ANNOSTERO DELLA VISITAZIONE. — The saints Francis de Sales and Jane Frances de Chantal founded the Order of the Visitation (v.) there on 6 June 1610 in the little chapel of the “Galleria.” St. Francis de Sales consecrated the church in 1618; five years later his mortal remains were deposited there. The numerous miracles worked at his tomb and at that of the saint of Chantal drew ever more pilgrims, so that it became necessary to build a larger church, completed in 1648.
Sold by the revolutionaries, the sanctuary was redeemed and restored at the end of the nineteenth century. The relics of the founding saints were transferred, in 1911, to the new convent built opposite the lake.
BIBL.: R. Souarn, Visitation de s.le Marie, Paris 1923, passim; A. Gavard, s. V. in DHG, III, cols. 365. Romualdo Souarn