jamesgray2

950J. Jeanne-Françoise Frémyot, de Chantal, Saint (1572-1641)

Vive Iesvs :petite covstvme de ce monastere de la Visitation saincte Marie d’Annessy .

A Paris : [éditeur non identifié],1642. Price $3,800

Octavo 16.5 x 10 Cm. Signatures: A-P⁸. Bound in contemporary full vellum, with two folding organizational plates bound at the end. This copy preserves a small but highly significant cluster of contemporary manuscript annotations, confined to a discrete sequence of pages (pp. 64–67) governing elections, inter-house requests, the comportment of Sisters sent on foundations, and the regulation of novices’ dress, rank, and discipline. These annotations are not devotional marginalia but administrative rubrics: brief headings, procedural clarifications, and enforcement cues designed to facilitate rapid consultation.

In the preface by Sister Jeanne-Françoise Frémiot writes:
“”These little Customs, my Sisters, will free our dear houses who desire them, from the difficulty they had in asking us questions about the little difficulties that happen to them, because, it is an admirable thing, to see the great affection that they have to conform in everything to this first Monastery and to preserve by this means the holy conformity between us”

The hand is consistent throughout and appears to be that of a Superior, Mistress of Novices, or convent secretary, using the Petite Coustume as a working governance manual. The notes clarify operational practice (“how elections are conducted,” “how Sisters are to comport themselves in travel,” “second communions,” “silence and good order”), and identify juridical limits where elections or requests carry—or do not carry—formal authority. Their placement corresponds exactly with the printed tables and procedural sections, indicating informed, sustained institutional use.

The volume concludes with two folding and tabular plates that are integral to the Petite Coustume’s purpose and use. Far from decorative, these plates function as operational diagrams, translating the text’s prescriptions into visual systems for governance: the registration of foundations, the regulation of movement within the cloister, and the allocation of communal labor. They give concrete form to practices that would otherwise remain abstract, showing how the customs of the Annecy motherhouse were meant to be replicated, scaled, and applied in individual Visitation houses.

Here is a very

https://www.franciscanmedia.org/saint-of-the-day/saint-jane-frances-de-chantal/

The Catholic Encyclopedia tells us that this is her masterpiece and that it is now unavailable . ( https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08282c.htm )

Saint Jane Frances de Chantal, born in Dijon, France in 1572, was the daughter of the president of the Parliament of Burgundy.  When she was twenty, she married Christophe, Baron de Chantal and they had four children.  Saint Jane Frances became a widow when Christophe was accidentally killed during hunting.  Heartbroken and longing for God, she deepened her spiritual life and took a vow of chastity.

In 1604, during Lent, she met the bishop Saint Francis de Sales, who became her spiritual director.  With his support, Saint Jane Frances formed the Congregation of the Visitation to serve poor people.  This religious order was rather unusual.  It accepted women who were rejected by other others due to age or poor health.  Criticized by some people because of this, she famously responded, “What do you want me to do? I like sick people myself; I’m on their side.”  Even after she died, her Congregation continued and became widespread. https://www.thebestcatholic.com/2016/08/12/saint-jane-frances-de-chantal/

There is so much more to this Woman than what the short biographies note, In the seventeenth century there were three major Biographies of her, ‘the most common (and most published) is La Vie de la vénérable mère Jeanne Françoise Frémiot by Maupas du Tour, Henri Couchon, In this collection there are two editions of this, The next is the most extensive and quite rare it is #603J below, and there is a biography by Pill 1650, which I haven’t seen.

Saint Jane Frances de Chantal’s Story

Jane Frances was wife, mother, nun, and founder of a religious community. Her mother died when she was 18 months old, and her father, head of parliament at Dijon, France, became the main influence on her education. Jane developed into a woman of beauty and refinement, lively and cheerful in temperament. At 21, she married Baron de Chantal, by whom she had six children, three of whom died in infancy. At her castle, she restored the custom of daily Mass, and was seriously engaged in various charitable works.

Jane Frances de Chantal’s husband was killed after seven years of marriage, and she sank into deep dejection for four months at her family home. Her father-in-law threatened to disinherit her children if she did not return to his home. He was then 75, vain, fierce, and extravagant. Jane Frances de Chantal managed to remain cheerful in spite of him and his insolent housekeeper.

When she was 32, Jane Frances de Chantal met Saint Francis de Sales who became her spiritual director, softening some of the severities imposed by her former director. She wanted to become a nun but he persuaded her to defer this decision. She took a vow to remain unmarried and to obey her director.

After three years, Francis told Jane of his plan to found an institute of women that would be a haven for those whose health, age, or other considerations barred them from entering the already established communities. There would be no cloister, and they would be free to undertake spiritual and corporal works of mercy. They were primarily intended to exemplify the virtues of Mary at the Visitation—hence their name the Visitation nuns—humility and meekness.

The usual opposition to women in active ministry arose and Francis de Sales was obliged to make it a cloistered community following the Rule of Saint Augustine. Francis wrote his famous Treatise on the Love of God for them. The congregation consisting of three women began when Jane Frances was 45. She underwent great sufferings: Francis de Sales died; her son was killed; a plague ravaged France; her daughter-in-law and son-in-law died. She encouraged the local authorities to make great efforts for the victims of the plague, and she put all her convent’s resources at the disposal of the sick.

During a part of her religious life, Jane Frances de Chantal had to undergo great trials of the spirit—interior anguish, darkness, and spiritual dryness. She died while on a visitation of convents of the community.

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Reflection

It may strike some as unusual that a saint should be subject to spiritual dryness, darkness, interior anguish. We tend to think that such things are the usual condition of “ordinary” sinful people. Some of our lack of spiritual liveliness may indeed be our fault. But the life of faith is still one that is lived in trust, and sometimes the darkness is so great that trust is pressed to its limit.

St. Jane Frances de Chantal

St. Jane Frances de Chantal was faithful to every role she played in life: wife, mother, citizen, and religious sister.

She was born in 1572 in France; her father was the president of the parliament of Burgundy. At her Confirmation, Jane took the name Frances, and she married an officer in the French military when she was 20. He had a large estate that had fallen into disrepair since his mother died; Jane immediately established regular order among the staff.

The couple had seven children, three of whom died soon after birth. After eight years of marriage, her husband was shot in the thigh during a hunting accident. He survived for nine days, enduring painful surgeries from an incompetent doctor. When he died, Jane was left a widow at the age of 28.

Jane was devastated and fell into depression for months until she was persuaded to carry on for the good of her children. She prayed that God would show her a holy guide who could help her discover what she was to do with the rest of her life. During one period of prayer, she had a vision of a man whom she did not know. Later, when she witnessed St. Francis de Sales preaching in her town, she recognized him as the man from her vision.

St. Francis would visit her father’s home frequently, and over the course of sharing meals with him and her family, Jane came to trust his wisdom. She turned to him for direction, and he encouraged her to attend to her responsibilities—to pursue holiness in her role as mother and a woman in the world.

She kept a strict schedule, dedicating much time to prayer and the care and education of her children, and she also visited sick people who lived in her neighborhood, sometimes staying up the whole night to sit with them as they lay dying.

When her children were teenagers, St. Francis encouraged Jane to establish a new religious community of sisters and helped her open a convent for the Sisters of the Visitation of Mary in 1610. St. Francis envisioned the order to be active in the world, serving others, and to be a place for women to go if they had not been accepted by other orders.

Humility was declared as a founding value for the new community, and won over people who doubted the new order or opposed its growth. Convents sprang up throughout France, 65 in all, and when she opened a convent in Paris, Jane came to know another great holy man, St. Vincent de Paul. (St. Jane is pictured with St. Vincent in this stained glass window from the chapel in Geddes Hall.) St. Vincent said that Jane was one of the holiest people he had ever met.

Jane experienced much grief and loss in her life. Nearly all of her children died before she did, and she grieved the death of her great friend and mentor, St. Francis de Sales. She was confronted with temptation and periods of dryness in prayer, and met many obstacles in her work. Through it all, she remained humble and faithful. “Destroy, cut, burn whatever opposes your holy will,” she prayed.

She died at the age of 69 and was buried next to St. Francis de Sales in the original convent they established. Her relics rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica, and she is pictured there in stained glass windows; one window shows her distributing bread to the poor.

St. Jane Frances de Chantal, you sought God even through depression and were led to serve others—pray for us!

Jamesgray2@me.com