St. Francis de Sales – Bishop of Geneva and Apologist Extraordinaire!

Among the thousands of saints in the Catholic Church, only a select few have gone beyond that and have become Doctors of the Church. This list includes about three dozen people, both men and women.  One of these men is Saint Francis de Sales. He is one of my favorite saints and after reading his biography several years ago, I only wanted to read more and more of him.

St. Francis is one of the rare theologians who excels in all areas. Whether you’re looking for good theological treatises, homilies, spiritual insights or apologetics, his writing is top grade. This allowed him to do well in his two debates with Theodore de Beze in Geneva. Theodore de Beze was the top Protestant theologian in the world at the time and he was trounced twice by this brilliant Catholic Bishop.

Because of his exceptional writing skill, in 1923, Pope Pius XI wrote an encyclical about him called Rerum Omnium Perturbationem. Paragraph 34 reads:

“Since St. Francis, up to this time, has not been named the Patron of Writers in any solemn and public document of this Apostolic See, We take this happy occasion, after mature deliberation and in full knowledge, by Our Apostolic authority, to hereby publish, confirm and declare by this encyclical, everything to the contrary notwithstanding, St. Francis de Sales, Bishop of Geneva and Doctor of the Church, to be the Heavenly Patron of all Writers.”

This was no ordinary Bishop, as he was an apologist and he wrote in charity. He was truly concerned about the souls of those that he dialogued with.

He left this world on December 28, 1622. He was canonized in 1665 by Pope Alexander VII and in 1877 Pope Pius IX made him a Doctor of the Church, thereby putting him in the highest echelon of Catholic theologians which includes saints such as Augustine, Chrysostom, Anselm and Aquinas.

He is very important to apologists as he wrote many tracts to counter the theology of Luther and Calvin. Today, these tracts are collected in a work called The Catholic Controversy. This work includes discussions on scripture, the papacy, free will, purgatory and many other points of conflict between the Catholic Church and Luther, Calvin and other innovators.

Another work important to apologists is that of his Lenten homilies. The book containing these is called The Sermons of St. Francis de Sales: For Lent. This volume contains 12 beautiful homilies, all of which are from 1622, which is the year that he died. The fourth and fifth homilies are invaluable to understanding the Biblical Doctrine of Predestination. It is no wonder that St. Francis succeeded in converting many Calvinists.

While everything the Heavenly Patron of all Writers wrote is recommended by myself, these two books should be part of the library of every apologist.

St. Francis de Sales, pray for us!