Widow girl. Decent guy. Friends.
- blessed woman of God
- Aug 5, 2018
- 1 min read
Jean de Chantal was born in Dijon, France.
As an adult, Jean de Chantal married. She and her husband had four children. Her husband was accidentally shot and killed in a hunting accident. She was unforgiving about this until at the Sainte Chapelle in Dijon, she heard Saint Francis de Sales speak of the love of God.
Chantal moved to Annecy.
Jean de Chantal and Francis de Sales together founded the Congregation of the Visitation on Trinity Sunday, 6 June 1610. The order accepted women who were rejected by other orders because of poor health or age.
In the beginning, the Visitation women reached out in active ministry to the public instead of being cloistered. There was opposition until they were forced to be a cloistered community.
The order was well-managed and highly respected. It had 13 houses by the time de Sales died, and 86 before Chantal herself died at the Visitation Convent in Moulins, aged 69.
Jean de Chantal was buried in the Annecy convent next to Francis de Sales.
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