January 24 | Saint Francis de Sales

Welcome, young history buffs and curious minds, to My Daily Saint, the podcast that digs deep into the incredible lives of the saints, those remarkable people who shaped history and continue to inspire us today. Forget dusty old portraits and boring stories. Today, we have to go back to the Holy Roman Empire in 1567.

Picture a chaotic house. Francis wasn't just a big brother. He was the oldest of 13 children. His father was a lawyer, and like a lot of parents, he had a very specific plan for his oldest son. He looked at Francis and saw another lawyer. The path was set. Francis was sent away to Padua to study law and theology. He was checking all the boxes. He was doing exactly what he was destined to do. Now, time for the plot twist. While he was away studying, something shifted in Francis' heart.

He felt a pull, not toward the courtroom, but toward the altar. A call to the priesthood. Now, Francis had to go home and tell his father that he wasn't going to be a lawyer. He was going to be a priest. His father was extremely opposed at first. That's probably putting it mildly. There was conflict. There was disappointment. But here is the first fascinating thing about Francis. He didn't scream, and he didn't rebel in anger. He showed patience. He waited. He stayed calm.

And eventually… His father accepted his son's calling. Francis became a priest and was eventually named the bishop of the Diocese of Geneva. However, Geneva was a very Calvinistic area, and Catholic beliefs were strongly rejected. But Francis didn't go in there with a sword. He went in with a pen. Because he was in a place where people wouldn't always listen to a sermon, Francis became famous for his writing. He wrote two books and numerous pamphlets and letters. He realized that if he couldn't speak to people face to face, he would write to them.

This strategy worked beautifully. Through his writing and his calm and joyful spirit, he attracted and converted between 40,000 and 70,000 people. Because of this incredible use of communication, the church named him the patron saint of journalists. He is also the patron saint of adult education, the deaf, and many cities, including Cincinnati and Columbus, Ohio. But why did so many people listen to him? What was he saying that was so revolutionary?

At the time, many people thought that if you wanted to be a saint, if you wanted to be truly close to God, you had to run away to a desert or join a monastery. You had to escape the world.

Francis de Sales disagreed. He spent his life reminding people that saints are not just those who entered religious life. He wrote specifically to lay people, regular people with jobs and families, encouraging them to live a life worthy of sainthood. Listen to this quote from St. Francis.

It is an error, or rather a heresy, to say devotion is incompatible with the life of a soldier, a tradesman, a prince, or a married woman. It has happened that many have lost perfection in the desert who had preserved it in the world. That is a mic drop moment for the 17th century. He was saying you can be a soldier, a shopkeeper, or today, a student, an athlete, a gamer, and still be holy.

He lived this out until the very end. He helped Saint Jane Frances de Chantal start a religious order for women called the Sisters of the Visitation. They were dedicated to humility, piety, and mutual charity. And that order still functions today, educating children and devoting themselves to prayer. Frances died at the age of 55 in Lyons, France at a convent he helped found, and was canonized a saint only 30 years later.

Remember the story about his dad? This week, you're going to hit a moment of friction with someone at work, school, or in your own family. Your instinct will be to snap back or to shut down. In that moment, try to channel Francis' calm and joyful spirit. Do not argue. Be patient. Francis proved that you can win people over, even 70,000 of them. Thank you for joining us on My Daily Saint. We look forward to sharing another incredible story of faith and courage with you tomorrow.