Jane Frances de Chantal

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Jane Frances de Chantal
Foundress
Born January 28, 1572(1572-01-28), Dijon, Burgundy, France
Died December 13, 1641 (aged 69), Moulins, France
Beatified November 21, 1751 by Pope Benedict XIV
Canonized July 16, 1767 by Pope Clement XIII
Major shrine Annecy, Savoy
Feast 12 August
Patronage forgotten people; in-law problems; loss of parents; parents separated from children; widows
Saints Portal

Jane Frances de Chantal (Jeanne-Françoise Frémiot, baronne de Chantal, January 28, 1572 – December 13, 1641) was born in Dijon, France. The mother of six children (three died shortly after they were born), she was widowed at the age of 28. She met Saint Francis de Sales when he preached at the Sainte Chapelle in Dijon and was inspired to start a Catholic religious order for women, the Congregation of the Visitation.

She died at the Visitation Convent in Moulins, one of those she founded, and was buried in Annecy.

[edit] Veneration

Francis de Sales meets Jane Frances de Chantal, cutout from a window in the cathedral of Annecy
Francis de Sales meets Jane Frances de Chantal, cutout from a window in the cathedral of Annecy

She was beatified on November 21, 1751 by Pope Benedict XIV, and canonized on July 16, 1767 by Pope Clement XIII.

Her liturgical celebration is on 12 August. Previously it was on 12 December, but was transferred by decree 2492/01/L of 18 December 2001 of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, because her optional memorial on 12 December was becoming impeded upon in a large part of the world by the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, whom Pope John Paul II's declared Patroness of the Americas on 25 March 1999. In the United States, her optional memorial has been transferred to 18 August.

Saint Jane Frances de Chantal was the paternal grandmother of the French letter-writer Madame de Sévigné.

[edit] External links

This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913.