Poor Johnny Learned to Read and Became Saint John Bosco.

Today, January 31 is feast day of Saint John Bosco, patron saint of
Apprentices: He negotiated new rights for apprentices, including protections from abuses. Catholic publishers, Educators: He was a pioneer in educating the poor. Magicians, Students: He was a pioneer in educating the poor and the Youth.

Saint John Melchior Bosco, was a n Italian Catholic priest, educator and writer. His theory of education could well be said was ahead of his time or that the modern education system lost its way. His was a preventive system, rejecting corporal punishment and placing students in surroundings removed from the likelihood of committing sin. He advocated frequent reception of the sacraments of Penance and Holy Communion. He combined catechetical training and fatherly guidance, seeking to unite the spiritual life with one’s work, study and play.

Occam’s Razor suggests the education system lost its way. Just today, representative Thomas Massie introduced Bill H.R. 899 to terminate the US Department of Education. More on that later.

A follower of the spirituality and philosophy of Francis de Sales, Bosco was an ardent devotee of the Virgin Mary under the title Mary Help of Christians. He later dedicated his works to de Sales when he founded the Salesians of Don Bosco, based in Turin. Together with Maria Domenica Mazzarello, he founded the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, now commonly known as the Salesian Sisters of Don Bosco, a religious congregation of nuns dedicated to the care and education of poor girls. He taught Dominic Savio, of whom he wrote a biography that helped the young boy be canonized. He is one of the pioneers of mutual aid societies that were initiated as collaborative financial support to young migrant Catholic workers in the city of Turin. In 1850, he drew up regulations to assist apprentices and their companions when any of them was involuntarily without work or fell ill.


While working in Turin, where the population suffered many of the ill effects of industrialization and urbanization, he dedicated his life to the betterment and education of street children, juvenile delinquents, and other disadvantaged youth. He developed teaching methods based on love rather than punishment, a method that became known as the Salesian Preventive System.

John was little more than two years old, when his father died, leaving the support of three boys to his mother. She played a strong role in John's formation and personality, and was an early supporter of her son's ideals. In 1825, when he was nine, John had the first of a series of dreams that would play an influential role in his outlook and work. This first dream "left a profound impression on him for the rest of his life" according to his memoirs. John saw a multitude of very poor boys playing and blaspheming, and a man, who "appeared, nobly attired, with a manly and imposing bearing", and said to him, "You will have to win these friends of yours not with blows, but with gentleness and kindness. So begin right now to show them that sin is ugly and virtue beautiful."

Poverty prevented any serious attempt at schooling. His early years were spent as a shepherd, and he received his first instruction from Don Calosso who "was impressed by John’s memory and understanding of the sermons he had heard at a parish mission in a nearby Church." His childhood experiences are thought to have inspired him to become a priest. Being a priest was then more commonly a profession for the privileged classes than for farmers.


In 1830, he met Joseph Cafasso, a young priest who identified some natural talent and supported his first schooling. John's mother, Margherita, managed to earn enough money to finance his education. In 1835, Bosco entered the seminary at Chieri, next to the Church of the Immacolata Concezione. In 1841, after six years of study, he was ordained a priest on the eve of Trinity Sunday by Archbishop Franzoni of Turin. He was twenty-six years old.

His service to young people started when he met a poor orphan in Turin, and instructed him in preparation for receiving Holy Communion. He then gathered young apprentices and taught them catechism.

After serving as chaplain in a hospice for working girls, Don Bosco opened the Oratory of St. Francis de Sales for boys. Several wealthy and powerful patrons contributed money, enabling him to provide two workshops for the boys, shoemaking and tailoring

By 1856, the institution had grown to 150 boys and had added a printing press for publication of religious and catechetical pamphlets. John’s preaching fame spread and by 1850 he had trained his own helpers because of difficulties in retaining young priests. In 1854, he and his followers informally banded together, inspired by Saint Francis de Sales.

With Pope Pius IX’s encouragement, John gathered 17 men and founded the Salesians in 1859. Their activity concentrated on education and mission work. Later, he organized a group of Salesian Sisters to assist girls.

Fast forward to 2025 America.  Students can't read at grade level in Illinois schools.

More than 20% of students in fifth through seventh-grade trip over words they don’t recognize and can’t sound out.

Students are too stupid to figure out which courses to take to enroll in the CUS/CSUS

California experts can't agree on how much math is required for admissions  to the CA US

Nearly 10 million jobs across America are still vacant because of society's 'harebrained' decisions and college push.  AND the most on-demand jobs of the next decade don't require a college degree

Going Forward Backwards

The death of Martin Luther King Jr.  cleared the way for the uber progressive Warren Court's Decision (1963) -  the Court found that teaching children about wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety,  fear of the Lord., charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control and  chastity was too radical, and all hell broke lose.  A decade later Roe v. Wade entered the picture.

Using analysis tools like the Ishikawa Cause-Effect Diagram, the Pareto Rule, Security Professionals' Attack Tree and or Occam's Razor, they all suggest that after the u

Warren SCOTUS  (1963) decision, we have had a mental health crisis. Infanticide turned into Black Genocide. African American nuclear family has joined the Sea Turtles in the extinct list. 80% of AA kids are raised in fatherless homes. AIDS epidemic. Opiod crisis, We have a fatherlesssness crisis, A Girlhood Crisis, A Trans Crisis, Obesity crisis.

Prayer to Saint John Bosco

• "Saint John Bosco, pray for us! Friend of the young, Teacher in the ways of God, Your dedication to empowering the needy inspires us still". 
"Saint John Bosco, father and teacher of the young, in need of special help, I appeal with confidence to you". 
"Saint John Bosco, I need your help, I need your prayers, I need your intercession to God for His grace to help me with...". 
"Saint John Bosco, Shepherd of the young and Beacon of Hope for the innocent, we beseech you to envelop them with your protective embrace". 

Intentions in a prayer to Saint John Bosco

To work for a better world where the young can flourish 
To see Christ in all people and build them up as a loving minister of God's compassionate heart 
To obtain spiritual and temporal graces 
To accept the Will of God and trust in Him 

A New Low For The WSJ

The Wall Street Journal calls President Trump's decision to remove the security clearance from rabid AntiTrump Bolton and Pompeo a new low. 

A new low by the Wall Street Journal  - to those who didn't believe me: I told you so!

While CNN/NYT, Legacy Media and AllSidesMedia say Fox News and Wall Street Journal are right wing media, a label they embrace for commercial purposes, make no mistake.  Fox News and WSJ 
are not right wing media & have never been

Recall that as soon as Rupert Murdoch predicted a Biden landslide win, Paul Ryan ordered Fox Corp's staff to make a sharp left turn to stop Trump

Wallace, Cavuto, Baer and Hume came out of the closet as AntiTrump

Buck & Aikman as ProBLM

Even Carlson found ZERO evidence of voter fraud

Hannity urged Trump to pardon Hunter

Ingraham urged Trump to quit; now she's tired of Trump

Paul Ryan to switch parties if Trump is nominated. 

NYT/MSM Coverage Prism: Orange Man Bad, Jews Bad, Christianity Bad

The NYT is obsessed with President Trump. Name the subject, from entertainment, science, physics, space, nature, war, peace, literature, religion and so on.Name the NYT's Section World. U.S., Politics, N.Y., Business, Opinion, Tech, Science. The NYT will find a way to insert a derogatory statement intended to demean the president. 

But it's not just the NYT but the mainstream media, including Maclatchy Media, 

The Sacramento Bee's 'reports' on fear undocumented individuals face, due to Trump’s policies. Forget undocumented fear. The average Californian should be fearful of his government! 

The question is why would California politicians create such an environment? Forget the fires, enabled by the Inequity of the Pursuit of equity over public welfare: 1. California is No.1 in Child Trafficking 

2. California is No.1 in fentanyl consumption 

3. California is No.1 in Homelessness Where “homeless” is misleading. The vast majority of those on the streets are there due to severe drug addiction and/or mental illness. The issue not that they got a little behind in their mortgage payments and would be back on their feet if someone just offered them a job 

4. California is No.1 in poverty 

5. California is No.1 I'm the manufacture of Extended Release Culture Pills 

6. California is racing to the bottom of ERCP addiction faster than the high speed rail system rapidly going nowhere 

7. California is No. 1 in abortions Blaming science is anthropomorphic. 

As to the Califirnia fires:

Occam’s Razor tells us that the impact of the California fires is gross incompetence, including the injustice of the pursuit of equity; 

Why wouldn't they deploy available assets to Palisades? It's like a pyromaniac saying 'Let it burn, baby' 

Why would @GavinNewsom ordered the removal of @elonmuskfrom the command post, and ordered the Cal Fire firefighters to return all donated startlinks.? 

Why would they empty the reservoir before the fires? 

Why would they seed clouds, then blame fires on climate change? Why would they not repair fire trucks? Why would they paint rainbows in empty fire hydrants? 

Clearly that is a journalistic aberration. Are best is yellow journalism, designed to monetize hate and division. And at worse, it is red journalism. It's sabotage. 

Recall The NYT reported Biden was in top shape 

The NYT Said the economy was booming 

Then the NYT leads a coup, sends Joe out to pasture & picks a candidate who got 1% of primary vote in 2020, zero in 2024 - to defend Democracy! 

Said Kamala would fix the economy: On election day, the NYT guaranteed a Harris win. 

Billionaires & Celebrities believed the NYT. More Billionaires, celebs included, endorsed Harris than Trump. 

They invested $2 billion on a vacuous candidate expecting a huuuge return on their investment. That's twice as much as was spent by the Trump campaign. But they lost the election, and all they got was a Taylor Swift shirt 

The results showed every race, color, creed, and gender repudiated Kamala Harris’ failed platitudes-based campaign strategy which the NYT/MSM not only endorsed but promoted. 

The good news? Youth Support for Democrats was the lowest in a Century- they don't trust NYT/MSM

 “The youth of a nation”, said Disraeli – Britain’s first, and so far only, Jewish Prime Minister – “are the trustees of posterity”. The future promise of any nation can be directly measured by the present prospects of its youth. This Nation facing increasingly complex economic, social and international challenges–is increasingly dependent on the opportunities, capabilities and vitality of those who are soon to bear its chief responsibilities. Such attributes as energy, a readiness to question, imagination and creativity are all attributes of youth that are also essential to our total national character. To the extent that the Nation is called upon to promote and protect the interests of our younger citizens, it is an investment certain to bring a high return, not only in basic human values but in social and economic terms. A few basic statistics will indicate the nature and proportion of our need to make this investment” – American youth decided to take matters in their own hands.

AntiChristian 'reporting'

The AntiChristian, AntiSemitic NYT's using the   "eloquent expression of basic Christian theology, expressed in an extraordinarily public forum "  to indict President Trump is like

Hitler "eloquently using the super race" argument against the Jews.

The NYT and the Bishop are outside the Tao:  From within the Tao itself comes the only authority to modify the Tao. - CS Lewis

With those who follow a different Way it is useless to take counsel - Confucius 

Only those who have been well brought up can usefully study ethics: to the corrupted man, the man who stands outside the Tao, the very starting point of this science is invisible. He may be hostile, but he cannot be critical: he does not know what is being discussed. - Aristotle

Saint Angela Merici, Teen Orphan, Founder of 1st secular institute, author of the Rule

January 27 marks the feast day of Saint Angela Merici, Teen Orphan,
Founder of 1st secular institute, founder of the first teaching order of women in the Church and author of the Rule. prescribing the practices of chastity, poverty and obedience. She is patron saint of educators and teachers. of the sick, disabled, physically challenged, and those who are grieving the loss of parents.

• Established the Order of Ursulines in 1535 

• The first woman to create a Rule of life for women who wanted to live a religious life outside of a convent 

• Believed that Christian education was essential for girls and young women 

• Her vision was to elevate family life through education 

Angela was born in 1474 on a farm near Desenzano del Garda, a small town on the southwestern shore of Lake Garda in Lombardy, Italy. She and her older sister, Giana Maria, were left orphans when she was ten years old. They went to live with their uncle in the town of Salò. Young Angela was very distressed when her sister suddenly died without receiving the last rites of the church and prayed that her sister's soul rest in peace. It is said that in a vision she received a response that her sister was in heaven in the company of the saints. She joined the Third Order of St. Francis around that time. People began to notice Angela's beauty and particularly to admire her hair. As she had promised herself to God, and wanted to avoid the worldly attention, she dyed her hair with soot.

Angela's uncle died when she was twenty years old and she returned to her home in Desenzano, and lived with her brothers, on her own property, given to her in lieu of the dowry that would otherwise have been hers had she married. She later had another vision that revealed to her that she was to staet an association of virgins who were to devote their lives to the religious training of young girls. This association was a success and she was invited to start another school in the neighboring city of Brescia.

Angela was invited to become a live-in companion for a widow in the nearby town of Brescia. There she became the spiritual advisor of a group of men and women with ideals of spiritual renewal and service to those in need. While on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1524, Angela was struck with blindness. She proceeded to visit the sacred shrines, seeing them with her spirit. On the way back while praying before a crucifix, Angela’s sight was restored

On 25 November 1535, Angela gathered with 12 young women who had joined in her work in a small house in Brescia near the Church of Saint Afra, where together they committed themselves in the founding of the Company of St. Ursula, placed under the protection of the patroness of medieval universities. Her goal was to elevate family life through the Christian education of future wives and mothers. They were the first teaching order of women religious.

Four years later the group had grown to 28. Merici taught her companions to serve God, but to remain in the world, teaching the girls of their own neighborhood, and to practice a religious form of life in their own homes. The members wore no special habit and took no formal religious vows. Merici wrote a Rule of Life for the group, which specified the practice of celibacy, poverty and obedience in their own homes. The Ursulines opened orphanages and schools. On 18 March 1537, she was elected "Mother and Mistress" of the group. The Rule she had written,prescribing the practices of chastity, poverty and obedience, was approved in 1544 by Pope Paul III.


Angela Merici died in Brescia, Italy, in 1540. Clothed in the habit of a Franciscan tertiary, her body was interred in Brescia’s Church of Saint’ Afra. 

In the early 1600s, Companies that had expanded into France were re-organized into the religious Order of St. Ursula, to teach girls. Angela’s words continue to inspire the Ursuline nuns’ mission of education, a mission that spread worldwide. The Company of St. Ursula also continued to exist and is federated worldwide today with members in 30 countries. Angela Merici was canonized by Pope Pius VII in 1807.

Saint Angela's  Rule

It is directed to the members of the “ Company of St. Ursula” It indicates the way to become what we are called to be “ true and intact spouses of the Son of God” In the prologue a syntheses of our call is expressed: to be together serving the Lord. Jesus Christ is the absolute reference; he is the all of life. Perfection becomes union with Christ.

In this key virginity is presented as an exclusive love for Christ, a love which sustains and manifests itself in poverty and obedience. Angela emphasizes several times that the origin of the call is in the invitation of Jesus, in the mystery of His ineffable love. The core of this call we find it in a constant reference to the Word of God and in particular to the Gospel with which Angela sustained herself continuously.

Prayer to Saint Angela

Let us pray. O God, Who by means of our blessed Mother Saint Angela didst cause a new Order of holy virgins to flourish in Thy Church: grant, through her intercession, that we may imitate her angelic virtues, and, forsaking all earthly things, may be found worthy of eternal bliss. Through Jesus Christ Our Lord.
R. Amen.

Prayer Source: Kyrie Eleison — Two Hundred Litanies by Benjamin Francis Musser O.F.M., The Magnificat Press, 1944

Vote NO on City of Camas proposition No. 5

Update: February 11, 2

Correcting the Columbian's headline:  Camas Voters Did Not Reject the Utility Tax to Fund the Police.  They Rejected it to stop the City's Fiscal Mismangement.

And the rejection was not even close:  60-40.

Given Camas Mayor Steve Hogan’s City Hall's arrogance, we expected they had the votes in their pocket. Why the results are almost shocking, particularly the wide margin

Public Safety professionals are not unlike surgeons in the OR: People's lives are in their hands. You would never let a surgeon operate on anyone without any previous experience. Why allow Public Safety officials decide people's fate?

Letting your child drive on Washington state roads could turn him into another 'traffic accident.'

Democrats say your children belong to the state, just like in the Third Reich 

Just last week, 18-year-old Mia C. Tanner Lockard, who attended Washougal High School was killed ' A 17-year-old boy under DUI is suspected to have caused the accident. But this is not isolated, and it's not accidents but preventable crashes.

Vote NO on City of Camas proposition No. 5  

Washington state’s Target Zero was intended to be a Public Safety paradigm shift, patterned after Vision Zero. It’s a plan with the goal to reduce the number of traffic deaths and serious injuries on Washington’s roadways to zero by the year 2030. It also serves as the state’s Strategic Highway Safety Plan. 

Yet traffic fatalities rose close to 80% in 2023!  Have you checked the teen fatalities in 2025 alone?

In dealing with the City of Camas, officials were not familiar with Target Zero, the concept of a 'public safety  culture' and even scoffed at the idea of setting a target for zero crashes - not accidents.

Paraphrasing Aristotle: Only those who have been well brought up can usefully study public safety: to the untrained man, the man who stands outside the Tao, the very starting point of this science is invisible. He may be hostile, but he cannot be critical: he does not know what is being discussed

At the peak of the COVID pandemic animal control is clearly visible- yet proactive traffic control around the Woodburn elementary school and others  is MIA

To get the service the tax increase was supposed to provide takes an act of Congress. Particularly when the city suffers from chronic budget shortfalls - euphemism for fiscal mismangement

The City of Camas adopted Resolution No. 24-016 asking voters to consider approving additional re revenue to be dedicated for police services in the City. If approved by voters, this Proposition would authorize the city to increase the current utility tax by 300% on the gross earnings of utilities providing water, sewer, solid waste abd stormwater operations within the City authorizing 4% for the purposes of maintaining and enhancing police services in Camas.

As if the water was not expensive enough and where 'maintaining and enhancing police services in Camas'¹e weasel words.

Raising taxes for Camas under the moniker 'Police Services & stuff' while public safety-agnostic officials are in charge, is devious as it allows the city to divert funds for other non-essential programs: It's Inequity of the Pursuit of Equity Over Public Safety: When you see animal control more often than Camas Police, around schools, not to mention the city's history of budget shortfalls, you know something is wrong.

 

From experience, we know no one in City Hall understands public safety. And if they do, they don't care:

Public Safety is a function of leadership, design, awareness and engagement. The community receives a minimum to no public safety service. We have made numerous public safety proposals, including residents paying for their own public safety like de-icing and traffic calming devices.

City Administrator Doug Quin dquinn@cityofcamas.us refused to evenook at the proposals. The engineering manager blocked our account & Public Works won't respond.


We reached out to the council, but not a single city council member responded. Why does the city's website include employees and officials' email addresses if they don't respond?

Ask any City official if they have ever heard of Washington's TargetZero, for example. The ones we asked were clueless. Washington state’s Target Zero was intended to be a Public Safety paradigm shift, patterned after Vision Zero. It’s a plan with the goal to reduce the number of traffic deaths and serious injuries on Washington’s roadways to zero by the year 2030. It also serves as the state’s Strategic Highway Safety Plan. Target Zero is way off target due to its DEI focus.

It's in the water

The City faced an $8.7 million structural deficit, due to expenses that increased by $12.9 million between 2021 and 2025 — mainly due to increases in salaries and benefits, and new staffing positions

In 2022 the City of Camas, experienced a budget deficit in due to increased expenditures - Duh!

Way forward 

Another tax increase is like doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results- Insanity

Perhaps the leadership could look at the Pareto Rule of Government Employees aka 90-10:  10% of the employees do 90% of the work.  The rest are parasites and or saboteurs.

Certainly looking at the drain on the budget as a function of DEI initiatives should be a priority before raising taxes.

At least the City should specify what all is included in the  4% "for the purposes of maintaining and enhancing police services in Camas." What does that mean exactly?  What abou the other 2%.  Where does it go?

Saint Francis de Sales: From Wealthy Lawyer to Gentle Soul to Calvinist Slayer to Doctor of the Church.

January 24 is feast day of Saint Francis de Sales, Bishop, Evangelist and Doctor of the Church and the patron saint of writers, the deaf, adult education, and Christian unity whose role as a priest and bishop helped bring thousands of Protestants back to the Catholic Church.

Francis is "a rare bird.... he is devout and also learned; and not only devout and learned but at the same time a gentleman. A very rare combination - King Henry

Saint Francis de Sales, (French: François de Sales; Italian: Francesco di Sales; 21 August 1567 – 28 December 1622) was Bishop of Geneva became noted for his deep faith and his gentle approach to the religious divisions in his land resulting from the Protestant Reformation. He is known also for his writings on the topic of spiritual direction and spiritual formation, particularly the Introduction to the Devout Life and the Treatise on the Love of God.

Francis' future was planned by his father, a senator from Savoy, France. He was to be a lawyer, then take his father's place in the senate.

In the 'man proposes, God disposes' form, Francis stufued law in Padua. After receiving his doctorate, he returned home and entered the priesthood. While is father was strongly opposed. after much patient persuasiveness his father consented.

Francis was ordained and elected provost of the Diocese of Geneva, then a center for the Calvinists. Francis set out to convert them, especially in the district of Chablais. By preaching and distributing the little pamphlets he wrote to explain true Catholic doctrine, he had remarkable success.



Francis was born two months premature on 21 August 1567 in the Château de Sales into the noble Sales family of the Duchy of Savoy, in what is today Thorens-Glières, Haute-Savoie, France. His father was François de Sales, Lord of Sales, and Novel, and by marriage, de Boisy. His mother was a noblewoman, Françoise de Sionnaz, the only child of the prominent magistrate, Melchior de Sionnaz, Seigneur de Vallières, de la Thuile, and de Boisy.

He was baptized Francis Bonaventura after his godparents, François de la Fléchère and Damoiselle Bonaventure de Chevron-Villette, who was also his widowed, maternal grandmother. His father wanted him, the first of his six sons, to attend the best schools in preparation for a career as a magistrate. Francis, enjoyed a privileged education in the nearby town of La Roche-Sur-Foron, and at the age of eight at the Capuchin college in Annecy.

In 1578, Francis went to the Collège de Clermont, then a Jesuit institution, to study rhetoric and humanities. As a nobleman, he was accompanied by his servant and by a priest tutor, Abbé Déage. To please his father, he took lessons in the gentlemanly pursuits of riding, dancing, and fencing. He is described as intelligent and handsome, tall and well built with blue-grey eyes, somewhat reserved and quiet, and a welcome guest in the homes of the nobility.

Francis ultimately concluded that God had good in store for him because "God is love " This faithful devotion to God not only expelled his doubts but also influenced the rest of his life and his teachings. His way of teaching Catholic spirituality is often referred to as the Way of Divine Love, or the Devout Life, taken from a book he wrote of a similar name: Introduction to the Devout Life.

Francis completed his studies at Collège de Clermont and enrolled at the University of Padua, in Italy, where he studied both law and theology.

In 1592, Francis received his doctorate in law and theology and decided to become a priest. He made a pilgrimage to Loreto, Italy, and then returned home to Savoy. As the eldest son and heir, he held the title of Seigneur de Villeroget. The Senate of Chambéry admitted him as a lawyer. Meanwhile, his father secured various positions for Francis, including an appointment as a senator. His father also chose a wealthy noble heiress as his bride, but Francis refused to marry, preferring to stay focused on his chosen path. His father initially refused to accept that Francis had chosen the priesthood rather than fulfill his expectations with a political-military career. His cousin, Canon Louis de Sales, persuaded the Bishop of Geneva, Claude de Granier, to obtain for Francis the position of provost of the cathedral chapter of Geneva, a post in the patronage of the pope M. de Boisy yielded. Francis was ordained in 1593.

Since the Calvinists controlled Geneva, the bishop resided about twenty miles south, in AAnnecy. Francis preached in the Cathedral of Annecy, at parish churches and before confraternities. He was an effective speaker; his voice was deep and rich in tone and his speech somewhat slow and measured. His sermons were comparatively short. He avoided controversy and focused on a particular point of duty, a specific virtue or the correction of some vice. The cathedral chapter recommended that although he was only twenty-seven years of age, the provost be named Grand Penitentiary of the diocese, where Francis took many more confessions.

In 1594, the Duke of Savoy requested the bishop of Geneva to send a missionery to Chamblais, an area that had been long held by the Swiss and only recently returned to Savoy. The task would be both difficult and dangerous, and the most qualified for the assignment was the provost. Despite his family's objections, Francis readily accepted. Accompanied only by his cousin, the Canon Louis, they made their base the fortress of Allinges to which the Governor of the Province, Baron d'Hermance, insisted they return each night. Gradually they expanded their efforts, with de Sales concentrating on Thonon-les-Bains, which had become almost completely Calvinist. He also attended the Savoyard soldiers garrisoned at Allinges.

They met great opposition from the Geneva ministers, who accused de Sales of being a sorcerer. He moved to Thonon, where he boarded with a widow, who on one occasion hid him from some armed men. More than once, he escaped death at the hands of assassins. His mother managed to send him some linen and money, which he distributed to the poor. A good deal of his religious instruction was handled individually and privately. It was at this time that Francis began writing pamphlets which were later collected and published as The Catholic Controversy. Gradually, the mission began to show some success.

In 1599 he was appointed coadjutor bishop of Geneva. In 1602, he was sent on a diplomatic mission to Henry IV of France to negotiate the restoration of Catholic worship in Gex, a part of the diocese that had been returned to France. He was invited to give the Lenten sermons at the Chapel Royal. The morals at court reflected those of the King, which were notorious, but King Henry became personally attached to Francis and is said to have observed, "A rare bird, this Monsieur de Genève, he is devout and also learned; and not only devout and learned but at the same time a gentleman. A very rare combination".

In 1602, Bishop Granier died, and Sales was consecrated Bishop of Geneva by Vespasien Gribaldi, assisted by Thomas Pobel and Jacques Maistret, O.Carm., as co-consecrators. He resided in Annecy (now in France) because Geneva remained under Calvinist control and was therefore closed to him. His diocese became famous throughout Europe for its efficient organization, zealous clergy and well-instructed laity.

During his years as bishop, Francis acquired a reputation as a spellbinding preacher and something of an ascetic. His motto was, "He who preaches with love, preaches effectively". His goodness, patience and mildness became proverbial.

These qualities are evident in Frsncis' books, the most famous of which was Introduction to the Devout Life, which, unusually for the time, was written for laypeople, especially for women. In it, he counseled charity over penance as a means of progressing in the spiritual life. De Sales also left a mystical work, the Treatise on the Love of God, and many highly valued letters of spiritual direction, including those with Jane Frances de Chantal compiled in the Letters of Spiritual Direction.

With Chantal, Francis founded the women's Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary (Visitandines) in Annecy on 6 June 1610. Archbishop Denis-Simon de Marquemont required the order's members to maintain cloistered lives.[12]

Francis also established a community of men, an Oratory of St. Philip Neri, at Thonon-les-Bains, with himself as the superior, or Provost.
The Feast of Saint Jane Frances de Chantal, is celebrated on August 12. Born Jeanne-Françoise Frémyot, Baroness of Chantal. She was a French Catholic noble widow, mother of six and nun and founder of the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary. She was was beatified in 1751and canonized in 1767. Her feast is August 12.


Saint Jane is Patron saint of parents separated from children, forgotten people, and widows.

St. Jane was born in Dijon France in 1572. Her mother died when she was 18 months. Jane developed into a woman of beauty and refinement, lively and cheerful in temperament. At 21, she married Baron de Chantal, by whom she had six children, three of whom died in infancy. At her castle, she restored the custom of daily Mass, and was seriously engaged in various charitable works. As a wife and mother, she was very devoted to her family. She also had great compassion for the poor and is said to have always welcomed them into her home when they needed food


Left a widow at twenty-eight, with four children, after her husband was killed while out shooting, the broken-hearted baroness would not forgive the individual responsible for her husband's accidental death. She took a vow of chastity and in her prayers she prayed for God to send her a guide. In a vision,
God, showed her the spiritual director she prayed for in the holy bishop, St. Francis de Sales. After listening to St. Francis preach on the love of God, she had a change of heart and forgave her husband’s killer. Saint Francis became a friend and later her spiritual director. Together with his support and the support of her father and brother, she founded the Congregation of the Visitation and established several convents throughout France







In December 1622, Francis was required to travel in the entourage of Charles Emmanuel I, Duke of Savoy, for the Duke's Christmas tour of his domain. Upon arrival in Lyon, Francis chose to stay in the gardener's hut at the Visitandine monastery in that city. While there he suffered a stroke, from which he died on 28 December 1622

Prayer of St. Francis de Sales

• "Lord, I am Yours, and I must belong to no one but You. My soul is Yours, and must live only by You. My will is Yours, and must love only for You". 
"Be at peace. Do not look forward in fear to the changes of life; rather look to them with full hope as they arise"

Prayer to St. Francis de Sales for guidance

"Please pray for me, that I may also respond to your preaching and may seek to become a saint within the context of the vocation I have been given". 
"Teach me, O Father, to fix my eyes on heaven, that I may generously trample under foot every obstacle that presents itself in my way". 

Prayer to St. Francis de Sales for others

"Obtain from God my perfect conversion, and that of all sinners". 
"Ask him to pray for a Catholic writer whom you know". 
"Ask him for prayers if you work in the field of adult education, or if you are an adult completing your education".