that in both the Oblate De Sales Oblates distinctive from other religious congrega- and diocesan priest editions of the Directory, there was a tions associated with Francis de Sales. In his own words: supplement that included, among other things, counsels on the manner of celebrating the Sacrament of Penance and of There are many wonderful groups formed under preaching excerpted from Francis’s Avertissements aux Confes- the protection of St. Francis de Sales. […] Don Bosco seurs and letter on preaching (sometimes referred to as the does many great things because he is a saint. He does Traité de la prédication [Treatise on Preaching]). not have the [Spiritual] Directory, he does not identify The core article of the Spiritual Directory exemplifies the himself with St. Francis de Sales. St. Francis de Sales wide applicability and appeal of its approach. The “Direction is the patron of the Salesians; they are closer to him of Intention” is not simply one among other articles, but the than are the priests of Annecy, but they are not like the “very essence” of the Spiritual Directory, for it “is interwoven 75 Oblates. with every other article” (ibid., 7). It “does not concern any There are several Congregations for which action in particular,” but “provides the attitude and approach St. Francis de Sales is the patron and which have taken that one should bring toward every action, even ‘matters his name. They are more important that we; […] the which are small and seemingly insignificant’” (Ceresko, 114). good God blesses them greatly. But St. Francis de Sales The souls who wish to prosper and make progress is only their patron. They have placed themselves in the way of our Lord should, at the beginning of all under his protection; they desire to enter his spirit, but their actions, both interior and exterior, ask His grace their special goal is not ours, namely, to reproduce as and offer to His divine goodness, all the good they will completely as possible the interior and exterior life of do, thus preparing themselves to bear with peace and St. Francis de Sales. Theirs is a patronage rather than gentleness of mind all the trouble and mortification the real continuation of his work and of his life. I which they may meet with therein, as coming from the cannot recall who it was asked Father de Mayerhoffen: fatherly hand of our good God and Savior.79 “What do you do in order to call yourselves Oblates of St. Francis de Sales? In what way do you seek to imitate It has been suggested that this “pre-intending of all our him?” […] I believe that it was the Vicar General at actions and exercises in relation to God” designated as the Annecy. […] “We practice the [Spiritual] Directory that Direction of Intention might be better rendered as “The St. Francis de Sales practiced,” Father de Mayerhoffen Right Intending of Deeds.”80 replied, “and we try, by means of it, to resemble him The idea of founding a congregation of priests in the mold in everything.” “I understand, then,” replied the Vicar of Francis de Sales did not originate with Mother Chappuis General, “that you are achieving something special. and Brisson. Francis himself had entertained this idea, and You are continuing his work.”76 Mother de Chantal and the Visitation kept this aspiration alive after the saint’s death in 1622.Taking up this idea, Not only is the Spiritual Directory a sine qua non for Fr. Raymond Bonal (1600-53), a priest of the diocese of Rodez, internal Oblate formation, but also for Oblate external founded in 1632 the Priests of Holy Mary, a small congre- ministry of disseminating and popularizing Francis’s practical gation consisting of three houses (one being the novitiate) spirituality to a wider public. As Brisson explains, that did not survive the French Revolution. Brisson was well The Spiritual Directory of St. Francis de Sales can be aware of this history, as the Archives of the Congregation of practiced not only by religious, but also by priests, Bishops and Regulars in Rome contains his “Notes to show by everyone. Anyone in the world can practice the that the Institute of the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales is not 81 Directory. There is no one so busy, so distracted, that he a new idea.” cannot entertain the thought of God, that he cannot Yet, paradoxically, it was new in a singular way. What was repose in God.77 new is that the inspiration for the foundation of the De Sales Oblates came not from “below,” but from “above”: Mother Sharing the Spiritual Directory in whole or in part became Chappuis received a Trinitarian inspiration to take the steps a staple of Oblate ministry, whatever form it took. Moreover, necessary to ensure that this foundation would be made, and it was not long until the Spiritual Directory was adapted for Brisson concurred in this conviction, as his writings on the ICSS NEWSLETTER 13

printing imprinting, painting, engraving—which underscores “In order to re-imprint the Gospel, we this theme’s semantic range, depth, and richness. must know it. […] Nourish yourself with The following selection of passages from Brisson provide the Scriptures; read them slowly, three or an accurate idea of what he and Mother Chappuis mean four, four or five verses at a time; then when they speak of re-imprinting or to re-imprint the Gospel. pause, penetrate yourselves with them, The Good Mother often used to say that it was and ask God for understanding of them.” necessary to re-imprint (réimprimir) the Gospel by —Bl. Louis Brisson, OSFS which she meant, my friends, that the Gospel must be given a very broad meaning. The Gospel needs to be re-imprinted in our heart and in the world.86 topic attest. Coming now full circle, Mother Chappuis held that to practice the Spiritual Directory faithfully is to live We must do what the Good Mother Mary a Trinitarian spirituality, which in its own way images the de Sales has said. We must re-imprint the Gospel. A Salesian interconnected world of hearts. new Gospel? No! It is always the same Gospel, for there To follow the Directory is to honor God the Father, to is but one. But we must present the Gospel in a new enter into close communion with Him by submission, way to the multitude of souls. We must bring forth the dependence and fidelity. It is to honor the Savior by Savior Himself so that He may preside over this enter- allowing Him to operate in us that which He desires, prise. […] The Gospel is for everyone, and we must clothing us with His merits and rendering us acceptable lead souls to it one by one. […] You will save [souls] by 87 to the Heart of the Father. It is to honor the Holy Spirit re-imprinting in their heart the Gospel. by disposing us to receive His benign influence and thereby His lights, graces and inspirations.82 In order to re-imprint the Gospel, we must know it. It is impossible to be a printer of what we do not know. Re-imprinting / To Re-imprint the Gospel […] It is necessary that we know the Gospel. Our Rule obliges us to read the New Testament daily, a chapter; . Mother Chappuis and Brisson often speak of re-im- We are supposed to read a chapter per day; let’s be very printing or to re-imprint the Gospel, which is akin to the faithful to this, and let’s read it with attention and care Spiritual Directory and in its own right is a process of lectio in order to understand and retain it. […] divina. While the French réimprimer l’Evangile is often trans- Nourish yourself with the Scriptures; read them lated into English as “to reprint the Gospel,” a preferable slowly, three or four, four or five verses at a time; then translation is “to re-imprint the Gospel.” To reprint means pause, penetrate yourselves with them, and ask God for “to print again, print an additional impression of, usually understanding of them. You have read the Scriptures without change.”83 This accords with Mother Chappuis’s so many times, and it seems that that has produced admonition: “We must re-imprint the Gospel. […] [A] nothing; pray, and you will be surprised at all that you new Gospel? No! It is always the same Gospel; there is but find in the words of Sacred Scripture. […] 84 one.” Yet “to reprint,” as it is understood in the publishing The Good Mother loved the Gospels. During industry, suggests a static quality: printing another impression retreats, she used to re-read the Gospel according to without change requires relatively little effort—it is largely St. John. She found in it the good God, the light. […]88 a mechanical operation. By contrast, Mother Chappuis and Brisson understand réimprimer l’Evangile to be a highly Bring the Gospel to every soul with whom you are active and dynamic process that consists in prayerful reading, in contact—the Gospel, one soul at a time, and also in-depth knowledge and understanding (aided by resources the Gospel word for word, as did St. Paul, St. Francis such as Scripture commentaries), rumination, interior assim- de Sales, and the Good Mother. You will see that the ilation and appropriation, and adaptation to the needs of the Spiritual Directory and its applications possess the precise present-day world and the souls encountered in ministry. and efficacious art for enabling the Gospel to reach souls. The French original points to a better translation, “to Preach the Gospel with and by means of the Spiritual re-imprint the Gospel.” In fact, this is how réimprimer was Directory: the presence of God, direction of intention, rendered in English during the early modern era and the love of union and the conformity of our will to God’s lifetime of Francis de Sales and Mother de Chantal, as will. […] The Spiritual Directory is nothing else than indicated by Randle Cotgrave’s Dictionarie of the French and the Gospel in action. It is not just another devotional English Tongues of 1611: “to re-imprint, or to print again.”85 practice, or merely a pious exercise; it is a life entire and No less interesting is the varied vocabulary often used in complete, entirely and completely Christian.89 tandem with re-imprinting in the Salesian tradition— 14 ICSS NEWSLETTER

Several observations can be made apropos of these texts. ministry. The process that Brisson sets out in the third text 1. The trope of the heart as a space for inscription has a long above is essentially that of “lectio divina (spiritual reading) tradition going back to the Old Testament. Closer to in which scripture […] is deeply assimilated through a Francis’s day, writing on the heart is a frequent and vivid process of lectio (reading), meditatio (meditation), oratio image in medieval hagiographic, homiletic, devotional, (prayer), and contemplatio (contemplation)” (Wright and secular love literature.90 When Mother Chappuis 2004, 182, note 15). Fr. Celestin Rollin, OSFS (1842- and Brisson speak of re-imprinting or to re-imprint the 1932), who knew Mother Chappuis very well and was the Gospel, they avail themselves of a well-established trope congregation’s first novice master, explains it in this way employed in the Salesian tradition preceding them. For to the young Oblates whose formation was entrusted to example, in a sermon for the Third Sunday of Lent, his care, including the first American Oblate, J. Francis 27 February 1622, Francis describes redemption as the Tucker, OSFS: Savior’s coming “to repair by His Passion and death ‘the image and likeness of God’ [Genesis 1:26-27] imprinted We must re-imprint the Gospel in human hearts: in us.”91 In the Author’s Preface to the Introduction to in our own and in the hearts of those who have or will the Devout Life, Francis speaks of painting devotion in have confided in us. This can be done in three ways. Philothea’s heart, and later (Part 3, chapter 23) of wishing The first way of re-imprinting the Gospel is this: “above all else, to engrave and to inscribe on [Philothea’s] you must practice the Gospel yourselves, by reading it, heart this holy and sacred motto, ‘Live Jesus!’ [so that] praying it, writing down insights, and noting all of the just as this gentle Jesus will live within [her] heart, so personal thoughts and ideas gleaned from it. These are too He will live in all [her] actions.”92 And, finally, in the points you will preach and practice. Therefore, first an exhortation for the Third Sunday of Advent, on the of all imprint the Gospel in your own heart. The Gospel Savior’s self-emptying in His Incarnation, Mother de is the foundation, the source of all the rest. Chantal avers: The second way of re-imprinting the Gospel is by prayer. To what you have become aware from the [T]he Son of God, to show us an example, came to study of the Gospel, as just described, you must join humble Himself […]; for you see that this God of prayer. “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are all majesty, as it were forgetting and annihilating few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out this supreme and adorable grandeur, came to make laborers into his harvest” [Matthew 9:37-38; Luke Himself a little infant in the womb of one of His 10:2). He wants us to pray. It keeps us in humility and creatures. is a wonderful means of union with God. Even if one O my Sisters, I would greatly desire that is unaware of those people his prayers are converting, we imprint on our hearts this love of humbling there is a special bond between them before God. Our ourselves unto nothing in all things in which Our mission is to save souls. Lord humbled Himself: I say imprint in our hearts, The third way of re-imprinting the Gospel is by because something printed never gets erased. We ministry […].95 must then print and engrave in our hearts this desire to humble ourselves […] in imitation of how the 4. The clear link between re-imprinting or to re-imprint the Son of God abased Himself.93 Gospel and lectio divina also retrieves the key role that lectio divina played historically in the formation of Salesian 2. Among the role models for re-imprinting the Gospel, spirituality.96 This link is evidenced by the rule of life, Francis de Sales has first place for the Oblates. Like the entitled Spiritual Exercises, which Francis drew up while Spiritual Directory, re-imprinting the Gospel is also a studying law at the University of Padua (1588-91) to aid way for the Oblates to work toward their primary goal him in cultivating devotion in the midst of the dissipated “to reproduce as completely as possible the interior and world of student life. The core of Francis’s Exercises is this exterior life of St. Francis de Sales,”94 so that the Savior daily practice, based on the Gospel of John 13:23: “I will would again be seen walking on earth. For Francis, the daily allot a certain time for [...] sacred sleep, so that my “true meaning of Scripture is to live Jesus, what may be soul, in imitation of the Beloved Disciple, reposes with called the living word or whole Gospel, as a way of life” complete confidence on the lovable breast, actually in and Francis himself was regarded by his contemporaries the loving heart, of the loving Savior”97 (Figure 8). In as “‘the Gospel speaking,’ because it was completely this practice, Francis synthesizes the fourfold process of integrated into his life” (McGoldrick, 92), which is the lectio divina, designating contemplatio as “repose.” most effective means of evangelization. Francis’s lifelong, daily practice of spiritual repose in 3. Re-imprinting or to re-imprint the Gospel is both a the heart of Jesus (Wright 2004, 27-28), following the process of internal Oblate formation, as well as an external example of the Beloved Disciple at the Last Supper, also ICSS NEWSLETTER 15

with God which is mediated to us by prayer; effective love is our Christ-like life which flows from that union out into acts of concrete charity towards the neighbor by a life of virtue” (Fiorelli 1991, 25). Re-imprinting / to re-imprint the Gospel as lectio divina effectively synthe- sizes affective and effective love.

A Sacramental View of Ordinary Life and Work Francis de Sales’s “view of a loving God whose graciously inclining heart reaches down into the fallen human condition and gently but insistently urges each person back into loving relationship” (Wright 1990, 46) is the foundation for his sacramental understanding of the world. In the militant Catholic imagination, a profound rupture exists between God and creation, and, consequently, evil dominates the natural world, which is overrun with corruption, sin, and disorder. Francis rejects this pessimistic worldview. Affirming an incar- national, sacramental view of the world, he teaches that the Creator and creation exist in a fundamental harmony and that, since God is good, creation necessarily shares in that Figure 8. The Passion Artist, The Beloved Disciple Reposing on Jesus’s Breast at 100 the Last Supper, full-page miniature (the facing leaf is Christ Washing the Feet goodness. of the Disciples) from Murthy Hours, Paris 1280s. Edinburgh, National Library of This is not the view that came to prevail in French Scotland. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons) Catholicism under the ancien régime and well beyond. With Each of the Gospels has an account of the Last Supper, but this miniature their intense emphasis on moral behavior and obsession with comes closest to John’s Gospel, according to which the Beloved Disciple rested on Jesus’s breast (John 13:23) and Christ identified Judas as His betrayer by guilt and sin rather than spiritual values, Catholic rigorists offering Him the morsel of dipped bread (John 13:21-30). Throughout his life, presented to the laity a grim picture of their life on earth. St. Francis de Sales allotted time each day, in imitation of the Beloved Disciple, to repose “with complete confidence on the lovable breast, […] in the loving heart One was certainly supposed to work, and idleness was of the loving Savior.” According to the liturgical tradition, St. John “drank in the a sin; but work was a penance, and man must earn his rivers of the Gospel from the Lord’s breast as from a holy fountain” (Matins, Feast living by the sweat of his brow because of the sin of of St. John the Apostle and Evangelist, 27 Dec.). By resting on the breast and in the heart of Jesus, in imitation of the Beloved Disciple, Francis likewise drank Adam and Eve. […] [B]oth labour and relaxation were in “the rivers of the Gospel.” According to early Oblate tradition and Mother excluded from the realm of the sacred; the catholicism Chappuis, whose favorite Gospel was that of John, Francis de Sales “was the first presented to the faithful concerned itself almost exclu- after St. John to receive [the] precious deposit of intimate union” with “our Savior sively with the other world, and bore little relation to in everything” (Notebook of Fr. Rollin, 53). daily life in this one (Gibson 1989, 23).

underscores its connection to lectio divina, which essen- This view still held sway when Mother Chappuis and Brisson tially consists in repeatedly ruminating or “chewing on” a came onto the scene, especially with respect to the working particular Scripture verse so that it “became lodged in the class. memory and thus in the person” in order “to transform the reader.”98 Just as St. John “drank in the rivers of the [M]ost of the French clergy was profoundly out of Gospel from the Lord’s breast as from a holy fountain,”99 sympathy with the life experience of urban workers. Francis, through his resting on the breast and in the heart The Church’s traditional doctrine on work—that it was of Jesus, in imitation of the Beloved Disciple, also drank the punishment for Adam’s fall—made it difficult for in “the rivers of the Gospel.” According to early Oblate priests to relate to artisanal workers, for many of whom tradition and Mother Chappuis, whose favorite Gospel work sanctified and uplifted, rather than being a cross was that of John, Francis de Sales “was the first after to bear. […] The clergy moreover—most of whom came St. John to receive [the] precious deposit of intimate from rural backgrounds—showed in general a marked union” with “our Savior in everything” (Notebook of preference for agrarian society, and a deep suspicion of Fr. Rollin, 53). the urban environment (Gibson 1989, 221). 5. Another way of conceptualizing re-imprinting / to re-im- This state of affairs exacerbated another daunting print the Gospel as lectio divina is offered by Francis’s problem facing the Church: widespread ignorance, even understanding of affective love and effective love. “Very among educated Catholics, of the most basic tenets of faith briefly stated, affective love is our experience of union 16 ICSS NEWSLETTER

In addition to bringing us closer to God, work “I desire that we become learned men like brings us closer to all of those who work. It makes us St. Francis de Sales.” appreciate the toil, trials and effort that especially —Bl. Louis Brisson, OSFS marked the workers in the highly industrialized city of Troyes (Pocetto 2009, 333). and particularly of Sacred Scripture (Gibson 1989, 167, 171, These ideas, as well as the initiatives undertaken on 228, and 270; Pocetto 2014, 127). The situation among the behalf of workers by Mother Chappuis and Brisson, were part clergy was hardly more encouraging. While a small intellec- of developing Catholic social thought about the dignity of tually accomplished elite could be found in the clergy, most labor and of the Church’s pastoral outreach to the working of the presbyterate was not interested in and/or not capable of class during the 19th century. Faced with a changed economic intellectual pursuits. Rather than being part of the solution, reality, the Church’s approach to the new circumstances was 19th-century French seminaries exacerbated the problem: twofold: direct assistance and the formulation of ethical the academic quality of teaching was poor, piety was deemed norms. more important than intellect, and intellectual curiosity was Direct assistance was provided through hospitals and to be snuffed out. For its part, the study of Scripture was very schools, as epitomized in Italy by St. John Bosco and limited, and usually consisted of pious commentary (Gibson the Salesians and in France by Frédéric Ozanam and the 1989, 80-87). It is not difficult to imagine that these were Society of St. Vincent de Paul. There were as well the factors contributing to the urgency that Mother Chappuis efforts of Christian industrialists, such as Léon Harmel and Brisson give to re-imprinting the Gospel. in France, who lived with his own employees. Bishops Acutely aware of the gulf between the clergy and the around the world provided leadership, including working class, Mother Chappuis and Brisson sought to bring Bishop (Cardinal from 1890) Mermillod of Geneva and about a basic shift in how priestly ministry was exercised. First Lausanne, Cardinal Manning of Westminster, Cardinal of all, they wanted to form the Oblates, founded to continue Gibbons of Baltimore, Bishop Ireland of Minneapolis, the ministry of Francis de Sales, in the pastoral style of the and Cardinal Moran of Sydney. 102 saint himself who was “most approachable and very easy of access to anyone who wanted to talk to him.” In tandem with these efforts, an original body of Catholic teaching was being developed that sought to understand the [Francis] received all comers with the same expression new social problems and to formulate solutions based on the of quiet friendliness, and never turned anyone away, Gospel. For instance: whatever his station in life; he always listened with unhurried calmness and for as long as people needed In France, Villeneuve de Bargemont wrote an 1834 to talk. He was so patient and attentive that you treatise on political and Christian life, while in would have thought that this was all he had to do, and Germany, Bishop Wilhelm E. von Ketteler of Mainz everybody felt content and satisfied when they left him. helped launch a Catholic social movement that […] They longed to have a taste of that great sweetness expanded swiftly across Europe after 1870. [Pope] Leo [douceur] and serenity of heart which he invariably gave [XIII] later called von Ketteler “our great predecessor them and which helped people to open up to him with from whom I have learned” (Association Catholique, great confidence. […]101 October 15, 1893, 428). Finally, the Fribourg Union, founded in 1884 and headed by Mermillod, brought Complementing this emphasis on approachability and together various leaders in the nascent Catholic social accessibility, Mother Chappuis and Brisson developed a movement (ibid.). spirituality of work that insists on its sacred nature as a partic- ipation in God’s creative activity and presence. This process culminates in Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical Rerum Novarum / On the Condition of Labor (1891), “the first of the The underlining belief of a spirituality of work promoted great encyclicals of modern Catholic social teaching that by the Good Mother and further developed by Father proclaim the dignity of each person which, in turn, necessi- Brisson is that we are made in the image of God, who tates humane working conditions and a just wage” (Wright sanctified and glorified work, especially in creating the 2004, 147). universe. We most resemble the Creator by our human The new model of the priest, based on the pastoral activity. When the Creator works in, with and through example of Francis de Sales, did not shy away from openness us, then we become collaborators and co-creators with to and interaction with all, especially the working class, God, thereby reflecting God’s presence and continued who, as already noted, were looked upon with suspicion and activity in the world. […] neglected by the clergy of the day. ICSS NEWSLETTER 17

[T]he thought of the Good Mother was that the Oblates, brought into existence at this time, […] have a role to “[T]o be in touch with the age in which we play in that great question of work and workers. They live, and to usefully serve holy Church in are to exercise a healthy influence. […] What should these times, we have to be in contact with their activity be? God knows the answer, but we also workers.” —Bl. Louis Brisson, OSFS know that to be in touch with the age in which we live, and to usefully serve holy Church in these times, we have to be in contact with workers.103 Brisson’s linking of Francis and Vincent is not accidental since the Doctor of Divine Love had served as a spiritual Another attribute of this new, Salesian, model of the and priestly mentor to the Apostle of Charity107 (Figure 9). priest is that he should be dedicated to ongoing intellectual Moreover, in his own age, Vincent sought to create a new type growth and lifelong learning. Brisson tells the first Oblates: of priest, as would Mother Chappuis and Brisson in their era. “I desire that we become learned men like St. Francis de Sales.”104 This echoes Francis de Sales’s exhortation of 1603-5 When [Vincent] began to give the much-needed to the priests of his diocese: missions to the poor country people he made a discovery which greatly shocked him and which revealed to him I can truthfully say that there is not a great difference that there was urgent need for a new type of priest. between ignorance and malice, except that ignorance is This new type of priest must not be content simply to to be feared more than malice when you consider that it contemplate Christ the Eternal Priest offering Himself is not only offensive in itself, but also leads to contempt to the Father, but rather one who carries the living for the ecclesiastical state. Christ into the market place of the neglected people, especially the poor and the destitute. Thus, my very dear brothers, I implore you to apply yourselves seriously to study, because knowledge, to a priest, is the eighth sacrament of the hierarchy of the Church […].105

Sacraments are celebrated for the benefit of the people of God. Knowledge as the eighth sacrament of the hierarchy of the Church is not knowledge for knowledge’s sake, but for the sake and benefit of the pastoral ministry. Few model this more clearly than Francis de Sales: one of the best educated and learned men of his age, he put this education and learning completely in the service of the pastoral ministry to build up the people of God and to renew the Church. For Brisson, Francis de Sales and Vincent de Paul are “the summit” of the ideal of the priesthood, and they are the standard against which the Oblate priest measures himself. Brisson reflects:

[T]hey were at the summit, but we—are we at the summit? If we truly heed the injunction made by the bishop in the admonition in the Pontifical, to be fully aware of what we are doing, and the manner in which we do it, we shall only have to lower our head. The grandeur of the priesthood, and its lofty dignity, shows us at once the immense distance that exists between the thing and the person, between the sublimity of the function and the unworthiness of the minister. […]

[W]hen one understands the distance that exists between himself and the sublime functions with which he is occupied, one achieves some good for souls, one gains Figure 9. St. Francis de Sales Presents St. Vincent de Paul to Mother de Chantal 106 their confidence; one gives them the good God […]. and the Sisters of the Visitation, engraving after Jean Restout (1692-1768). (Photo: St. Vincent de Paul Image Archive) 18 ICSS NEWSLETTER

Vincent saw the priesthood of Christ unfolded on every were deeply suspicious of the urban environment. page of the Gospels. He was thoroughly convinced 4. There was widespread ignorance, even among educated that the “human” priest participates in this Gospel Catholics, of the most basic tenets of faith and particularly priesthood of Christ. […] “Our vocation is to embrace of Sacred Scripture. Things were hardly better among the the hearts of men, do what the Son of God did, He clergy, most of whom were not interested in and/or not who came into the world to set it on fire. […] It is capable of intellectual pursuits. Moreover, their grasp of not enough to love God if my neighbor does not love Scripture was woefully deficient and tended to be pious Him” […]. Vincent is asking for a very high degree of rather than theologically and spiritually substantive. Christ-consciousness in the priest.108 In response to the Lord’s revelation that He wanted “to Conclusion open up new sources of graces,” which was to be accom- The return ad fontes, “to the sources,” or ressourcement plished by the “creation of priests ministering in the spirit of is “behind every reform movement in Western Christianity” St. Francis de Sales,” 110 Mother Chappuis and Brisson collab- (O’Malley, 41). If this is true for the 19th-century Salesian orate in this divine initiative and inspiration by founding Pentecost in general, it is most especially so in the case of the the De Sales Oblates. Cognizant of their era’s ecclesial-pas- founding of the De Sales Oblates. toral context, they saw the acute need for a different kind Return to the primary sources documenting the of priest—one who would be an alternative to the ferocious foundation of the De Sales Oblates—Brisson’s chapter theology of hellfire and damnation and religion of fear, the conferences, retreats, sermons, and biography of Mother moral rigorism of the confessional, and the rupture between Chappuis—recovers that the congregation comes into being the clergy and working class, as well as an effective minister of due to the Lord’s revelations to Mother Chappuis. According evangelization focused on the joy of the Gospel. They found to these revelations, the inspiration, birth, and life of the the model for this renewal of priestly ministry in Francis Oblates as a congregation of priests “ministering in the spirit de Sales, the Doctor of Divine Love. of St. Francis de Sales” is the external fruit of the inner life As a priest and bishop, Francis consciously devoted of the blessed Trinity so that “new sources of graces” may be himself to crafting a Catholic culture of douceur, gentleness, opened up and “divine charity [may be diffused] ever more” that critiqued and stood in stark contrast to militant in the world.109 While modern scholars may shy away from French Catholicism. Among other things, militant Cathol- these revelations, possibly because of the status of Mother icism believed God to be wrathful, vengeful, and punitive; Chappuis’s cause, Brisson himself exhibits no such hesitation. subscribed to an apocalyptic rather than sacramental view of The import of the Lord’s revelations to Mother Chappuis the world; and held that sacramental confession and pastoral cannot be fully understood and appreciated without taking care were to instill in the laity a hatred of sin, intolerance of into account the ecclesial-pastoral historical context of imperfection, and fear of God’s judgment. Francis de Sales 19th-century French Catholicism, whose principal traits, as was indefatigable not only in preaching, but also in becoming identified by historians, are as follows: the living embodiment of God’s love, mercy, and compassion, of the Gospel and accessibility to all so much so that in his 1. There was an obsession to a pathological degree with the person the Savior was seen to walk again on earth. idea of judgment and punishment in the afterlife. Catholic The militant Catholicism that Francis sought to counter preachers and theologians purveyed a ferocious theology in the late 16th and early 17th century impact French of hellfire and damnation and of the small number of the Catholicism well beyond that period. It is the precursor of saved—in short, what historians have called “a religion the prevailing ecclesial-pastoral trends in 19th-century of fear.” Jansenists and bitter anti-Jansenists alike shared French Catholicism that are the context for the revelations this vision of a judicial and even vengeful God who was to Mother Chappuis and the foundation of the Oblates. to be feared. Mother Chappuis and Brisson grasped that, in Brisson’s words, 2. Moral rigorism prevailed in the confessional, with “St. Francis de Sales was a man of his time, but he is even absolution often being withheld or delayed. more truly of our time than his own.”111 He was the model for 3. With their intense emphasis on moral behavior and the renewal of priestly ministry required by the age. obsession with guilt and sin rather than spiritual values, According to Brisson, what distinguishes the Oblates Catholic rigorists presented to the laity a grim picture from other religious congregations under the patronage of of their life on earth: idleness was a sin, but work was a Francis de Sales is that they are to “identify as much as possible penance that came about because of Adam’s fall. Work was with the person” of the saint.112 The Oblates are to reproduce excluded from the realm of the sacred. Moreover, there “as completely as possible [Francis de Sales’s] interior and was a chasm between the emergent working class and the exterior life” and continue his ministry by taking his place clergy, most of whom came from rural backgrounds and and being his successors.113 “[T]horoughly permeated with the ICSS NEWSLETTER 19

doctrine of St. Francis de Sales,”114 each Oblate is to forge and mercy ushered in by Vatican II. In this connection, Pope sustain his personal identification with the saint through the Francis cites Pope St. John XXIII’s declaration at the Salesian daily practices of living Jesus, the Spiritual Directory, solemn inauguration of the Council: “The Bride of Christ and re-imprinting the Gospel, with all that it implies, so prefers to use the medicine of mercy rather than arm that the Savior would be seen again walking on earth, as herself with the weapons of rigor.”118 This sets the focus indeed He was in Francis de Sales. Further, the Oblates are to for all that follows, with each of his successors taking up dedicate themselves to disseminating Francis’s doctrine and this call. Pope St. John Paul II and Pope Francis stand spirituality to the laity, as well as to diocesan priests in order out in particular: the former for his encyclical Dives in to renew priestly ministry in the mold of Francis de Sales on misericordia / Rich in Mercy (30 November 1980) and a broader scale. instituting the solemnity of the Divine Mercy, and the More than a few of the elements that Mother Chappuis latter for making mercy the leit-motiv of his pontificate. and Brisson saw as key in the life of the Oblates—priests Certainly, our Salesian-Oblate tradition accords and brothers alike, as well as the Oblate Sisters—could not well with this priority of the Church, offering a wealth be more timely in our own age, aligning with the Church’s of reflection and example by our saints and founders. At contemporary pastoral priorities and emphases. The following the same time, this alignment of the Salesian-Oblate three examples of this alignment warrant greater attention tradition with the Church’s recovery of “the mercy of and consideration. God, the beating heart of the Gospel” (The Face of Mercy, no. 12) is an impetus and an invitation to respond more 1. Vatican II sought to restore the central place of Sacred fully to Vatican II’s call to move from “a less profound Scripture in Christian life, urging Catholics to to a more profound tradition” (Congar quoted by Flynn, 4), to delve every more deeply into our Salesian-Oblate gladly put themselves in touch with the sacred text sources and history in order to better understand and itself, whether it be through the liturgy, rich in the appreciate them in light of the present day. Giving added divine word, or through devotional reading, or through urgency to this endeavor is the emergence of what is instructions suitable for the purpose and other aids. described as “neo-Jansenism” in the current context. […] [P]rayer should accompany the reading of Sacred 3. Going hand in hand with the Church’s rediscovery of Scripture, so that a dialogue takes place between God “the mercy of God, the beating heart of the Gospel” 115 and man. (The Face of Mercy, n. 12) is the Church patterning “her In speaking of the link between Bible reading and prayer, behavior after the Son of God who goes out to everyone the Council Fathers allude to lectio divina. Several decades without exception” (ibid.). This outreach is that of the after the Council, the disconnect between the Bible and Trinity itself and the core meaning of mercy. daily life among the faithful was still observable; however, We need constantly to contemplate the mystery of at the same time it was recognized that the revival of the mercy. […] Mercy: the word reveals the very mystery ancient practice of lectio divina was making progress in of the Most Holy Trinity. Mercy: the ultimate and ameliorating this situation. The late 20th and early 21st supreme act by which God comes to meet us. […] century has seen a burgeoning literature on lectio divina, Mercy: the bridge that connects God and man, attesting to the growing interest in and popularity of this opening our hearts to the hope of being loved forever 116 slow, meditative approach to the sacred text. In fact, despite our sinfulness. (The Face of Mercy, n. 2). one of the most influential contemporary promoters and practicioners of lectio divina—the Jesuit biblical scholar Mercy does not exist within the Holy Trinity. There is Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini—looks to St. Francis de no need for it because the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit— Sales as a guide for this prayerful approach to Scripture.117 all of the same divine majesty—relate to each other The post-conciliar recovery of lectio divina presents through love that is not expressed as grace or mercy. But a fresh opportunity for responding to the call of our the Trinity pours mercy on humankind because there is a Salesian-Oblate saints and founders to re-imprint the gap between God and us that needs filling. Mercy is the Gospel, which is itself a form of lectio divina, as the primary bridge whereby God meets us where we are (Figure 10). sources of our tradition clearly reveal. This contempo- As recipients of God’s mercy, we are called to collaborate rizes re-imprinting the Gospel, which is relevant to the with Him in extending mercy to others.119 Church’s life today, while also renewing and re-invigo- Mother Chappuis and Brisson’s understanding of rating this key Salesian theme. how the Oblates come into existence reveals that this 2. The Church’s contemporary emphasis on mercy is custom- foundation is a work or mystery of Trinitarian mercy. arily associated with Pope Francis. However, Pope Francis The Lord reveals to the young novice, Sr. Mary himself points out that he is part of the era of a kairós of Frances de Sales, that the foundation of this 20 ICSS NEWSLETTER

Tilburg edition. In 2000, the critical “Édition du Millenium” of Brisson’s works, prepared by Roger Balducelli, OSFS, with the collaboration of Jean Gayet, OSFS, and the Oblate Sisters of St. Francis de Sales, was completed and is accessible on the website: www.louisbrisson.org. As welcome as this development is, this online edition is not divided into volumes nor paginated, which does not facilitate its citation following standard documentation style. Rather, it is divided into three genres (retreats, sermons, chapters), which are then subdivided into years, though with no pagination. 2 John W. O’Malley, SJ, What Happened at Vatican II (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2008), 41. 3 For an overview of the topic, see Gerald O’Collins, SJ, The Second Vatican Council: Message and Meaning (Collegeville: Liturgical Press/Michael Glazier, 2014), 1- 24 (Chapter 1: Ressourcement and Vatican II). 4 This is how Yves Congar, OP (1904-95), who adopted ressourcement as the standard for Church reform, describes it (Gabriel Flynn, “Introduction: The Twentieth-Century Renaissance in Catholic Theology,” in Ressou- rcement: A Movement for Renewal in Twentieth-Century Catholic Theology, ed. Gabriel Flynn and Paul D. Murray, with the assistance of Patricia Kelly [New York: Oxford University Press, 2012], 1-19, at 4 [hereafter Flynn]). 5 “le mystère de cette œuvre” (“Lettre du père Brisson au père Claude Perrot, O.S.B. à Einsiedeln, 17 octobre 1867,” partial text in [Yvon Beaudoin, OMI], Trecen. Beatificationis et Canonizationis Servi Dei Aloisii Brisson […] Positio super virtutibus (Rome: Congregatio de causis sanctorum, 1998), 233-34, at 233 (hereafter Beaudoin 1998). English translation in Yvon Beaudoin, OMI, Father Louis Brisson (1817-1908): A Documented Biography, trans. by several De Sales Oblates and ed. by Alexander T. Pocetto, OSFS, and Daniel P. Wisniewski, OSFS (Wilmington, DE: Oblates of St. Francis de Sales, 2008), 116-17 (hereafter Beaudoin 2008). 6 John Carroll Futrell, “Discovering the Founder’s Charism,” The Way Figure 10. Master of the Cambrai Missal, The Throne of Mercy, miniature in the Supplement 14 (1971): 62-70, at 66 (hereafter Futrell). Cambrai Missal, c. 1120. Cambrai, Bibliothèque municipale ms. No. 224. (Photo: 7 Lewis S. Fiorelli, OSFS, The Second Renewal: Invitation to the Future Wikimedia Commons) (Wilmington, DE: De Sales Publishing, 1991), 1-2 (hereafter Fiorelli One of the most popular ways of depicting the Blessed Trinity in the West 1991). during the Middle Ages and early modern era was as “The Throne of Mercy.” 8 “il n’était plus le maître, il fallait se soumettre” (Louis Brisson, Vie de la This miniature from the Cambrai Missal is among the earliest such depictions of vénérée Mère Marie de Sales Chappuis [Paris: chez M. l’Aumonier de la the Trinity, which here is framed with the symbols of the four evangelists in the Visitation, 1891], 260 [hereafter Chappuis Biography]). corners. This composition thus visualizes that, in the words of Pope Francis, “the 9 For a recent example, see Michel Tournade, OSFS, Saint François de Sales: mercy of God [is] the beating heart of the Gospel” (The Face of Mercy, n. 12). Aventurier et diplomate (Paris: Éditions Salvator, 2017). 10 Cf. Alexander T. Pocetto, OSFS, “Mary de Sales Chappuis (1793-1875): congregation of priests—formed in the spirit of Apostle of the Salesian Spirit,” Salesianum 71 (2009): 321-40, esp. 321 St. Francis de Sales to continue “the work of sancti- (hereafter Pocetto 2009). 11 Roger Balducelli, OSFS, “On the Sacred History of the Congregation: 120 fication that he began on earth” —was “one of the Comments on Father Brisson’s Understanding of How the Congregation fruits of the inner life of the three Persons of the Blessed Came to Being,” in The True Understanding of the Congregation according Trinity,”121 in order “to open up new sources of graces,”122 to Father Brisson: Texts of Father Brisson chosen by Fr. Roger Balducelli, so that “[t]he treasure of [divine] charity will be lavished OSFS, for Use by His Confreres (Rome: OSFS Generalate, 1989), 137-51 (hereafter Balducelli 1989). 123 on the earth and given in all its fullness to the world.” 12 “Quel est le début de l’histoire de notre fondation? Cette fondation date In Brisson’s words, these are “sublime things,”124 requiring de loin; il faut aller jusqu’à un petit village de la Suisse pour en trouver la a profoundly reverential response on the part of the première pensée, la première inspiration” (Tilburg edition, 4:124). 13 “Or, voilà qu’un jour, au Noviciat de Fribourg, la Sœur Marie de Sales Oblates. Chappuis reçoit du Bon Dieu de grandes lumières; elle entrevoit déjà la fondation des Oblats. Dieu lui faisait voir que cette fondation était un des Joseph F. Chorpenning, OSFS fruits de l’opération des trois personnes de la Sainte Trinité, et notamment du Père avec le Verbe. Ces choses étaient bien élevées” (Tilburg edition, 4:124). = 14 “communications qu’elle reçoit des personnes divines, et particulièrement de ce que Dieu veut encore donner à la terre” (Tilburg edition, 4:126). NOTES 15 “Voilà que je suis appelée à être apôtre et à contribuer à l’œuvre que Dieu établira pour communiquer ses grâces et pour étendre la diffusion de la 1 “Remontons à notre origine, à notre création; l’enseignement historique charité divine. Le Sauveur apportera des mérites non encore employés. Le a, sur tout autre, un immense avantage: celui de mieux préciser le but et trésor de sa charité sera répandu sur la terre, et donné dans sa plénitude au les moyens d’atteindre ce but” (Louis Brisson, OSFS, Chapîtres, Retraites, monde” (Tilburg edition, 4:126). Instructions et Allocutions, 7 vols. [Tilburg (Holland): Maison “Ave Maria,” 16 “O Dieu, quelle grace est celle que Dieu vous fait! il vous rend apostresses, 1966-68], 4:124 [hereafter Tilburg edition]). All quotations from and refer- non en la dignité, ains en l’office et au merite. Vous ne prescherez pas, non, ences to Brisson’s chapters, retreats, instructions, and sermons are from the car vostre sexe ne le permet, bien que sainte Magdelaine et sainte Marthe ICSS NEWSLETTER 21

sa sœur l’ayant fait; mais vous ne lairrez pas d’exercer l’office apostolique Charism of the De Sales Oblates,” ICSS Newslettter, No. 29 [Special issue: en la communication de vostre maniere de vie” (Œuvres de saint François Fr. Louis Brisson Symposium] (February 2013): 19-23. de Sales, Édition complète, 27 vols. [Annecy: J. Niérat et al., 1892-1964], 29 “Dieu s’est regardé et il est décidé à ouvrir de nouvelles sources de grâces. 6:90-91 [hereafter Annecy edition]), cited in Pocetto 2009, 324. Il veut que j’y travaille avec lui et que vous en soyez le témoin, et que vous 17 Wolfgang Riehle, The Secret Within: Hermits, Recluses, and Spiritual soyez chargé d’exécuter ce qui sera necessaire pour communiquer au dehors Outsiders in Medieval England, trans. Charity Scott-Stokes (Ithaca: Cornell les effets de cette action” (Chappuis Biography, 254). University Press, 2014), 211. 30 “Le trésor de sa charité sera répandu sur la terre, et donné dans sa plénitude 18 Archbishop Arthur Roche, Secretary of the Congregation for Divine au monde” (Tilburg edition, 4:126). Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, “The New Preface of 31 Wendy M. Wright, Heart Speaks to Heart: The Salesian Tradition, Traditions Saint Mary Magdalene”: www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ of Christian Spirituality Series (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2004), 111 ccdds/documents/il-nuovo-prefazio-maddalena-articolo_en.pdf (retrieved (hereafter Wright 2004). Also see Alexander T. Pocetto, OSFS, “Blessed 22/9/2018). Louis Brisson (1817-1908), the Laity, and the Social Dimensions of the 19 “Mary Magdelene, apostle of the apostles,” Bollettino Sala Stampa della Santa New Evangelization,” Salesianum 76 (2014): 121-40, esp. 127-28 (hereafter Sede, 10 June 2016: https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/enbol- Pocetto 2014). In this connection, both scholars reference Ralph Gibson’s lettino/pubblico/2016/06/10/160610c.html (accessed 22/9/2018). A Social History of French Catholicism 1789-1914 (New York: Routledge, 20 “des personnes divines” (Tilburg edition, 4:126); “la fondation des Oblats 1989) (hereafter Gibson 1989). […] était un des fruits de l’opération des trois personnes de la Sainte Trinité 32 Ralph Gibson, “Hellfire and Damnation in Nineteenth-Century France,” (ibid., 4:124). Catholic Historical Review 74/3 (1988): 383-402, at 383 (hereafter Gibson 21 This was one of many observations shared by Fr. Joseph Boenzi, SDB, 1988). during the day of recollection that he led for the members of the De Sales 33 “ouvrir de nouvelles sources de grâces” (Chappuis Biography, 254). Oblates 2018 General Chapter, 21 July 2018, in Annecy. 34 “Le trésor de sa charité sera répandu sur la terre, et donné dans sa plénitude 22 Balducelli 1989, 145. “Male anxiety” about the foundational role that au monde” (Tilburg edition, 4:126). women sometimes have in a male religious order or congregation is well 35 This discussion of Francis’s reform of militant Catholicism is based on the documented: see, e.g., Christopher C. Wilson, “Masculinity Restored: The pioneering and groundbreaking research of historian Thomas A. Donlan, Visual Shaping of St. John of the Cross,” Archive for Reformation History specifically hisThe Reform of Zeal: François de Sales and Militant Cathol- 98/1 (2007): 134-66. icism during the French Wars of Religion (Ph.D. thesis, University of Arizona, 23 “Etant à Troyes, en arrivant, elle comprit que c’était là le lieu que Dieu 2011) (hereafter Donlan 2011); “Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary: avait marqué pour l’accomplissement de son œuvre, qu’il en avait posé là Witness to a Catholicism of Douceur,” in Love is the Perfection of the Mind: la première pierre, et que là devaient se manifester les effets de la Sainte Salesian Studies Presented to Alexander T. Pocetto, O.S.F.S. on the Occasion Trinité” (Tilburg edition, 4:127). of His 90th Birthday, ed. Joseph F. Chorpenning, OSFS, Thomas F. Dailey, 24 “Vous avez été choisi par le Bon Dieu pour m’aider beaucoup dans la OSFS, and Daniel P. Wisniewski, OSFS (Center Valley, PA.: Salesian besogne qu’il me reste à entreprendre. Le temps est venu où le Bon Dieu va Center for Faith and Culture, 2017), 35-48 (hereafter Donlan 2017); and commencer son œuvre” (Tilburg edition, 4:129). “Oasis of Gentleness in a Desert of Militancy: Francis de Sales’s Contri- 25 “Je vais vous prendre bien du temps, parce que j’aurai besoin de vous dire bution to French Catholicism,” in Surrender to Christ for Mission: French ce que Dieu veut faire pour manifester sa charité et employer les mérites du Spiritual Traditions, ed. Philip Sheldrake (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, Sauveur. Dieu s’est regardé et il est décidé à ouvrir de nouvelles sources de 2018), 90-108 (hereafter Donlan 2018). Also see now his new book, grâces. Il veut que j’y travaille avec lui et que vous en soyez le témoin, et The Reform of Zeal: François de Sales and Militant Catholicism (St Andrews: que vous soyez chargé d’exécuter ce qui sera nécessaire pour communiquer St Andrews Studies in French History & Culture, 2018). au dehors les effets de cette action” (Chappuis Biography, 253-54). 36 Bernard McGinn, The Doctors of the Church: Thirty-Three Men and Women 26 “La création de prêtres travaillant dans l’esprit de Saint François de Sales Who Shaped Christianity (New York: Crossroad, 1999), 161. Cf. Annecy a été la pensée de toute sa vie […] La Bonne Sœur me répète sans cesse: edition, 22:66. ‘C’est la volonté de Dieu que cette Congrégation existe et qu’elle ait des 37 For example, the aim of the solemn celebration of Francis’s beatification ramifications; c’est une grande chose dont vous ne pouvez avoir l’idée. Je that took place in Annecy on 30 April 1662 was “to set ablaze all the vois constamment notre Saint Fondateur devant Notre Seigneur, et Notre hearts of the city’s inhabitants in the school of this incomparable Doctor of Seigneur lui communiquant ce qu’il faut pour achever l’œuvre de sanctifi- Divine Love” (Barthélémy Magistry, Cérémonies et resjouissances faites en la cation qu’il a commencée sur la terre. Les 70.000 hérétiques, ce n’est que ville d’Annessy sur la solennité de la béatification et l’élévation du corps sacré du le commencement de choses beaucoup plus grandes” (draft of letter [dated bienheureux François de Sales, le 30. d’avril 1662 [Annecy: Pierre Delachinal, 14 October 1867] of Fr. Brisson to Fr. Perrot in the Archives of the OSFS 1662], 21: “embraser tous les cœurs de nos citoyens dans l’école de cet Generalate in Rome, box 30, Einsiedeln Collection [hereafter draft of letter incomparable Docteur de l’Amour Divin” (quoted in Agnes Guiderdoni, of Fr. Brisson to Fr. Perrot]). I am deeply grateful to Fr. Barry R. Strong, “Exegetical Immersion: The Festivities on the Occasion of Francis de OSFS, Superior General, for retrieving and scanning this document for Sales’s Canonisation [1665-1667],” in Imago Exegetica: Visual Images as my use. Fr. Roger Balducelli, OSFS, former Superior General and Congre- Exegetical Instruments, 1400-1700, Intersections: Interdisciplinary Studies in gational Archivist, prepared an English translation of this letter in its Early Modern Culture, Vol. 33 [Emory University, Lovis Corinth Colloquia entirety. This translation, from which I quote here, is found in the compi- IV], ed. Walter S. Melion and Michel Weemans [Leiden/Boston: Brill, lation, Resource Materials for Community Chapters (1989), prepared by the 2014], 855-84, at 876) (hereafter Imago Exegetica). Pope Alexander VII Salesian Spirituality Commission and Sub-Committee on Community signed the brief of Francis’s beatification on 28 December 1661, with the Chapters of the Wilmington-Philadelphia Province. The number of 70,000 formal ceremony following in St. Peter’s Basilica on 8 January 1662. The converts seems very high, perhaps being more hagiographic than historical solemn celebration of Francis’s beatification (including the exhumation of to emphasize in a dramatic way the effectiveness of Francis de Sales’s his body) took place in Annecy on 29-30 April 1662 and is chronicled in ministry. At the end of the Chablais Mission, Francis himself reported that the aforementioned work of Barthélémy Magistry, a canon of St. Peter’s 14,000 to 15,000 people had been converted: see Jill Fehleison, Boundaries cathedral in Annecy. of Faith: Catholics and Protestants in the Diocese of Geneva, Early Modern 38 See, e.g., Pope St. Paul VI, Sabaudiae gemma [Gem of Savoy]: Apostolic Studies Series (Kirksville, MO: Truman State University Press, 2010), 93. Letter Commemorating the 400th Anniversary of the Birth of St. Francis 27 “un des fruits de l’opération des trois personnes de la Sainte Trinité, et de Sales, Doctor of the Church, trans. Neil Kilty, OSFS (Hyattsville, MD: notament du Père avec le Verbe” (Tilburg edition, 4:124). Institute of Salesian Studies, 1967) 4, 8; and Pope St. John Paul II, Letter 28 See Pocetto 2009, 324-25, 339; Joseph F. Chorpenning, OSFS, “‘[C]hoice on the Fourth Centenary of the Episcopal Ordination of St. Francis de Sales (23 and formation do not coincide’: Fr. Brisson and the Foundation and Nov. 2002), n. 3 (available at http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/ 22 ICSS NEWSLETTER

letters/2002/documents/hf_jp-ii_let_20021209; accessed 14 Apr. 2016). thèque de la Pléiade [Paris: Gallimard, 1969], 1094 [hereafter Œuvres]). Earlier John Paul referenced Francis as the “Doctor of Love” in a homily 58 “S. Fr. de Sales était de son temps, mais il est encore bien plus du nôtre bien given in Annecy, 7 Oct. 1986, during his apostolic pilgrimage to France plus encore que du sien” (Tilburg edition, 2:152). (available at http://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paulii/fr/homilies/1986/ 59 For an overview of the Salesian Pentecost, see Wright 2004, 110-72, and documents/hf_jp-ii_hom_198610; accessed 3 May 2016). her “‘To Live with One Heart’: Louis Brisson and the Salesian Pentecost,” 39 Wendy M. Wright, “‘Hearts Have a Secret Language’: The Spiritual ICSS Newsletter, No. 29 [Special issue: Fr. Louis Brisson Symposium] Language of Francis de Sales and Jane de Chantal,” Vincential Heritage (2013): 1-8. The term “Salesian Pentecost” was coined by Henri l’Honoré, Journal 11/1 (1990): 45-58, at 46 (hereafter Wright 1990). OSFS, “Ramifications de la famille salésienne,” in L’Unidivers salésien: Saint 40 M. Hamon, Vie de Saint François de Sales, 6th edition, 2 vols. (Paris – Lyon: François de Sales hier et aujourd’hui, ed. Hélène Bordes et Jacques Hennequin Librairie Jacques Lecoffre, 1875), 2:180. (Paris: Université de Metz, 1994): 459-71. 41 “une image vivante en laquelle le Fils de Dieu Notre-Seigneur était peint 60 “Il faut que nous tenions sa place, que nous lui succédions, et par conséquent […] [et] quantité de gens […] quand ils voyaient ce Bienheureux, il leur que nous lui ressemblions autant que possible” (Tilburg edition, 1:197). semblait voir Notre-Seigneur en terre” (Jeanne-Françoise Frémyot de 61 Edward T. Gargan, review of Gibson 1989, American Historical Review Chantal, Correspondance, ed. Marie-Patricia Burns, VSM, 6 vols. [Paris: 96/1(1991): 177-78, at 178. Éditions du Cerf, 1986-96], 2:310 [letter of 26 Dec. 1623, to Dom Jean de 62 Wright 2004, 112. On the introduction of Ligouri’s moral theology at the Saint-François]). Also see L’Âme de Saint François de Sales révélée par Sainte Troyes seminary, see ibid., 144, and Pocetto 2009, 337-38. Jeanne-Françoise de Chantal (Annecy: Monastère de la Visitation, 2010), 63 “nous lui ressemblions autant que possible” (Tilburg edition, 1:197). 92-93 (Deposition, given at Annecy in 1627, for the beatification process 64 Brisson frequently attests to this conviction of Mother Chappuis: see, e.g., of Francis de Sales, Article 32); and Vincent de Paul, Correspondance, Tilburg edition, 1:19, 58, 192, 254; 2:39, 330; 3:96, 220, 352, 421, 490, 531; entretiens, documents, ed. Pierre Coste, 13 vols. (Paris: Librairie Lecoffre, 4:63. Also see the letter of 8 July 1886 by Fr. Celestine Rollin, OSFS, to J. Gabalda, Éditeur, 1920-24) 13:78-79 (Deposition, given at Paris in 1628, Brisson about Mother Chappuis in Chappuis Biography, 445. for the beatification process of Francis de Sales, Article 38). 65 “Il faut bien se pénétrer de la doctrine de S. Fr. de Sales. […] Il faut nous 42 Orest Ranum, Paris in the Age of Absolutism: An Essay, revised and appliquer à agir comme S. Fr. de Sales et non seulement à parler comme expanded edition (1968; University Park: Pennsylvania State University lui. Il faut nous appliquer surtout à retrouver ses sentiments de paternité, Press, 2002), 173-74. de charité envers les âmes, de patience pour les conduite à Dieu, pour les 43 Thomas Worcester, SJ, “St. Francis de Sales and Jesuit Rhetorical mener où Dieu les appelle” (Tilburg edition, 2:152). Tradition,” in Traditions of Eloquence: The Jesuits and Modern Rhetorical 66 “Nous nous plaçons, non seulement sous le patronage de S. Fr. de Sales, Studies, ed. Cinthia Gannett and John C. Brereton (New York: Fordham mais entièrement sous la direction de ses pensées, de sa doctrine, de sa University Press, 2016), 102-15, at 106. manière de faire et de voir. S. Fr. de Sales sera non seulement pour nous 44 “J’ayme la predication qui ressent plus a l’amour du prochain qu’a un ‘adjutorium’ pour les vertus sacerdotales et religieuses, mais ces vertus l’indignation, voire mesme des huguenotz, qu’il faut traitter avec grande nous les pusierons en lui, dans sa doctrine, dans ses exemples. Il sera notre compassion” (Annecy edition, 12:323). modèle; nous ferons ce qu’il a fait et nous trouverons en lui la grâce de 45 See, e.g., Annecy edition, 11:95, 124, 142, and 162. The term “gentle nos vertus sacerdotales et religieuses. Non seulement il sera notre patron, relationality” is coined by Donlan 2018, 97. mais nous nous identifierons autant que faire se pourra avec sa personne” 46 Francis’s approach is comparable to that of his fellow Savoyard, St. Pierre (Tilburg edition, 1:120). Favre (1506-46), whom Francis revered and venerated. Favre emphasized 67 Wendy M. Wright, “Abandoned for Love: The Gracious Legacy of French “spiritual ecumenism, and saw that the problem of unity to be at bottom Spiritual Traditions,” in Surrender to Christ for Mission: French Spiritual a question of spirituality” (Peter Schineller, S.J., In Their Own Words: Traditions, 15-31, at 28. Ignatius, Xavier, Favre and Our Way of Proceeding, Studies in the Spiritu- 68 The word-picture of the world of hearts is the Salesian tradition’s master ality of the Jesuits 38/1 [Spring 2006]: 42). On Francis and Favre, see the metaphor and the interpretive lens through which its history is to be magisterial study by Jean-Luc Leroux, OSFS, “Saint François de Sales et le viewed, from its inception and diffusion in the early modern era, through ‘grand Pierre Favre,’” in Saint Pierre Favre: De la Savoie à l’Europe, Actes its recovery and expansion after the French Revolution in the 19th-century du colloque tenu à Annecy le 29 novembre 2014, ed. Laurent Perrillat, Salesian Pentecost, and down to the present: see Wright 2004. Académie Salésienne, Documents hors série, vol. 4 (Annecy: Académie 69 “[C]ar aussi, le cœur étant la source des actions, elles sont telles qu’il est. Salésienne / Thônes: Amis du Val de Thônes, 2015), 79-95. […] Oui vraiment, car quiconque a Jésus-Christ en son cœur, il l’a bientôt 47 “le cœur parle au cœur, et la langue ne parle qu’aux oreilles” (Annecy après en toutes ses actions extérieures. […] [Q]ue comme ce doux Jésus edition, 12:321). vivra dedans votre cœur, il vivra aussi en tous vos déportements […]; et 48 Terence McGoldrick, “The Living Word: Francis de Sales, A Humanist pourrez saintement dire, à la imitation de saint Paul: Je vis, mais non plus Biblical Theologian of the Renaissance,” in Love is the Perfection of the moi, ains Jésus-Christ vit en moi” (Œuvres, 195; Introduction to the Devout Mind: Salesian Studies Presented to Alexander T. Pocetto, O.S.F.S. on the Life, Part 3, chap. 2). Occasion of His 90th Birthday, 83-101, at 92 (hereafter McGoldrick). 70 On this phenomenon, see A. Cabassut, “Cœurs, changement des,” 49 This discussion of the Salesian sacramental ministry of Penance is based on Dictionnaire de spiritualité ascétique et mystique, doctrine et histoire, 17 vols. Donlan 2018, 98-99. (Paris: Beauchesne, 1932-95), II, 2, cols. 1046-51, and, more recently, 50 William J. Ruhl, OSFS, The Salesian Confessor and the New Rite of Penance, Barbara Newman, “Exchanging Hearts: A Medievalist Looks at Transplant Salesian Studies Monograph No. 1 (Wilmington, DE: Oblates of St. Francis Surgery,” Spiritus: A Journal of Christian Spirituality 12 (2012): 1-20. de Sales, Wilmington-Philadelphia Province, 1976), 12-13. 71 “la mentale et cordiale, et particulièrement celle qui se fait autour de la vie 51 For the text of these counsels, see Annecy edition, 23:279-97. et Passion de Notre-Seigneur: en le regardant souvent par la méditation, 52 “la grande misericorde de Dieu […] est infiniment plus grande […] que tous toute votre âme se remplira de lui; vous apprendrez ses contenances, et les pechés du monde” (Annecy edition, 23:284). formerez vos actions au modèle des siennes” (Œuvres, 79; Introduction to 53 This section is based on Donlan 2017, esp. 35, 37-38, 41, 43, 45. the Devout Life, Part 2, chap. 1). 54 “porter le doux Jesus […] doucement” (Annecy edition 14:211; letter of 16 72 “petites vertus, la conquête desquelles Notre-Seigneur a exposée à notre Nov. 1609 of St. Francis de Sales to Madame de Chantal). soin et travail: comme la patience, la débonnaireté, la mortification du 55 See, e.g., Annecy edition 6:26, 64, and 66. cœur, l’humilité, l’obéissance, la pauvreté, la chasteté, la tendreté envers 56 “[une] profonde humilité envers Dieu et [une] grande douceur envers le le prochain, le support de ses imperfections, la diligence et sainte ferveur” prochain” (Annecy edition, 6:229). (Œuvres, 132; Introduction to the Devout Life, Part 3, chap. 2). 57 “L’esprit de douceur est tellement le propre esprit de la Visitation” (Saint 73 “Ardentissimam ejus erga Deum charitatem inde colligebam cum pacatis- François de Sales, Œuvres, ed. André Ravier and Roger Devos, Biblio- simam observarem Servi Dei […] Colligo ex flagranti desiderio conformitatis ICSS NEWSLETTER 23

imaginis Filii Dei, cui ita se conformavit hic Famulus Dei, quemadmodum chapitre; soyez-y bien fidèles, et lisez attentivement, de façon à comprendre observarvi, ut saepissime apud me miratus sim quomodo pura creatura et à retenir. […] ad tantum perfectionis gradum, quantum fert humana fragilitas, et tam Nourrissez-vous-en; lisez-la lentement; trois ou quatre, quatre ou cinq sublime altitudinis culmen attingere posset” (Vincent de Paul, Correspon- versets à la fois; puis arrêtez-vous, pénétrez-vous-en, demandez-en l’intel- dance, entretiens, documents, 13:70; Deposition, given at Paris in 1628, for ligence à Dieu. Vous l’avez lue tant de fois, et il semble que cela n’a rien the beatification process of Francis de Sales, Article 26, nos. 4-5). produit; priez, et vous serez surpris de tout ce que vous trouverez dans les 74 Anthony R. Ceresko, OSFS, “St. Francis de Sales’s Spiritual Directory paroles de la sainte Ecriture. […] for a New Century: Re-interpreting the ‘Direction of Intention,’” in his La Bonne Mère aimait l’Evangile. Pendant les Retraites, elle relisait St. Francis de Sales and the Bible (Bangalore: SFS Publications, 2006), l’Evangile selon St. Jean. Elle trouvait là le bon Dieu, la lumière. […] ] 110-27, at 111-12 (originally published in Indian Journal of Spirituality 14 (Tilburg edition, 4:209-11). [2001]: 377-91) (hereafter Ceresko). 89 “Apportez à chaque âme avec qui vous êtes en rapport l’Evangile, l’Evangile 75 “Il y a des choses bien admirables, fondées sous la protection de S. Fr. de âme à âme et aussi l’Evangile mot à mot, à la suite de S. Paul, de S. Fr. de Sales. […] Dom Bosco fait de bien belles choses, car c’est un saint. Il n’a Sales, de la Bonne Mère. Vous verrez que le Directoire, que les applications pas le Directoire, il ne s’identifie pas avec S. Fr. de Sales. S. Fr. de Sales est du Directoire, c’est précisément l’ art efficace pour faire arriver l’Evangile le patron des Salésiens; ils se rapprochent de lui plus encore que les prêtres aux âmes. Prêchez l’Evangile avec le Directoire et par le Directoire. […] d’Annecy, mais ce n’est comme les Oblats” (Tilburg edition, 1:120). Présence de Dieu, direction d’intention, amour d’union et réunion de la 76 “Il y a plusieurs Congrégations dont S. Fr. de Sales est parrain et qui ont pris volonté à la Volonté de Dieu. […] Le Directoire n’est pas autre chose que son nom. Elles valent mieux que nous; […] le bon Dieu les bénit bien. Mais l’Evangile en acte. Il n’est pas une simple dévotion, une simple pratique S. Fr. de Sales n’est que leur parrain. Elles se sont mises sous sa protection; pieuse, c’est une vie entière et complète, entièrement et complètement elles désirent entrer dans son esprit; mais leur but spécial n’est pas le nôtre, chrétienne” (Tilburg edition, 7:124-25). reproduire aussi complètement que possible la vie intérieur et extérieure de 90 See Eric Jager, The Book of the Heart (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, S. Fr. de Sales. C’est un patronage plutôt que la continuation réelle de son 2000). œuvre et de sa vie. Je ne me rappelle plus qui demandait au P. de Mayer- 91 “reparer par sa Mort et Passion l’image et semblance de Dieu [Genesis 1:26-27] hoffen: ‘Que faites-vous pour vous dire O.S.F.S.? En quoi cherchez-vous à imprimée en nous” (Annecy edition, 10:273). l’imiter?’ […] Je crois que c’était un Grand-Vicaire d’Annecy […] ‘Nous 92 “avant toutes choses graver et inscrire sur votre cœur ce mot saint et sacré: pratiquons le Directoire que S. Fr. de Sales a pratiqué,’ lui répondit le Père, Vive Jésus! assuré que […] ce doux Jésus vivra dedans votre cœur, il vivra ‘et nous tâchons avec ce moyen-là de lui ressembler en tout.’ ‘Je comprends aussi en tous vos déportements” (Œuvres, 195). en effet,’ répondit le Vicaire-Général, ‘que vous arriviez ainsi à quelque 93 “[L]e Fils de Dieu, pour nous montrer exemple, est venu s’anéantir d’un chose de particulier. Vous continuez sa besogne’” (Tilburg edition, 3:10-11). anéantissement […]; car vous voyez ce Dieu de toute majesté, comme 77 “Le Directoire de S. Fr. de Sales pratiqué, non seulement par les religieux oubliant et anéantissant cette grandeur tant suprême et toute adorable, s’est mais par les prêtres, par tous. Et tout homme en ce monde peut le pratiquer. venu rendre un pauvre petit Enfant dans les flancs d’une de ses créatures. Il n’y a pas de vie si occupée, si distraite qu’on ne puisse y faire entrer la Or, mes chères Sœurs, j’aurais grand désir que nous imprimassions en nos pensée de Dieu, qu’on ne puisse reposer en Dieu” (Tilburg edition, 7:125). cœurs cette affection de nous anéantir, en tout ce en quoi Notre-Seigneur 78 Alexander T. Pocetto, OSFS, “The Spiritual Directory in the American s’est anéanti: je dis imprimer en nos cœurs, parce qu’une chose imprimée Oblate Tradition,” 3-4, unpublished paper available online at: www.desales. ne s’efface jamais. Il faut donc imprimer et graver en nos cœurs ce désir de edu/salesian-home/people/staff/senior-salesian-scholar. nous anéantir en tout […] à l’imitation de l’anéantissement du Fils de Dieu” 79 Spiritual Guide for Priests: The Spiritual Directory of St. Francis de Sales (Exhortation III. Pour le troisième samedi de l’Avent: “Sur les anéantisse- Adapted to the Use of Priests, by Rev. R. Pernin, OSFS (New York: Paulist ments du Verbe éternel en sa venue ici-bas”: Ste. Jeanne-Françoise Frémyot Press, 1918), 28. de Chantal, Sa vie et ses œuvres, 8 vols. [Paris: Plon, 1874-79], 2:167-68. 80 On this point, Ceresko (114) cites Roger Balducelli, OSFS, A Commentary 94 “reproduire aussi complètement que possible la vie intérieure et extérieure on the Directory of St. Francis de Sales (private printing), 66-67. de S. Fr. de Sales” (Tilburg edition, 3:10). 81 Beaudoin 1998, 193-94 and 194, note 5; Beaudoin 2008, 93 and 123, note 95 The Notebook of Chapters and Spiritual Direction Given by Father Celestin 5. Rollin, OSFS, in Rome, 1908-1910, as Recorded by Very Rev. Canon 82 Mère Marie de Bellaing, Abrégé de la vie et des vertus de notre trés-honorée J. Francis Tucker, OSFS, translated, edited, and analyzed by Lewis S. et vénérée Mère Marie de Sales Chappuis (Troyes, n.d.), quoted by Pocetto Fiorelli, OSFS (Wilmington, DE: DeSales Publishing, 1989), 39-40 2009, 330. (hereafter Notebook of Fr. Rollin), quoted here with modifications. 83 Webster’s New World Dictionary, Second College Edition (New York: World 96 For fuller treatment of this topic, see Joseph F. Chorpenning, OSFS, “Lectio Publishing Company, 1970). divina and Francis de Sales’s Picturing of the Interconnection of Human 84 “Il faut réimprimer l’Evangile. […] [Un] nouvel évangile? Non! C’est and Divine Hearts,” in Imago Exegetica, 449-77. toujours le même Evangile; il n’y en a qu’un” (Tilburg edition, 7:122). 97 “je destineray tous les jours certain tems pour [...] sacré sommeil, a ce que 85 A Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues Compiled by Randle Cotgrave, mon ame, a l’imitation du bienaymé Disciple, dorme en toute asseurance reproduced from the first edition, London, 1611, with an introduction by sur l’amiable poitrine, voire dans le cœur amoureux de l’amoureux Sauveur” William S. Woods (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1950, (Annecy edition 22:28). rpt. 1968). 98 Rachel Fulton, From Judgment to Passion: Devotion to Christ and the Virgin 86 “La Bonne Mère disait souvent qu’il fallait réimprimer l’Evangile. A cette Mary, 800-1200 (New York: Columbia University Press, 2002) 156. expression, mes amis, il faut donner un sens très étendu. Il faut réimprimer 99 The Roman Breviary: An Approved English Translation Complete in One l’Evangile dans notre cœur et dans le monde” (Tilburg edition, 4:209). Volume from the Official Text of the Breviarum Romanum Authorized by the 87 “Il faut faire ce qu’à dit la Bonne Mère Marie de Sales. Il faut réimprimer Holy See (New York: Benziger, 1964), 82. On the figure of John the Beloved l’Evangile. Imprimer un nouvel évangile? Non! C’est toujours le même Disciple, see Jeffrey Hamburger, St. John the Divine: The Deified Evangelist in Evangile; il n’y en a qu’un, mais il faut le présenter autrement à la multitude Medieval Art and Theology (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002). des âmes. Il faut amener N.S. lui-même, pour qu’il preside à cette entreprise.. 100 Donlan 2011, 137-41. Any discussion of Francis and creation is incomplete […] L’Evangile est pour tous, et il faut y amener les âmes une à une. […] without reference to Michel Tournade, OSFS, La nature dans l’œuvre de Vous les sauverez en réimprimant en leur cœur l’Evangile” (Tilburg edition, François de Sales (thèse de doctorat d’État en littérature française, Université 7:122-24). de Metz, 1987). Also see the important collection of papers presented at 88 “Pour réimprimer l’Evangile, il faut le connaître. Il est impossible à un the Journées Salésiennes 2018, whose theme was “Nature, création, écologie, imprimer ce qu’il ne connait pas. […] Il faut que vous sachiez l’Evangile. un regard salésien,” and published in Annales Salésiennes, nouvelle série no Notre Règle nous oblige à lire le Nouveau-Testament tous les jours, un 18 - 2ème semestre (2018). 24 ICSS NEWSLETTER

101 “[N]otre Bienheureux Père donnait un très libre et très facile accès à tous practice of lectio divina, see Karl A. Schultz, How to Pray with the Bible: The ceux qui désiraient communiquer avec lui. […] Il recevait chacun avec un Ancient Prayer Form of Lectio Divina Made Simple (Huntington, IN: Our visage égal et gracieux, sans en éconduire un seul, de quelque condition Sunday Visitor Publishing, 2007). qu’il fût; il écoutait tout le monde paisiblement et si [aussi] longtemps que 117 See Carlo Maria Martini, SJ, The Gospel Way of Mary: A Journey of Trust chacun voulait. Vous eussiez dit qu’il n’avait que cela à faire, tant il était and Surrender, trans. Marsha Daigle-Williamson (Frederick, MD: The patient et attentif; et chacun s’en retournait si content et satisfait, qu’en Word Among Us, 2011), 31-35. vérité l’on était bien aise d’avoir quelque affaire à lui communiquer, afin 118 Pope Francis, The Name of God Is Mercy: A Conversation with Andrea de jouir de l’extrême douceur et suavité qu’il répandait dans les cœurs de Tornielli, trans. Oonagh Stransky (New York: Random House, 2016), ceux qui lui parlaient, et qu’il attirait par ce moyen à un extrême confiance. 6, and Misericordiae vultus [The Face of Mercy], Bull of indiction of the […]” ( L’Âme de Saint François de Sales révélée par Sainte Jeanne-Françoise Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy (11 April 2015), n. 4 (hereafter The Face of de Chantal, 148-49 [Deposition, given at Annecy in 1627, for the beatifi- Mercy). cation process of Francis de Sales, Article 46]). 119 See Raniero Cantalamessa, OFMCap, The Gaze of Mercy: A Commentary 102 Matthew E. Bunson, “Pope of the Worker,” 1 Dec. 2007 at: https://www. on Divine and Human Mercy (Frederick, MD: The Word Among Us, 2015), catholic.com/magazine/print-edition/pope-of-the-worker (retrieved 28 10-22. Sept. 2018). 120 “l’œuvre de sanctification qu’il a commencée sur la terre” (draft of letter of 103 “[L]a pensée de la Bonne Mère était que les Oblats, créés en ce moment, Fr. Brisson to Fr. Perrot). […] ont un rôle à remplir dans cette grande question du travail et des 121 “un des fruits de l’opération des trois personnes de la Sainte Trinité” travailleurs. Ils doivent exercer une salutaire influence. […] Quelle action (Tilburg edition, 4:124). sera la leur? Dieu le sait. Mais nous savons aussi que, pour être en rapport 122 “ouvrir de nouvelles sources de grâces”(Chappuis Biography, 254). avec l’époque où nous vivons et pour servir de nos jours utilement la Ste. 123 “Le trésor de sa charité sera répandu sur la terre, et donné dans sa plénitude Eglise, il faut que nous ayons contact avec les travailleurs” (Tilburg edition, au monde” (Tilburg edition, 4:126). 5:268). 124 “Ces choses étaient bien élevées” (Tilburg edition, 4:124). 104 “Je désire que nous devenions savants à la manière de S. Fr. de Sales” (Tilburg ed., 7:246). 105 “Je vous puis dire avec verité qu’il n’y a pas grande difference entre l’igno- A Word of Appreciation rance et la malice; quoy l’ignorance soit plus a craindre, si vous consideres qu’elle n’offence pas seulement soy mesme, mais passe jusques au mespris I am profoundly grateful to the Oblate confreres and the de l’estat ecclesiastique. Pour cela, mes tres chers Freres, je vous conjure de colleagues working in the field of Salesian Studies who read and vaquer serieusement à l’estude, car la science, a un prestre, c’est le huitiesme commented on drafts of this paper at various stages of devel- Sacrament de la hierarchie de l’Eglise” (Annecy edition, 23:303). I thank opment. Their gracious support, encouragement, and suggestions Fr. Alexander T. Pocetto, OSFS, for this reference and its English trans- for more fully elaborating some points, occasionally including lation. additional material, and considering related topics with the 106 “[I]ls étaient à la hauteur; mais nous, le sommes-nous, à la hauteur? Si potential for elucidating key themes have been enormously nous obéissons bien à l’injonction que fait l’Evêque dans la monition du beneficial. Also greatly helpful has been feedback from presenta- Pontifical, de bien savoir ce que nous faisons et la manière dont nous le tions of the highlights of this research in several Oblate venues. faisons, nous n’aurons qu’à baisser la tête. Le grandeur du sacerdoce, sa As mentioned at the outset, a more concise version of this haute dignité, nous montre tout d’abord la distance immense qui existe deep dive into Bl. Louis Brisson’s œuvre in its ecclesial-pastoral entre la chose et la personne, entre la sublimité de la fonction et l’indignité context, together with an anthology of key thematic texts in du ministre. […] [Q]uand on comprend bien la distance qui existe entre English translation from his chapter conferences, retreats, sermons soi et les sublimes fonctions dont on s’occupe, on fait du bien aux âmes, en and biography of Mother Chappuis, will eventually appear in the obtient leur confiance, on leur donne Dieu” (Tilburg edition, 3:141, 143). volume on the 19th-century Salesian Pentecost in Paulist Press’s 107 See, e.g., José María Román, CM, St. Vincent de Paul: A Biography, trans. “Classics of Western Spirituality.” Sr. Joyce Howard (London: Melisende, 1999), 149-56. 108 James Cahalan, “St. Vincent and the Priesthood,” Colloque: Journal of the Irish Province of the Congregation of the Mission, No. 7 (Spring 1983): 51-58, at 53-55. The ICSS Newsletter was founded in 1997 and is published 109 “travaillant dans l’esprit de Saint François de Sales” (draft of letter of biannually by the International Commission for Salesian Fr. Brisson to Fr. Perrot); “nouvelles sources de graces” (Chappuis Studies (ICSS) of the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales (Joseph F. Biography, 254); “la charité divine […] sera répandu sur la terre, et donné Chorpenning, OSFS, Chair; Valdir Formentini, OSFS; Jean-Luc dans sa plénitude au monde” (Tilburg edition, 4:126). Leroux, OSFS; Herbert Winklehner, OSFS). Its primary purpose is 110 “ouvrir de nouvelles sources de grâces”(Chappuis Biography, 254); “[l]a creation de prêtres travaillant dans l’esprit de Saint François de Sales” to disseminate on a global scale information dealing with Salesian (draft of letter of Fr. Brission to Fr. Perrot). Studies (St. Francis de Sales; St. Jane Frances de Chantal; Bl. Louis 111 “S. Fr. de Sales était de son temps, mais il est encore bien plus du nôtre bien Brisson, founder of the De Sales Oblates and the Oblate Sisters of plus encore que du sien” (Tilburg edition, 2:152). St. Francis de Sales; the Vistation of Holy Mary, Lay Institutes and 112 “nous nous identifierons autant que faire se pourra avec sa personne” other Religious who are members of the Salesian Family). (Tilburg edition, 1:120). Editor: Joseph F. Chorpenning, OSFS (Saint Joseph’s University 113 “aussi complètement que possible la vie intérieure et extérieure de S. Fr. de Sales” (Tilburg edition, 3:10). Also see Tilburg edition, 1:197. Press, 5600 City Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19131-1395, USA; 114 “Il faut bien se pénétrer de la doctrine de S. Fr. de Sales” (Tilburg edition, e-mail: [email protected]). 2:152). News Editor: Alexander T. Pocetto, OSFS. News items for future 115 Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation / Dei Verbum (18 November issues should be sent to Fr. Pocetto via e-mail (alexander.pocetto@ 1965), n. 25. desales.edu), fax (610/282-2059), or by mail (DeSales University, 116 There is a sizeable bibliography on lectio divina. For a reliable guide to this vast field, see Raymond Studzinski, OSB,Reading to Live: The Evolving 2755 Station Avenue, Center Valley, PA 18034-9568, USA). Practice of Lectio Divina, Cistercian Studies Series No. 231 (Collegeville: Design and typesetting: Carol McLaughlin Cistercian Studies / Liturgical Press, 2009). For an accessible guide to the