Today, we celebrate the optional memorial of Saint Jane Frances de Chantal, foundress of the Religious Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary.

Saint Jane was born in Dijon, France, on 28 January 1572. At the age of 20, she was married to Baron de Chantal and they lived in the castle of Bourbilly. They were graced with a son and three daughters. As a wife of the baron, Saint Jane gained a reputation as an excellent manager of the estates of her husband, as well as of her difficult father-in-law, while also providing alms and nursing care to needy neighbors.

In 1601, her husband died and she became a widow at the age of 28. After that sad incident, she vowed to live a life of chastity.

On one occasion she met, Saint Francis de Sales, the bishop of Geneva, during a Lenten service, Saint Francis de Sales became a close friend of Jane and spiritual director. In 1610, Saint Francis de Sales and Saint Jane founded the Order of the Visitation of Mary, a congregation dedicated to prayer and works of charity. Their original intention of the order was to adapt widows and other women who, for reasons of health or age, could not endure the rigors of enclosed life.

Saint Jane became the superior of the newly founded order and was renowned for her administrative skills with a profound instinct for spiritual life.

She died in 1641 at the age of sixty-nine. Another holy friend of hers, St. Vincent de Paul, commented that at her death her face never lost its serenity and regarded her as one of the holiest souls Saint Vincent have ever met on earth.