Jane Frances de Chantal was born in
Dijon,
France, on 28 January 1572, the daughter of the royalist president of the
Parliament of Burgundy, Bénigne Frémyot and his wife, Margaret de Berbisey. Her paternal uncle was the prior at
Val des Choux. Her brother André became the
Archbishop of Bourges (1602–1621). Her mother died when Jane was 18 months old. Her father became the main influence on her education. She developed into a woman of beauty and refinement.
Baroness Having turned down two prior suitors, in 1592, she married the Baron de Chantal when she was 20 and they lived in the feudal
Castle of Bourbilly. There they hosted hunting parties and other entertainments for the neighboring nobles. Their first two children died shortly after birth. When her older sister Margaret died, the baroness brought her three small children to Bourbilly. She and her husband subsequently had a son and three daughters. Baron de Chantal was occasionally away from home on service to the king. Jane gained a reputation as an excellent manager of the estates of her husband, as well as of her difficult father-in-law, while also providing alms and nursing care to needy neighbors. Jane then put the estate in order and acceded to her father's request that she and her children to stay for a time with him in Dijon. She had not long returned to Bourbilly when she received a letter from her widowed father-in-law demanding that she live with him in his castle at
Monthelon, Saône-et-Loire. Towards the end of 1602, Chantal closed up Bourbilly and moved to Monthelon.
Francis de Sales In 1604, her father invited her to come to Dijon to hear the bishop of Geneva,
Francis de Sales, preach the Lenten sermons at the Sainte Chapelle. They became close friends and de Sales became her spiritual director. He "...bade her avoid scruples, hurry, and anxiety of mind, which above all things hinder a soul on the road to spiritual perfection." Her reputation for sanctity and sound management resulted in many visits by (and donations from) aristocratic women. The order had 13 houses by the time de Sales died, and 86 before Jane herself died at the Visitation
Convent in
Moulins, aged 69.
Vincent de Paul served as her spiritual director after de Sales' death. Her favorite devotions involved the
Sacred Heart of Jesus and the
Sacred Heart of Mary. Chantal was buried in the
Annecy convent next to de Sales. The order had 164 houses by 1767, when she was canonized. Jane outlived her son (who died fighting Huguenots and English on the
Île de Ré during the century's religious wars) and two of her three daughters, but left extensive correspondence. Her granddaughter also became a famous writer,
Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, marquise de Sévigné. ==Veneration==