12 August - Jeanne-Françoise Frémyot, Baroness of Chantal, born 23 January 1572 in Dijon, is a lady from Burgundy. Orphaned by her mother at the age of 18 months, her father Bénigne Frémyot, mortar president at the Parliament of Burgundy, gave her a solid education.
She married Christophe de Rabutin, Baron de Chantal. The couple, very united, had six children. In 1601, Christophe de Rabutin de Chantal died in a hunting accident. The young widow, after a period of mourning marked by resentment and despair, feeling called by God, sets out in search of a spiritual guide. In the meantime, she had sought refuge with her father-in-law, who was living in concubinage with one of his servants who treated the young widow rather badly. Jeanne underwent all his advances with patience and gentleness. She made a vow, although still young (29 years old), not to marry, and, after having established her children, she devoted herself entirely to works of charity.
In 1604, she met a prelate of the Duchy of Savoy, François de Sales, bishop of Geneva in residence in Annecy), who had come to Dijon to preach Lent: she opened herself to him and he agreed to become her spiritual director. In 1610, freed from her family obligations, she joined François de Sales in his diocese and under his spiritual direction founded a new congregation, the Order of the Visitation in the ancient residence of the Gallery, owned by François Viollon de la Pesse, in the Duchy of Savoy. In 1615, a first convent was founded in France, in Lyon, followed by the foundation of the convent of Moulins the following year. From 1618, the order became a cloistered order by decision of Pope Urban VIII and with the consent of François de Sales.
After the death of François de Sales in 1622, she was alone in charge of the 13 monasteries of the order and continued the work of its "director", whose canonisation she hastened. She then sought advice from Saint Vincent de Paul. During the 19 years that followed, she founded 74 other convents, often facing opposition from parliaments and families.
In 1638, the Order of the Visitation crossed the Alps and a convent was opened in Turin, capital of the Duchy of Savoy, under the aegis of the regent Christine, sister of Louis XIII. Soon Lyon had three Visitations, Paris two. Requests flowed in from other countries. "We are multiplying too much, I keep saying it, but people don't believe me. That this multitude of houses that we have no means of supporting, both spiritually and temporally, causes me great sorrow," complained the foundress.
Jeanne de Chantal died in 1641, at the age of 69, a few days after her return from a tiring trip in a litter from Moulins to Saint-Germain-en-Laye, where she had been called to speak with the Queen of France Anne of Austria. Jeanne-Françoise Frémyot de Chantal was beatified in 1751 by Benedict XIV and canonised by Clement XIII on 16 July 1767.
The Order of the Visitation, dedicated first to visiting and caring for the sick and then to contemplation, included 87 monasteries throughout Europe when its foundress died in 1641, after thirty-one years of existence. Today, it groups together 3,500 Visandine nuns in 135 convents throughout the world.
