CHAPPUIS, MARIE DE SALES, venerable. - Foundress and mystic, b. 16 June 1793 at Soghières (Swiss Jura, then annexed to France), d. 7 Oct. 1875 at Troyes. She studied at the monastery of the Visitation of Friburgo and entered it as a nun in 1815. Sent as superior to Troyes in Champagne in 1826, she was re-elected there whenever the rule permitted; she also governed the second monastery of Parigi (1838–44); however, she exercised great influence over other houses of the Visitation as well.
She was much consulted by priests, bishops, and other influential persons. Very early she felt called to extend the influence of the Salesian spirit, especially through the establishment of a congregation of priests, but its realization was long delayed. In 1869, together with the bishop of Ginevra, mons. Mermillod, she founded the Congregation of the Oblates of S. Francesco di Sales (to engage in social works, which enclosure forbade to the Visitation). Finally, in 1871, she induced the confessor of the Visitation of Troyes, Fr. Luigi Brisson, to found the Oblates of S. Francesco di Sales, approved by Rome in 1875. She died in the same year; her cause of beatification was introduced in 1897. She left no printed works; her spiritual doctrine is known from her letters and spiritual conferences collected by her religious; it was vigorously attacked, for example, by Fr. Enrico Watrigant, as akin to Quietism.