Saint Jane Frances de Chantal lived in France in the 1500s. She married a baron, but when she arrived at her magnificent new home, she realized that they were facing financial ruin. She managed the estate with such care that they soon resolved their financial problems.
Saint Jane Frances de Chantal loved her husband very much. When he was away in battle or hunting, she would dress very plainly. When someone asked her why she did this, she said, “The eyes that I must please are a hundred miles away.”
She was widowed at the age of 28 with four children. Saint Jane Frances de Chantal had a very hard time forgiving the man who had accidentally shot her husband while hunting. But she worked at it little by little, and was able to forgive the man so completely that she became the godmother of one of his children.
In 1604, she met Saint Francis de Sales. They cultivated a friendship, and he became her spiritual director. Together, they founded the Visitation Order for women to live in a spirit "of profound humility toward God and of great gentleness toward the neighbor." She founded 86 monasteries in her lifetime.
Today the world seems to be telling us to “find” ourselves. Saint Jane Frances de Chantal believed in “losing” ourselves. She wrote that we should, “throw ourselves into God as a little drop of water into the sea, and lose ourselves in the Ocean of the divine goodness.”
Saint Jane Frances de Chantal is the patron saint of mothers, widows, and wives. We can emulate her by being drops of water in the sea of God’s goodness, and by forgiving others no matter how difficult.