Celebrate Saint Jane de Chantal

Join us in celebrating one of our patrons, Saint Jane de Chantal!

Feast Day: August 12th

Saint Jane, a widowed mother of four adult children, co-founded the Sisters of the Visitation of Holy Mary with Saint Francis de Sales after the two developed a close spiritual friendship. By the time of her death, over 80 Visitation monasteries had been established. The Visitation Sisters are largely responsible for the existence of the Oblates. It was a Visitation Sister, Mother Marie de Sales Chappuis, who strongly urged and supported Blessed Louis Brisson in founding the Oblates. Just as Saints Jane de Chantal and Francis de Sales worked closely together, the Oblates and Visitation Sisters continue the tradition with close collaboration.

Father Jack Kolodziej, OSFS

Mr. Jonathan Dick, OSFS

Father Don Heet, OSFS

Oblates share their favorite Saint Jane quotes and stories

• Father Paul Colloton, OSFS

  • “In prayer, more is accomplished by listening than by talking.”  

  • “With God, there is no need for long speeches.”

• Brother Mickey McGrath, OSFS

  • The peak of perfection lies in our wanting to be what God wishes us to be.”

• Father Kevin Nadolski, OSFS

  • “If we wish to possess the virtue of neighborly love, we must accustom ourselves to accept people just as they are, regardless of their failings and actions.” 

• Father Patrick O’Connor, OSFS

  • “In prayer, one must hold fast and never let go, because the one who gives up, loses all. If it seems that no one is listening to you, then cry out even louder. If you are driven out of one door, go back in by the other.”

  • “Follow your own way of speaking to our Lord, sincerely, lovingly, confidently, and simply, as your heart dictates.”

  • “Hold your eyes on God and leave the doing to Him. That is all the doing you have to worry about.”

• Father Michael Vannicola, OSFS

  • When Jane de Chantal was a Baroness, she had the responsibility of feeding the poor who would come to the gate of her home and line up to receive their meal. Those assisting her brought to her attention that some were getting back in line for another serving, acting as if they had received nothing in the first place. When her assistants asked what they should do, Saint Jane said that she had gone to the gate of Heaven over and over again asking for God’s mercy and it was never refused her no matter how many times she came back. In the same way, everyone who came to her gate was to be fed as many times as they presented themselves. There is no better sign of a Christian than one who recognizes God’s love and mercy in his or her own life and seeks to imitate the Lord by sharing that same love and mercy with others.

Victory Over the Self

Self-love, with its subtle finesse, is ever persuading us that if we have no hand in it, all will not go well. 

Saint Jane de Chantal

Are you giving your whole being to God and surrendering yourself to his care? 

Stay that way and replace all your self-scrutiny with a pure and simple glance at his goodness. In that glance, let all your fears and introspections die. Stop being so hard on yourself, forever in despair over all your problems, wallowing in your misery and choosing to make yourself a martyr. 

Some people can be greatly afflicted when they have committed any fault; feeling like they could never change nor help falling again, so that when they speak about it, they shed many tears. Consider such tears as coming from self-love; and all our childishness and nonsense and all our surprise and disappointment at seeing ourselves as imperfect, only come from our forgetting the maxim of the saints: "We must begin again every day." 

The best and the greatest practice of patience which you can possibly make in the spiritual life is to bear with yourself in your weaknesses and powerlessness of will to do what is right, in which your poor soul finds itself at times. 

Saint Jane de Chantal