圣方济各·沙雷氏

圣方济各·沙雷氏（法语：François de Sales，圣公会译作圣法兰西斯·沙里士；1567年8月21日—1622年12月28日），最小兄弟会及圣方济圣索善会会士，是圣母往见会会祖，曾任日内瓦教区主教。他以深厚的信德和温和处理宗教改革产生的分裂的方式而闻名于世。同时，沙雷氏书写的作品很多，其中有两部轰动教会的杰作，其一是《成圣捷径》（法语：Introduction à la vie dévote），其二是《论爱主真谛》（法语：Traité de l'amour de Dieu）。

方济各·沙雷氏分别于1661年与1665年由教宗亚历山大七世，奉列真福品与圣品，前后间隔仅四年，并于1877年由教宗庇护九世列为教会圣师之一，被尊称为“爱德圣师”（Doctor caritatis）。他的纪念日位于1月24日。

Francis de Sales (French: François de Sales; Italian: Francesco di Sales; Arpitan: Francês de Sâles; 21 August 1567 – 28 December 1622) was a Catholic prelate from Savoy who served as Bishop of Geneva from 1602 to 1622. He 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 topics of spiritual direction and spiritual formation, particularly the Introduction to the Devout Life and the Treatise on the Love of God. He was a member of the Oratory of Saint Philip Neri, a tertiary of the Order of Minims, and was canonized in 1665.

Life

Early years

Francis de Sales 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. This being one of the noblest families in Savoy, Francis's father was generally known as M. de Boisy.

He was baptised 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. He therefore 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.

Education and self-consecration

In 1578, de Sales went to the Collège de Clermont, then a Jesuit institution, to study rhetoric and humanities. On this first visit to Paris, he lived near the Église Sainte-Geneviève with his three cousins. 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. De Sales 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 among whom his father had connections.

In 1586, Francis de Sales attended a theological discussion about predestination that convinced him of his damnation to hell. A personal crisis of despair resulted. That conviction lasted through December 1586. His great despair made him physically ill and even bedridden for a time. Sometime in either late December or early January 1587, he visited the old parish of Saint-Étienne-des-Grès, Paris, where he prayed the "Memorare" before a famed statue of Our Lady of Good Deliverance, a Black Madonna. He consecrated himself to the Blessed Virgin Mary and decided to dedicate his life to God with a vow of chastity. He then became a tertiary of the Minim Order.

De Sales ultimately concluded that God had good in store for him because "God is love", as the First Epistle of John attests. 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.

De Sales completed his studies at Collège de Clermont and enrolled at the University of Padua, in Italy, where he studied both law and theology. He was accompanied by his twelve-year-old brother, Gallois, also a student in Padua. De Sales took Antonio Possevino, a priest in the Society of Jesus, as his spiritual director.