The celebration of Saint Francis de Sales (1567–1622) leads us back to one of the most fruitful sources of modern Christian spirituality and to a key reference for the Spirituality of the Assumption. A Doctor of the Church and a pastor deeply attentive to the human heart, Saint Francis de Sales proposes a profoundly evangelical spiritual path, marked by the primacy of love, trust in God, and the conviction that every vocation is called to holiness.
Mother Marie Eugénie of Jesus recognizes him as one of her most constant spiritual masters, together with Saint Jane Frances de Chantal. Her time at the Visitation and her regular reading of his works explain why many aspects of the spiritual and communal life of the Assumption find in him a foundational reference, already present in the earliest Constitutions.
Devotion: a loving response to the God who loves first
In the spiritual doctrine of Saint Francis de Sales, charity holds a central place. Christian perfection, which he calls devotion, does not consist in extraordinary practices, but in a loving and concrete response to the God who gives himself first, a response expressed in love of neighbor.
Mother Marie Eugénie embraced this vision with great depth. For her, religious life is defined by the quality of love that animates one’s entire existence. Asceticism is thus understood as a struggle against self-love, the principal obstacle to interior freedom and true communion.
“Voilà ce qui faisait dire à saint François de Sales : N’importe que je sois pauvre ou riche, je mets toute ma joie dans mon Dieu, tout mon amour dans mon Dieu, toute mon adoration dans mon Dieu.” (Mother Marie Eugénie, Instruction, 15 December 1872)
The spirituality of Saint Francis de Sales highlights virtues such as gentleness, patience, humility, and obedience, understood as concrete expressions of love. Closely connected to these is abandonment to God, which he considers the summit of the spiritual life: a filial trust in Providence that leads to interior freedom and union with Christ.
“Qu’importe ce que je sens ou ce que je suis, pourvu que Dieu soit ce qu’il est!” (Mother Marie Eugénie, Instruction, 6 August 1873)
This decentralization of the self is essential for understanding the Spirituality of the Assumption as realistic, incarnate, and apostolic.
Among the most significant contributions of Saint Francis de Sales is his teaching on the prayer of simple presence of God: a habitual turning toward God that unifies life and sustains daily fidelity. Mother Marie Eugénie considered this an essential attitude, especially for a life called to unite contemplation and action.
“Saint Francis de Sales […] said that in order to remain habitually in the presence of God, he had to recollect himself again every quarter of an hour.” (Mother Marie Eugénie, Instruction for sick sisters, 1870)
This spirituality makes it possible to live the mission proper to the Assumption without any rupture between prayer, community life, and apostolic commitment, allowing everything to be unified by love.
Returning to Saint Francis de Sales, read and assimilated through the experience of Mother Marie Eugénie, is to rediscover a path of inner unity, evangelical freedom, and missionary fruitfulness. As Pope Francis reminds us, the whole of Christian life can be summed up in this essential truth: everything belongs to love (Totum amoris est).
Almudena de la Torre
Communication Team
Francis de Sales, Treatise on the Love of God, BAC, Madrid 1995
Pope Francis, Apostolic Letter Totum Amoris Est (2022)
Writings of St. Francis de Sales