JANNER
283
3ASSEK
the brink of ruin, and brought back prosperity. During
her husband's absence at the court, or with the army,
when reproached for her extremely sober manner of
dressing, her reply was: "The eyes which I must
please are a hundred leagues from here". She
found more than once that God blessed with miracles
the care she gave the suffering members of Christ. St.
Francis de Sales's eulogy of her characterizes her life at
Bourbilly and everywhere else: " InMadaiiicdct'liantal
I have found the perfect woman, whom Soimnun had
difficulty in fintling in Jerusalem". Baron de t'hantal
was acciilentally killed by a hartiviebus while out shoot-
ing in 1601. Left a widow at twenty-eight, with four
young children, the broken-hearted baroness took a
vow of chastity. In all her jirayers she besought God
to send her a guide, and (iod, in a vision, showed her
the spiritual director He held in reserve for her. In
order to safeguard her children's property, she was
obliged to go and live at Monthelon in the home of
her father-in-law, who was ruled over by an arrogant
and wicked servant. This was real servitude, which
she bore patiently and gently tor seven years. At
last her virtue triumphed over the ill will of the old
man and his housekeeper.
During Lent, 1604, she visited her father at Dijon, where St. Francis de Sales was preaching at the Samte Chapelle. She recognized in him the mysterious di- rector who had been shown her, and placed herself under his guidance. Then began an admirable cor- respondence between the two saints. Unfortunately, the greater number of her letters are no longer in existence, as she destroyed them after the death of the holy bishop. When she had assured the future security of her children, and when she had pro- vided for the education of Celse-Benigne, her four- teen-year-old son, whom she left to her father and her brother, the Archbishop of Bourges, she started for Annecy, where God was calling her to found the Congregation of the Visitation. She took her two remaining daughters with her, the elder having re- cently married the Baron of Thorens, a brother of St. Francis de Sales. Celse-Benigne. impetuous like those of his race, barred his mother's way by Ijing across the threshold. Mme de Chantal stopped, overcome: "Can the tears of a child shake your resolution?" said a holy and learned priest, the tutor of Celse-Benigne. "Oh! no", replied the saint, "but after all I am a mother!" And she stepped over her child's body.
The Congregation of the Visitation was canoni- cally established at Annecy on Trinity Sunday, 6 June, 1610. Its aim was to receive, with a view to their spiritual advancement, young girls and even widows who had not the desire or the strength to subject themselves to the austere ascetical practices in force in all the religious orders at that time. St. Francis de Sales \v;i^ oiiiciiiUy desirous of seeing the realization of lii.> clHii-ln d method of attaining per- fection, which con.-isiril in always keeping one's will united to the Divine will, in taking so to speak one's soul, heart, and longings into one's hands and giving them into God's keeping, and in seeking always to do what is pleasing to Him. " I do always the things that please him" (John, viii, 29). 'The two holy founders saw their undertaking prosper. At the time of the death of St. Francis de Sales in 1622, the order already counted thirteen houses; there were eighty- six when St. Jane Frances died; and 164 when she was canonized.
The remainder of the saint's life was spent under the protection of the cloLster in the practice of the most admiral)lc virtues. If a gentle kindness, vivified and strengthened by a complete spirit of renunciation, predominates in St. Francis de Sales, it is firmness and great vigour which prevails in St. Jane Frances; she did not like to see her daughters giving way to human weakness. Her trials were continuous and borne
bravely, and yet she was exceedingly sensitive. Celse-
Benigne was an incorrigible duellist. She prayed so
fervently that he was given the grace to die a Christian
death on the battle-field, during the campaign against
the Isle of Re (1627). He left a daughter who became
the famous Marquise de S6vign6. To family troubles
God added interior crosses which, particularly during
the last nine years of her life, kept her in an agony
of soul from which she was not freed until three
months before her death.
Her reputation for sanctity was widespread. Queens, princes, and princesses flocked to the reception-room of the Visitation. Wherever she went to establish foundations, the people gave her ovations. "These people", she would say confused, "do not know me; they are mistaken ". Her body is venerated with that of St. Francis de Sales in the church of the Visitation at Annecy. She was beatified in 1751, canonized in 1767, and 21 August was appointed as her feast day.
The life of the saint was written in the seven- teenth century, with inimitable charm, by her secre- tary. Mother tie Chaugj'. Mgr Bougaud, who died Bishop of Laval, pubhshed in 1863 a "Histoire de Sainte Chantal " which had a great and well-deserved success.
The works of the saint comprise instructions on the religious life, various minor works, among which is the admirable " Deposition for the Process of Beatification of St. Francis de Sales", and a great many letters. The saint's qualities are seen in her precise and vigorous style, void of imagery but betraying a re- pressed emotion, and bursting forth spontaneously from the heart, anticipating in its method the beauti- ful French of the seventeenth century. The book which may be called her masterpiece, " Reponses sur les Regies, Constitutions et Coutumes", a truly prac- tical and complete code of the religious hfe, is not in circulation.
St€ Jeanne Fran^oise Fremyot de Chantal. Sa vie et ses ceuvres (8 vols., Paris, 1S74); Bougaud, Histoire de Ste Chantal (Paris, 1S63). Raphael Pernin.
Janner, Ferdinand, theologian, b. at Hirschau, in the Upper Palatinate (Bavaria), 4 Feb., 1836; d. 1 November, 1895. He completed his studies at the Latin school of Amberg, taking his philosophical course at that lyceum, studied theology at Wurzburg and Ratisbon, and was ordained priest 13 August, 1858. After devoting liim.self to parish work for a time, he again took up his studies at Wurzburg, where he obtained the degree of Doctor of Theology, after which he was successively, chaplain at Weiden, in 1863 prefect of the Ratisbon seminary, 1865 professor of re- ligion and history at the gymnasium of Speyer, 1867 professor of ecclesiastical history, Christian archaeol- ogy, and history of art at the Ratisbon lyceum, 1883 diocesan consultor. He retired from active life in the year 1888.
Janner's principal work is "Gescliichte der Bischofe von Regensburg", the three published volumes of which bring the history to the sixteenth century (Ratis- bon, 1883-86). He also wrote: "De factisdogmaticis" (Wurzburg, 1861); " InfallibilemecclesiamCatholicara e.sse in diiudicandis factis dogmaticis" (Speyer, 1866); " Das offieium unius martyris de communi in seinem Zusammenhang erklart" (Speyer, 1867); "Das Hei- lige Land, und die heiligen Stiitten, ein Pilgerbuch" (Ratisbon, 1869); "Missale parvum sive Missale Ro- raanum in breviorem et commodiorem formam redac- tum " (Ratisbon, 1870) ; " Die Bauhiitten des deutschen Mittelalters " (2nd ed., Leipzig, 1876); " Nicolaus von Weis, Bischof zu Speyer" (Wurzburg, 1876); " Die Schotteu in Regensburg. the Kirche zu St. Jacob und deren N'ordportal" (Ratisbon, 1885); a transla- tion of the Breviary "Das riimische Brevier in deut- scher Sprache " (4 vols., Ratisbon, 1890). He also wrote " Personen- und Sachregister zu Rass, Die Con-
