Every Day with Saint Francis de Sales - February

[Hildegard of Bingen]

Every Day with Saint Francis de Sales

Teachings and Examples from the Life of the Saint by Salesiana Publishers


February 16th (page 47)

     Let us try sincerely, humbly and devoutly to acquire those little virtues our Savior has proposed as the goal of our care and labor. These are meekness, patience, mortification, humility, obedience, poverty, chastity, tenderness towards our neighbor, bearing with others’ imperfections, diligence and holy fervor. Let us gladly leave the lofty virtues to lofty souls; we do not desire so high a rank in God’s service, and we should be more than happy to serve Him in His kitchen or to be His lackeys, porters or chamberlains. While blessing God for the eminence of others, let us keep to our lower but simpler way. It is less distinguished but better suited to our littleness. If we conduct ourselves with humility and good faith, God will raise us up to heights that are surely great.

(INT. Part III, Ch. 2; O. III, p. 132)

     In 1606, Francis de Sales preached the Lenten sermons in the city of Chambery with great success. The bishop of Grenoble, the diocese in which he was working at that time, willingly gave him full faculties so that the saint was kept very busy preaching, teaching, catechism, administering confirmation and conferring Holy Orders. Besides this he visited the prison to help and console the prisoners. In the hospitals he prepared the sick for a happy death or helped them to turn their sickness into an occasion of merit. He also settled many disputes. One trouble -maker criticized all that the saint did, telling him that he was doing as much work at Chambery as at Annecy. Did he perhaps pretend to be the bishop of Grenoble? The saint laughingly replied, “You are making a gratuitous assumption, but, in any case, the diocese of Grenoble is, just as is mine, a small portion of the inheritance of Jesus Christ, Who is the one and only supreme Father in the whole family.”

(A.S. II, p. 405)


The care of souls is as a burden of sweet cinnamon, which by its
Invigorating scent revives those who bear it.