Saint Francisca Salesia

“Continue to entrust everything to God, absolutely everything you have to do, so that He may teach you more and more, the happiness of living in union with Him.”

Leonie Aviat was born on September 16, 1844, in Sezanne, Kingdom of France, to shopkeepers Theodore and Emilie Aviat. She received her education from Visitation School in Troyes.

Upon her completion of studies, her parents had planned for her to get married to a wealthy man, but she declined as she desired the religious life. At the age of 21, she retreated to meditate on her future where she waited patiently.

Blessed Louis Brisson, an administrator from her school, had been concerned for the men and women who had relocated to the urban factories during the Industrial Revolution for work, as the majority were homeless. He had opened a center where he welcomed the young who were working in the mills. It was then that he considered setting up a religious order to assist them and presented the idea to Leonie.

She immediately took the idea to heart and together they founded the Oblate Sisters of Saint Francis de Sales in 1868. It was based on the spirituality and teachings of Saints Francis de Sales and Jane de Chantal. She received the habit of the congregation, taking the name Francoise de Sales.

She established parish schools and female boarding schools in Paris, while keeping workers employed, and guiding them during the Franco-Prussian War. She also aided immigrants after the war had ended.

At the age of 27, she became the congregation’s 1st Superior, serving for 7 years. After which, she gladly stepped down and faced disrespect from immediate predecessors. She did not complain nor mention it and offered her interior suffering to God. Francisca gained their respect through commitment to her work and there was an outburst of happiness at her election of her 2nd term as Superior.

Anticlerical laws and secularization of religious houses in France led them to exile in Italy as they were forced to move, fearing persecutions in 1904. There they re-established in Perugia even though they did not speak Italian.

They received papal approval in 1911 and in late 1913, she took a toll and succumbed to a high fever and bronchopneumonia. She was given her last rites the night prior to her death on January 10, 1914.

She is the patron saint of education, the Oblate Sisters of Saint Francis de Sales, and Sezanne, France.

Her feast day is January 10.

For God’s Glory.