Book: The Spirit of St. Francis de Sales

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THE SPIRIT OF ST. FRANCIS DE SALES




Nihil Obstat:

+ F. THOS. BERGH, O.S.B,
CENSOR DEPUTATUS

Imprimatur:

E. CANONICUS SURMONT
VICARIUS GENERALIS

Westmonasterii
die 27th Maii 1910




THE SPIRIT OF ST. FRANCIS DE SALES

BY HIS FRIEND

JEAN PIERRE CAMUS
BISHOP OF BELLEY

NEW AND ENLARGED EDITION
WITH A PREFACE BY HIS GRACE THE
ARCHBISHOP OF WESTMINSTER.

TRANSLATED BY J. S.




CONTENTS


Preface by the Archbishop of Westminster
Sketch of Jean Pierre Camus, Bishop of Belley
The French Publisher to the reader in 1639

Upon perfect virtue
Blessed Francis' estimate of various virtues
Upon the lesser virtues
Upon increase of Faith
Upon temptations against Faith
Upon the same subject
Upon confidence in God
Our misery appeals to God's mercy
Upon self distrust
Upon the justice and mercy of God
On waiting upon God
On the difference between a holy desire of reward and a mercenary spirit
Continuation of the same subject
God should suffice for us all
Charity the short road to perfection
Upon what it is to love God truly
Upon the Love of God in general
All for Love of God
The same subject continued
Upon the Love of God called love of benevolence
Disinterested Love of God
Upon the character of a true Christian
Upon not putting limits to our Love of God
Upon the law and the just man
Upon desires
How Charity excels both Faith and Hope
Some thoughts of Blessed Francis on the Passion
Upon the vanity of heathen philosophy
Upon the pure love of our neighbour
Upon bearing with one another
Upon fraternal correction
Upon finding excuses for the faults of our fellow-men
Upon not judging others
Upon judging ourselves
Upon slander and detraction
Upon hasty judgments
Upon ridiculing one's neighbour
Upon contradicting others
Upon loving our enemies
Upon forgiving our enemies
Upon the virtue of condescension
How he adapted himself to times, places and circumstances
Upon the deference due to inferiors and dependents
On the way to treat servants
Another instance of his gentleness with his servants
His never refusing what was asked of him
Upon almsgiving
His hopefulness in regard, to the conversion of sinners
His solicitude for malefactors condemned to death
Upon the small number of the elect
To love to be hated; and to hate to be loved
Upon obedience
Upon the obedience that may be practised by Superiors
An instance of his obedience
Upon the Love of Holy Poverty
Upon the same subject
Upon poverty of spirit
His love of the poor
Upon the Christian view of Poverty
Upon Prosperity
Upon Chastity and Charity
Upon purity of heart
Upon Chastity and Humility
Upon Modesty
The contempt he felt for his body
Upon his Humility
Upon humbleness in speech only
Upon various degrees of Humility
Upon Humiliation
Humility with regard to perfection
Upon excuses
Upon our good name
Upon despising the esteem of men
Upon the virtues we should practice when calumniated
Upon some spiritual maxims
Upon Patience
How to profit by bearing with insults
Upon bearing with importunities
That he who complains sins
His calmness in tribulations
His test of patience in suffering
Upon long illnesses
His holy indifference in illness
Upon the shape of the Cross
A diamond Cross
Holy Magdalen at the foot of the Cross
Upon the power of gentleness and patience
A rejoinder both striking and instructive
His favourite beatitude
His gravity and affability
How he dealt with a criminal who despaired of salvation
Upon mortification
Upon the same subject
Upon fasting
Doubts solved as to soldiers fasting
The golden mean in dispensations
Upon the words "Eat of anything that is set before you"
Upon the state of perfection
Marks of progress in perfection
Upon the perfection aimed at in Religious Houses
Upon Frugality
His esteem of the virtue of simplicity
His love of exactitude
The test of Religious Vocation
Upon following the common life
Upon Vocations
Upon Prudence and Simplicity
The same subject continued
Upon mental prayer
Upon Aspirations
Upon interior recollection and ejaculatory prayers
Upon doing and enduring
Upon Mortification and Prayer
Upon the Presence of God
His unity of spirit with God
His gratitude to God for spiritual consolations
Upon the shedding of tears
Upon joy and sadness
On the degrees of true devotion
The test of true devotion
What it means to be a servant of God
That devotion does not always spring from Charity
Upon perfect contentment in the privation of all content
Upon the Will of God
His resignation to the Will of God
That we must always submit ourselves to God's holy Will
His sublime thoughts on holy indifference
Nothing save sin happens to us but by the Will of God
Upon the same subject
Upon abandoning ourselves to God
Upon interior desolation
Upon the presence in our souls of the Grace of God
Upon our wish to save our soul
Upon good natural inclinations
How to speak of God
Upon eccentricities in devotion
Upon Confraternities
Upon intercourse with the world
Against over-eagerness
Upon the same subject
Upon liberty of spirit
Upon nature and grace
Upon exaggerated introspection
Upon interior reformation
His vision of the Most Holy Trinity
His devotion to our Blessed Lady
His devotion to the Holy Winding Sheet of Turin
Upon merit
Upon good will and good desires
Against the making of rash vows
Upon the pro-passions of Our Lord
His victory over the passions of love and anger
Upon our passions and emotions
How he came to write his Philothea
Upon the example of the Saints
Upon the love of God's word
His love of retirement
How he sanctified his recreations
What he drew from lines of poetry
Upon being content with our condition in life
Upon self-sufficiency and contentedness
His reverence for the sick
Upon the care of the sick
Upon speaking well of the dead
Upon Death
Upon wishing to die
Upon the desire of Heaven
What it is to die in God
Upon length of life
Upon Purgatory
Upon Penance
Upon penitent confusion
Upon interior peace amidst anxieties
Upon discouragement
Upon rising after a fall
Upon kindliness towards ourselves
Upon imperfections
The just man falls seven times in the day
Upon the purgative way
Upon venial sin
Upon complicity in the sins of another
Upon equivocating
Upon solitude
Upon vanity
Upon the knowledge which puffs up
Upon scruples
Upon temptations
Upon the same subject
Thoughts on the Incarnation
Upon Confession and Communion
Upon Confession
Upon a change of confessor
Upon different methods of direction
Advice upon having a Director
Upon true and mistaken zeal
Upon the institution of the Visitation Order
His defence of his new Congregation of the Visitation
Upon the odour of sanctity
He rebukes Pharisaism
Upon religious Superiors
Upon unlearned Superiors
Upon the founding of Convents
Upon receiving the infirm into Communities
Upon self pity
Upon the government of Nuns by religious men
That we must not be wedded to our own plans
His views regarding Ecclesiastical dignities
His promotion to the Bishopric of Geneva and his refusal of the
Archbishopric of Paris
A Bishop's care for his flock
Upon the first duty of Bishops
Upon the pastoral charge
Upon the care of souls
Upon learning and piety
Advice to Bishop Camus as to resigning his See
The joyous spirit of Blessed Francis
Upon daily Mass. His advice to a young Priest
A Priest saying Mass should be considerate of others
Blessed Francis encourages the Bishop of Belley
Upon a compassionate mind
Upon doing one's duty without respect of persons
The honour due to virtue
Upon memory and judgment
A Priest should not aim at imitating in his sermons some particular
preacher
Upon short sermons
Upon preaching and preachers
Blessed Francis and the Bishop of Belley's sermon
Upon controversy
The same subject continued
Upon reason and reasoning
Upon quoting Holy Scripture
Upon political diplomacy
Upon ambition
Upon courts and courtiers
Upon the Carnival
An instance of his compassion for animals
Upon hunting
Upon the fear of ghosts
His portrait
Upon his true charity




PREFACE.


The Spirit of a Saint we may, perhaps, regard as the underlying
characteristic which pervades all his thoughts, words, and acts. It is the
note which sounds throughout the constant persevering harmony which makes
the holiness of his life. Circumstances change. He grows from childhood to
boyhood; from youth to manhood. His time of preparation is unnoticed by the
world until the moment comes when he is called to a public activity which
arrests attention. And essentially he remains the same. In private as in
public, in intimate conversation as in writings or discourses, in the
direction of individual consciences as in the conduct of matters of wide
importance, there is a characteristic note which identifies him, and marks
him off apart even from other heroes of sanctity.

We owe to a keen and close observer a knowledge of the spirit of St.
Francis de Sales for which we cannot be too grateful. Let it be granted
that Mgr. Camus had a very prolific imagination; that he had an unconscious
tendency to embroider facts; that he read a meaning into words which their
speaker had no thought of imparting to them. When all such allowances have
been made, we must still admit that he has given to us a picture of the
Saint which we should be loath to lose; and that his description of what
the Saint habitually thought and felt has made Saint Francis de Sales a
close personal friend to many to whom otherwise he would have remained a
mere chance acquaintance.

The Bishop of Belley, while a devoted admirer, was at the same time a
critical observer of his saintly friend. He wanted to know the reasons of
what he saw, he did not always approve, and he was sufficiently indiscreet
to put questions which, probably, no one else would have dared to frame.
And thus we know more about St. Francis than about any other Saint, and we
owe real gratitude to his very candid, talkative, and out-spoken episcopal
colleague.

Many years ago a brief abridgment of the "Spirit of St. Francis de Sales"
was published in English. It served its purpose, but left unsatisfied
the desire of his clients for a fuller work. To-day the Sisters of
the Visitation, now established at Harrow-on-the-Hill, give abundant
satisfaction to this long-felt desire. Inspired by the purpose of the late
Dom Benedict Mackey, O.S.B., which his premature death prevented him from
accomplishing, and guided by the advice which he left in writing, these
Daughters of St. Francis of Sales, on the occasion of their Tercentenary,
give to the English-speaking world a work which, in its wise curtailment
and still full detail, may be called the quintessence of the Spirit of
their Master, the Founder of their Institute. We thank them for their
labour; and we beg God's blessing upon this book, that it may be the means
of showing to many souls that safe and easy way of sanctification and
salvation, which it was the special mission of the saintly Bishop of Geneva
to make known to the world.

FRANCIS, ARCHBISHOP OF WESTMINSTER.

May 18th, 1910.




SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF

JEAN PIERRE CAMUS,

BISHOP OF BELLEY.


Jean Pierre Camus came of an illustrious, and much respected family of
Auxonne in Burgundy, in which province it possessed the seigneuries of
_Saint Bonnet_ and _Pont-carré_.

He was born in Paris, November 3rd, 1584.

His grandfather was for some years Administrator of the Finances under King
Henri III. Though he had had the management of the public funds during
a period when fraud and dishonesty were as easy as they were common, he
retired from office without having added a single penny to his patrimony.
On one occasion having received from Henri III. the gift of a sum of 50,000
crowns, which had been left by a Jew who had died intestate, and without
children, this upright administrator sent for three merchants who had lost
all their property in a fire, and distributed it among them.

The father of our Prelate, inheriting this integrity, left an honourable
name, but few worldly goods to his children.

Faithful, and devoted to the interests of his king, Henri IV., he gave part
of his fortune to the support of the good cause, the triumph of which he
had the happiness of witnessing. He died in 1619.

The mantle of paternal loyalty and patriotism undoubtedly descended upon
the young J. P. Camus, for second only to his love for God, and His Church,
was his devotion to France, and its king.

On his mother's side, as well as on his father's, he was well connected.
Her family had given to France chancellors, secretaries of state, and other
distinguished personages, but noble as were the races from which he sprang
their chief distinction is derived from the subject of this sketch.

"This one branch," says his panegyrist, "bore more blossoms and more fruit
than all the others together. In John Peter the gentle rivulet of the
Camus' became a mighty stream, yet one whose course was peaceful, and
which loved to flow underground, as do certain rivers which seem to lose
themselves in the earth, and only emerge to precipitate themselves into the
waters of the ocean."

Books and objects of piety were the toys of his childhood, and his youth
was passed in solitude, and in the practices of the ascetic life. His
physical strength as it increased with his years, seemed only to serve to
assist him in curbing and restraining a somewhat fiery temperament. His
wish, which at one time was very strong, to become a Carthusian, was not
indeed fulfilled, it being evident from the many impediments put in its
way, that it was not a call from God.

Nevertheless, this desire of self-sacrifice in a cloistered life was only
thwarted in order that he might sacrifice himself in another way, namely,
by becoming a Bishop, which state, if its functions are rightly discharged,
assuredly demands greater self-immolation than does that of a monk, and is
indeed a martyrdom that ceases only with life itself.

If he did not submit himself to the Rule of the Carthusians by entering
their Order, he nevertheless adopted all its severity, and to the very end
of his life kept his body in the most stern and rigorous subjection.

This, and his early inclination towards the religious life, will not a
little astonish his detractors, if any such still exist, for it is surely
a convincing proof that he was not the radical enemy of monasticism they
pretend. In his studies he displayed great brilliancy, being especially
distinguished in theology and canon law, to the study of which he
consecrated four years of his life.

After he had become a Priest his learning, piety, and eloquence not only
established his reputation as a preacher in the pulpits of Paris, but soon
even crossed the threshold of the Louvre and reached the ears of Henry IV.
That monarch, moved by the hope of the great services which a prelate might
render to the Church even more than by the affection which he bore to the
Camus family, decided to propose him for a Bishopric, although he was but
twenty-five, and had not therefore reached the canonical age for that
dignity.

The young Priest was far too humble and also too deeply imbued with a sense
of the awful responsibility of the office of a Bishop to expect, or to
desire to be raised to it. When, however, Pope Paul V. gave the necessary
dispensation, M. Camus submitted to the will both of the Pontiff and of the
King, and was consecrated Bishop of Belley by St. Francis de Sales, August
30, 1609.

The fact that the two dioceses of Geneva and Belley touched one another
contributed to further that close intimacy which was always maintained
between the Bishops, the younger consulting the elder on all possible
occasions, and in all imaginable difficulties.

Bishop Camus had already referred his scruples regarding his youth at the
time of his consecration to his holy director. The latter had, however,
reminded him of the many reasons there were to justify his submission,
viz., the needs of the diocese, the testimony to his fitness given by so
many persons of distinction and piety, the judgment of Henry the Great, in
fine the command of His Holiness. In consecrating Mgr. Camus, St. Francis
de Sales seems to have transmitted to the new Prelate some of the treasures
of his own holy soul. Camus was the only Bishop whom he ever consecrated,
and doubtless this fact increased the tender affection which Francis bore
him. John Peter was, what he loved to call himself, and what St. Francis
loved to call him, the latter's only son. There was between the two holy
Prelates a community of intelligence and of life. "Camus," says Godeau, the
preacher of his funeral discourse, "ever sat at the feet of St. Francis de
Sales, whom he called his Gamaliel, there to learn from him the law of God:
full as he himself was of the knowledge of Divine things."

We must bear this in mind if we wish to know what Camus really was, and
to appreciate him properly. He was by nature ardent, impetuous, and
imaginative, eager for truth and goodness, secretly devoted to the austere
practices of St. Charles Borromeo, but above all fervently desirous to
imitate his model, his beloved spiritual Father, and therefore anxious to
subdue, and to temper all that was too impetuous, excitable, and hard in
himself, by striving after the incomparable sweetness and tenderness which
were the distinguishing characteristics of St. Francis de Sales.

Mgr. Camus was endowed with a most marvellous memory, which was indeed
invaluable to him in the great work to which both Bishops devoted
themselves, that of bringing back into the bosom of the Church those who
had become strangers, and even enemies to her.

His chief defect was that he was over hasty in judging, and of this he
was himself perfectly well aware. He tells us in the "Esprit" that on one
occasion when he was bewailing his deficiency to Francis, the good Prelate
only smiled, and told him to take courage, for that as time went on it
would bring him plenty of judgment, that being one of the fruits of
experience, and of advancing years.

Whenever Mgr. Camus visited the Bishop of Geneva, which he did each year
in order to make a retreat of several days under the direction of his
spiritual Father, he was treated with the greatest honour by him.

St. Francis de Sales gave up his own room to his guest, and made him
preach, and discharge other episcopal functions, so as to exercise him in
his own presence in these duties of his sublime ministry.

This was the school in which Camus learnt to control and master himself, to
curb his natural impetuosity, and to subjugate his own will, and thus to
acquire one, in our opinion, of the most certain marks of saintliness.

The Bishop of Geneva was not contented with receiving his only son at
Annecy. He often went over to Belley, and spent several days there in
his company. These visits were to both Prelates a time of the greatest
consolation. Then they spoke, as it were, heart to heart, of all that they
valued most. Then they encouraged one another to bear the burden of the
episcopate. Then they consoled each other in the troubles which they met
with in their sacred ministry.

It never cost the younger Bishop anything to yield obedience to the elder,
and no matter how great, or how trifling was the occasion which called for
the exercise of that virtue, there was never a moment's hesitation on the
part of the Bishop of Belley.

The latter, indeed, considered the virtue of obedience as the one most
calculated to ensure rapid advance in the spiritual life. He tells us that
one day at table someone having boasted that he could make an egg stand
upright on a plate, a thing which those present, forgetting Christopher
Columbus, insisted was impossible, the Saint, as Columbus had done, quietly
taking one up chipped it a little at one end, and so made it stand. The
company all cried out that there was nothing very great in that trick.
"No," repeated the Saint, "but all the same you did not know it."

We may say the same, adds Camus, of obedience: it is the true secret of
perfection, and yet few people know it to be so.

From what we have already seen of the character of John Peter Camus, we
may imagine that gentleness was the most difficult for him to copy of the
virtues of St. Francis de Sales; yet steel, though much stronger than iron,
is at the same time far more readily tempered.

Thus, in his dealings with his neighbour he behaved exactly like his model,
so much so, that for anyone who wanted to gain his favour the best plan was
to offend him or do him some injury.

I have spoken of his love of mortification, and a short extract from the
funeral discourse pronounced over his remains will show to what extent he
practised it.

Godeau says: "Our virtuous Bishop up to the very last years of his life,
slept either on a bed of vine shoots, or on boards, or on straw. This
custom he only abandoned in obedience to his director, and in doing so I
consider that he accomplished what was far more difficult and painful than
the mortifications which he had planned for himself, since the sacrifice of
our own will in these matters is incomparably more disagreeable to us than
the practising of them."

This austerity in respect to sleep, of which, indeed, he required more than
others on account of his excitable temperament, did not suffice to satisfy
his love for penance, without which, he said, the leading of a Christian
and much more of an episcopal life was impossible. To bring his body into
subjection he constantly made use of hair-shirts, iron belts, vigils,
fasting, and the discipline, and it was not until his last illness that
he gave up those practices of austerity. He concealed them, however,
as carefully as though he had been ashamed of them, knowing well that
such sacrifices if not offered in secret, partake more of the spirit of
Pharisaism than of the gospel. This humility, notwithstanding, he was
unable to guard against the pardonable curiosity of his servants. One of
them, quite a young man, who was his personal attendant during the first
years of his residence at Belley, observing that he wore round his neck the
key of a large cupboard, and being very anxious to know what it contained,
managed in some way to possess himself of this key for a few moments, when
his master had laid it aside, and was not in the room.

Unlocking the cupboard he found it full of the vine shoots on which he was
accustomed to sleep. The bed which everyone saw in his apartment was the
Bishop's; the one which he hid away was the penitent's. The one was for
appearance, the other for piety. He used to put into disorder the coverings
of the bed, so as to give the impression of having slept in it, while he
really slept, or at least took such repose as was necessary to keep him
alive, on the penitential laths he had hidden.

Having discovered that through his valet the rumour of his austerity had
got abroad, he dismissed the young man from his service, giving him a
handsome present, and warning him to be less curious in future. But for
his failing, however, we should have lost a great example of the Bishop's
mortification and humility.

The latter virtue John Peter Camus cultivated most carefully, and how well
he succeeded in this matter is proved by the composure, and even gaiety and
joyousness, with which he met the raillery heaped upon his sermons, and
writings.

Camus, like the holy Bishop of Geneva, had throughout his life a special
devotion to the Blessed Virgin, and never failed in his daily recital of
the Rosary. Every evening it was his habit to read a portion of either _The
Spiritual Combat_, or the _Imitation of Jesus Christ_; two books which he
recommended to his penitents as next in usefulness to the gospels.

Following him in his Episcopal career we find that as the years rolled
on his reputation passed beyond the confines of France, and reached the
Vatican.

Pope Paul V., who knew him intimately, held him in high esteem, and all the
Cardinals honoured him with their friendship.

Had it not been for his own firm resistance to every proposal made to him
to quit his poor diocese of Belley, Mgr. Camus would assuredly have been
transferred to some much more important See.

And here we may again quote the words of his panegyrist, to indicate the
fruits produced by his zeal in the little corner of the vineyard of the
Divine Master, which had been confided to his skilful hands.

Godeau says, "The interior sanctity which he strove to acquire for himself
by prayer, by reading holy books, by the mortification of his senses,
by the putting aside of all secular affairs when engaged in prayer, by
humility, patience, and charity, were the inexhaustible source whence
flowed all his external works, and whence they derived all their purity and
vigour."

As regarded the poor and needy in his diocese, Mgr. Camus was no less
generous in ministering to their temporal than to their spiritual wants.
He looked upon himself as simply a steward of the goods of the Church. He,
indeed, drew the revenues of his diocese, but only as rivers draw their
waters from the sea, to pay them back again to it with usury.

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