Transcript
A (0:02)
You're listening to a podcast on Catholic Saints. This podcast is produced by the Augustine Institute, an apostolate helping Catholics understand, live and share their faith.
B (0:21)
Hello and welcome to our four part series on St. Francis de Sales and the character of a Christian. My name is Ben Akers. I'm the executive director of formed. And joining me today in this conversation is Dr. Christopher Bloom, who is the academic dean at the Augustine Institute Graduate School of Theology, as well as being a translator of two works of St. Francis Desales and the Host of True Reformers, which you can find on form, where one of the key episodes is on St. Francis desales. St. Francis de Sales is a great spiritual master of the spiritual life. And our conversation is. We talk about four characteristics, four essential traits of a Christian that we find in his work. Christian should be obedient, should be attentive, should be sincere, and should be brave. Before we dive into that, tell me a little bit about St. Francis de Sales.
A (1:08)
Yeah, he said, just a spectacular saying. 1567-1622. Ben, in the Counter Reformation periods, you know, felt the stirring in his soul for holy priesthood, really from a very young age, somewhere around the age of 10, something like that, kept that sort of between himself and God for quite some time. When he was a student, he would study, study theology outside of his. His regular coursework. And then when he came home from his law degree in northern Italy, he told his father, the Lord wants me to be a priest. And his father was kind of shocked because he was the eldest son of a noble family and was going to be a senator of the region and so on. But seeing his son's determination, gave his consent. DeSales became a priest. He was a missionary for about four years in a Calvinist area not too far from his hometown of Geneva. And then at a very young age was a bishop and served with great distinction as a bishop for the last 20 years of his life.
B (2:15)
One of the things that I remember receiving this actual copy right here of this Introduction to the Devout Life was 25 years ago and I was first introduced to the introduction to Devout Life. And this is called a spiritual classic. When you look at all the books that we can read written by saints and doctors of the church, this one stands among others. What's the occasion of him writing this work? Mm.
A (2:39)
So he was, he. He had a life in the southern part of France there, not too far from Geneva that maybe isn't too dissimilar to our quarantine existence. Over this past year, he, he was accustomed to being in A larger world, bigger cities and so forth. And so, so were some of the people around him. But he found himself in a situation where he had to do spiritual direction by correspondence. And one of his correspondents was a young woman, a distant cousin of his who had married a local nobleman. Had to leave behind her sort of full and vibrant life in Paris and in Normandy and come down to a place where all she could hear was cowbells. And frankly, it was very depressing for her. So she struck up an epistolary relationship with this older, wise cousin of, of hers. And de Sales realized he had, he had to do with someone who really could handle, was. Was ready for very sophisticated instruction. So he wrote a series of letters to her that really became this book. She then innocently showed it to the priest who was physically close at hand, you know, a mile away or something, and he said, this is amazing. This must be published for the good of souls. And that was the birth of the book.