St. Francis de Sales, Bishop and Doctor

January 24 is the Feast of St. Francis de Sales, Bishop and Doctor.

Fr. Martin Bialas, C.P., writes, “The author who had the most decisive influence on the thinking of Paul of the Cross and one whose works Paul read throughout his life was St. Francis de Sales. Hence it is he who is designated here as Paul’s favourite author. Of Francis’ works, Paul favoured The Treatise on the Love of God. This treatise fascinated him the reason being that the infinite love of God was, for Paul, the fundamental principle and end of of his spiritual life. Some of his contemporaties knew of the affinity between him and St. Francis de Sales, and it was to the “mild bishop of Geneva” that they mostly compared Paul.”

(cf. Martin Bialas, The Mysticism of St. Paul of the Cross, Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 1990, p. 110)