CHANTAL, Jeanne Françoise Frémyot de, Saint. - B. at Dijon on 23 Jan. 1572, d. at Moulins on 13 Dec. 1641. Of noble birth, she married the baron de Chantal in Dec. 1592; she was left a widow with four children in 1601. A woman of great piety in her life as a young girl and as a wife, after her husband's death she set out on the path of perfection: her intentions, however, did not correspond to an easy realization. A restless and sensitive soul, she had a director of conscience who increased her scruples with complicated religious practices.
Only after she met St. Francis de Sales at Dijon (March 1604) and after she chose him as her spiritual director (Aug. 1604) did the essence of true Christian freedom, rich in gentleness and forbearance, become clear to her. St. Francis de Sales also instructed her in the most profitable method of prayer: no longer at fixed hours (and often the most inconvenient ones in the economy of a family), but at every moment of the day with cheerfulness and simplicity of heart. With the Salesian methodology G. F. was able to overcome the gap that divided her sublime aspirations from the daily difficulties of the spirit. She remained too preoccupied with obtaining interior consolation, but St. Francis de Sales instilled in her the rule that in the interior life, even a perfect one, one must not aim at consolation.
In 1610 she decided to leave the world and founded with Francis de Sales the Visitation (at Annecy in June 1610). The Order, modeled on the gentle and humble Salesian spirituality (had not St. Francis de Sales emphasized that «la charité est une humilité montante et l'humilité une charité descendante»?), had arisen initially as a contemplative Order but at the same time one of help to the poor. But the opposition of the archbishop of Lyon, who wanted the sisters to live always in the cloister and not to visit the poor, caused the Order to return to essentially contemplative foundations. The constitutions were approved by the Holy See in 1626. Only later did the Visitation devote itself to the education of young girls.
The closeness of G. F. to Francis de Sales has been, in the history of the Church, one of the highest examples of holy Christian fraternity. It was not only the Saint who inspired G. F.; she too knew how to enlighten the Saint on the path of the search for God: it is G. F. who opens the secret treasure of the mystical life to the Saint, or at least who helps to remove his suspicions toward mystical illuminations. Not a little did the Saint owe, in the beginning of the composition of the Traité de l'Amour de Dieu, to the mystical experiences of G. F.
The Saint survived her spiritual director by many years, governing her Institute with great ability. She was beatified by Benedict XIV on 13 Nov. 1751 and canonized by Clement XIII on 16 July 1767. Feast on 21 Aug.
Bibliography8 works
Massimo Petrocchi