432 ST. JAXE of speaking on the sabject of religion. Her influence was felt beyond the <»stle walls: during the frequent absences of her husband, to whom she was deyoted, she managed his estates with great judg- ment, feirmers and managers coming to her once a month for orders. She was not only obeyed but loved by all beneath her, especially by the poor and sick, whom she visited and nursed with great devotion. She afterwards spoke of this time as one in which her soul was luke- warm towards God, and said that only when her husband was absent did she turn with any zeal to God ; but her friends and all who knew her thought her then extremely pious and charitable. St. Jeanne had six children ; three of whom, a son and two daughters, survived their father, who was shot accidentally while boar-hunting in 1 000. On her husband's death, she went to live at Monthelon with her father-in-law, the Baron de Chantal, who threatened that unless she did so, he would dis- inherit her children. She lived there seven years, and did all she could to convert the wicked old baron and to counteract his bad influence. She suffered much from the behaviour of an insolent and ignorant servant, mother of the baron's illegitimate children ; but she did her duty faithfully, educating these children with her own, and bettering their condition in many ways. In 1004, St. Francis de Sales became her spiritual director. By his advice, she remained with her children, control- ling their tastes and inclinations, and turning their growing affections towards God. She continued also her work among the poor, performing the meanest services, nursing them in loathsome diseases, washing and laying out dead bodies. She was called by these poor people, La Sainte Baronnc, It was during this period that some of the most beautiful of St. Francis's letters were written to her. At this time the Church contained no order that could admit the sick and weak. St. Francis saw that one was wanted to include them, and also those who might occasionally have to revisit the world and occupy themselves with secular business in the intereste of their children. To meet this need, MadiOH de Chantal, with the assistuioe of Si Francis, founded the Order of the Yiniip tion in 1610. Mortification of the will was to take the place of macezation d the body ; and weak health to be M obstacle to attaining the greatest hcs^ of sanctity. St* Francis says of the nim of the Visitation : ^ They ha^e few mks for their outward life, few ansieritifli, few ceremonies. . . . As there is lea rigour for the body than in other ordea^ there must be more meekness of the heart, . . . Their hands are only ooot- pied in gathering at the foot of the Groai the little virtues of humility, meeknefl» and simplicity that grow there, and which are sprinkled with the blood cf their Beloved, fixed as He is within their hearts as with naOs on the CroesL Thej comfort the sick, the snllen, the iU tempered." The time had now oome when Jeanne felt she had done her duty in the worid and by her children, so she decided to take the veil at Annecy, where the first convent of the new order was being built. She gained the consent of her father to this step, but the Baron de Chantal, now eighty years of age, opposed her wishes. Before going to Annecy, she went to Dijon to take leave of her father and her only son. The young baron threw him- self at her feet and entreated her with much eloquent reasoning to giye np her project and remain at homa Failing to persuade her, when she rose to go he threw himself down at the threshold of the door and she stepped over him. This is called by one of her biographers her generous conduct in leaving her country and family to go where God called her. As head of the new order at Annecy, she was now called La Mere de Chantal, and she and some of its first members were remarkable for extraordinary holi- ness. In order that the vow of poverty should be observed with the greatest strictness, the nuns changed their beds, crosses, rosaries, etc., every year, that no sister should consider anything, how- ever trifling, her own.
