The Priest Who Would Not Quit

How St. Francis de Sales Reclaimed a Calvinist Stronghold for the Catholic Faith

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THE WIND HOWLED and the snow began to fall more heavily as nightfall gathered itself around the young priest. Though he had been riding since early afternoon, there were several miles yet to go before he would reach his destination. He kept to the path as best he could, but the drifting snow made it difficult for the horse to go much faster than a walk.

The temperature had dropped well below freezing, and after having ridden in the frigid open air for several hours, he was having trouble gripping the reins. He held them as best he could, hoping the thin wool gloves a Catholic couple had given him the previous winter would keep at bay the aching numbness in his hands long enough for him to revive them before the fire later that night. Shivering within his cloak, his teeth chattering, the priest continued reciting his evening prayers and plodded on into the night, his head bowed slightly against the wind.

His name was Francis de Sales, a Catholic priest not yet thirty years old who had volunteered for an arduous pastoral assignment in the Chablais region of southeastern France,¹ an area that had in recent decades become a mission field. He was on his way to a modest farmhouse in an outlying town a few miles away, the home of a Catholic family who had offered him hospitality whenever he was in the area. He knew he would be greeted with a hot meal and a fire in the hearth where he could warm himself and let his clothes dry out.

From that “safe house,” he planned to spend the next week ministering to the few Catholics living in that town, preaching, celebrating Mass, hearing confessions, baptizing and, if the non-Catholics in the area would listen, giving public talks on the Catholic faith. Most of the inhabitants of the region were not Catholic, so he knew he would face challenges and obstacles to his ministry.

This was nothing new to him. Riding alone through this cold night in January of 1596 was like many other such nights for the tired priest. He often traveled by night and in harsh weather to carry out his priestly ministry. Getting soaked and chilled, even chased, had become a way of life for him.

He smiled at the grim memory of another winter night he spent in the limbs of a tree, safely out of reach above the snapping jaws and threatening growls of a pack of wolves. Another time dogs been set on him by a farmer who was displeased to see a Catholic priest venturing into the area. The wolves, like the farmer’s dogs, eventually wandered away in search of more accessible prey, but, fearful that they might return, Francis used his belt to lash himself to a sturdy branch so he could avoid the danger of falling out of the tree once he had fallen asleep. It was one of many such “adventures” he had endured cheerfully and out of love for Christ as he carried out his spiritual search-and-rescue mission.

A Man on a Mission

Though Francis de Sales had been assigned by his bishop to a region that had been deeply Catholic for centuries, his presence there was not welcomed by most of the local inhabitants. Some sixty years earlier, the gloomy, powerful Protestant scholar John Calvin had taken up residence in Geneva, less than thirty miles from where the priest was riding. With the help of the armed might of the Protestant Duke of Savoy’s troops, Calvin’s iron grip rapidly closed itself around the population of the Chablais district, crushing the Catholic Church’s influence there and converting most of the local population to Protestantism. The area thus gradually became encased in a hardened, Calvinist anti-Catholicism.

From 1526–1536 all Catholic parishes, convents, and monasteries were abolished and closed, the celebration of Mass was prohibited, and Catholic priests were expelled. Then Bishop Pierre de la Baume left Geneva in 1527, returned briefly in 1533, but under intense anti-Catholic pressure from the Geneva Canton, left permanently by the end of that year.

Sixty-one desolate years passed without any formal Catholic presence in Geneva and its environs before a thaw finally began. In September 1594, a young priest, Father Francis de Sales, arrived. And with him came the beginning of a glorious rebirth of the Catholic Faith in that place.

In recent years, however, under the protection and patronage of Charles Emmanuel, the new Catholic Duke of Savoy, the Catholic Church had been allowed to reestablish itself. But uprooting the now-entrenched hatred of Catholicism was, as one can imagine, an extraordinarily difficult, if not seemingly impossible, task. And that was exactly why young Francis de Sales volunteered for it.

His work would involve not only the pastoral care of souls, but also a full-blown effort to re-evangelize the populace, and that, he knew, would be a formidable challenge. He faced vociferous opposition from the many Calvinist ministers in the region. They constantly thundered from their pulpits against the “evils” of Catholicism.

The priest’s ministry in the towns and hamlets surrounding Geneva had been especially challenging. Few people would gather for, much less listen to, the open-air sermons he often preached in the town square. His Masses were poorly attended. It seemed that, aside from a few recent converts and those hardy Catholics who had managed to weather the decades-long Calvinist winter and remain true to the Church, no one was willing to listen to his arguments in favor of Catholicism. They had been too thoroughly indoctrinated against the Church.

Other priests had come and tried to gain a foothold for the Church there. Most had left soon afterward, deflated by their inability to get through to the people. But not this priest. Francis was persistent and patient. He felt a deep inner certitude that the mission of evangelization could be accomplished, but it would require resourcefulness as well as tenacity. He knew that in due time, if he remained faithful to his apostolate, God would provide the graces necessary for the True Faith to flourish once again within the hearts of these good people.

With God There Are No “Impossible Dreams”

Francis had been sent out in search of not just one lost sheep, but tens of thousands of them, the ones who had strayed or were led out of the fold and had been grazing on the arid prairies of Calvinist Protestantism. His mission was to lead them back to the green pastures of the fullness of Truth. To do that effectively, he had to remain faithful to his personal prayer life.

The life of a missionary, enduring bad weather, illness, hunger, rejection, persecution, and other hardships, will be filled with joy and grow fruitful only with a solid prayer life. This aspect of reaching out to others and inviting them home to the Church is often ignored. But as Francis knew, nothing meaningful can be accomplished in this arena without prayerful reliance on God and his grace. As Christ told us:

“What is impossible for human beings is possible for God” (Luke 18:27).

The situation Francis de Sales faced when he arrived looked, by human standards, to be an impossible one. But he knew better.

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Marks of a True Apostle

Because he was faithful in his prayer life, a fountainhead of God’s grace welled up within him and flowed outward, reaching untold numbers of people. Conversions occurred, not as a result of clever preaching, but because he was a man of deep prayer and trust in the power and mercy of God. He was a true apostle of Christ who was not daunted by the seemingly impregnable resistance to the Church he saw in the people he had come to evangelize. He knew God’s grace could melt even the hardest hearts. What God needed was someone to take the message to the people (see Romans 10:14–18).

Above all, this priest was a model of charity and unassuming virtue. Even when he felt exasperated or angry with the negative reactions many people gave him, he was kind and helpful to all he encountered in spite of the indifference, anti-Catholic scorn, and even outright physical threats he sometimes encountered. As he would relate in later years, it was his reliance on God and commitment to daily prayer and the sacraments that enabled him to carry out this difficult apostolic work.

“The person who is trustworthy in very small matters is also trustworthy in great ones…” (Luke 16:10).

In addition to having the heart of an apostle, he also had the heart of a shepherd. He had the tender heart of the Good Shepherd Himself (see John 10:1–16). In response to God’s age-old question “Whom will I send?” he answered:

“Here I am. Send me!” (Isaiah 6:8).

Try New Methods

Francis realized that preaching and good example, as important as they are, were not sufficient by themselves. Circumstances required ingenuity.

Each week, he composed brief apologetics essays on the Eucharist, the authority of the Church, the papacy, Mary, the sacraments, and related subjects. These tracts were printed and distributed quietly, under cover of early morning, slipped beneath doors while the town slept. By allowing people to read the Catholic case privately, free from social pressure, hearts began to change. Over four years, the trickle of conversions became a flood.

In 1599 Pope Clement VIII named Francis the bishop of Geneva (residing in Annecy). By the time of his death in 1622, it is estimated that tens of thousands of former Protestants, the vast majority of whom were Calvinists had entered the Catholic Church, including a more than a few prominent figures.

Francis de Sales was beatified by Pope Alexander VII in 1660 and canonized a saint by him in 1665. He was declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Pius IX in 1877.

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What Can We Learn From St. Francis de Sales?

You may think his example is unattainable. That conclusion is understandable, but incorrect.

Christ works through ordinary Catholics. Scripture makes that clear:

“So we are ambassadors for Christ…” (Second Corinthians 5:18–20).²

God wants to work through you in your office, home, parish, and daily life. Whether you’re a housewife, a dentist, a student, retired, a butcher, a baker, or a candlestick maker, you can bring others into deeper communion with Christ and His Church.³

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Ask for God’s Help

“Ask and it will be given to you…” (Matthew 7:7).⁴

Ask. Seek. Knock.

The key to making converts is not brilliance or eloquence. It is supernatural charity. Francis de Sales succeeded because he loved Christ and loved souls. Like him, God can accomplish great good through you. All He needs is your “yes” to set things in motion.

Copyright © 1998-2026 Patrick Madrid. All rights reserved. All text, images, and other original content are the property of the author. This article originally appeared under the title “The Heart of an Apostle.”

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