Francis of Sales, a distinguished Catholic saint, was born August 21, 1567, at the family castle of Sales, near Annecy, in Savoy. He was the heir of the family honours, and his education was designed by his father to fit him for a career of distinction. From the provincial colleges of La Roche and Annecy he was sent to Paris in 1578, where he entered the then brilliant school of the Jesuits. In 1584 he went to Padua for the course of civil law, and pursued his studies there with great distinction till 1591. At this time his father, who had obtained for him a place in the senate, proposed to him a very brilliant and advantageous marriage; but he had already resolved to devote himself to the priesthood, and with difficulty obtained his father's consent to enter into orders in the diocese of Geneva. He soon became distinguished as a preacher. Very soon after his ordination he was employed by his bishop in a mission for the conversion of the Calvinistic population of Chablais, which had been recently annexed to the duchy of Savoy. The success of this mission was almost unprecedented. One of the most remarkable incidents of his mission was a conference with the celebrated Calvinist leader, Theodore de Beza. At the termination of this mission, Francis was in 1596 appointed coadjutor to the Bishop of Geneva, Mgr. Granier, with the title of Bishop of Nicopolis. It was with much difficulty that the pope, Innocent IX., induced him to accept this dignity. In 1602, having occasion to go to Paris, he was invited to preach the Lent in the chapel of the Louvre; and his lectures were reputed to have had so much influence in bringing about the conversion of several Huguenot nobles, that the king tried to induce him to accept a French bishopric; but in vain. He returned to his diocese; and soon afterwards, on the death of Mgr. Granier, he succeeded to the bishopric of Geneva. His administration of this charge was beyond all praise. Being again invited to preach the Lent at Dijon, he was once more pressed to accept a French bishopric. But he still declined this honour, as he also declined in 1607 the offer of the cardinalate from the pope Leo XI. It was about this time that he published his well-known Introduction to a Devout Life, which has continued to the present day one of the most popular manuals of piety and the ascetic life. Among his measures for the renovation of the monastic spirit, a very important one was the establishment of a congregation of nuns of the order of the Visitation, under the direction of Madame de Chantal, with whom he long maintained a correspondence on every subject connected with the spiritual and religious life, published in 1660. In 1608 his infirmities compelled him to solicit the assistance of a coadjutor in the charge of his diocese. He continued, however, to labour to the last. His last sermon was delivered at Lyons on Christmas eve in 1622; on Christmas-day he was seized with paralysis, and on the 28th of the same month he expired. His remains were ultimately translated to Annecy; and in 1665 he was solemnly canonised as a saint by Alexander VII., his festival being held on January 29.
His works were published in a collected form in 2 vols. folio at Paris in 1641, and by Migne in 9 vols., 1861-64; a new ed. by Isoard was begun in 1892. The separate works (especially the Devout Life, which has been translated into most European languages) have passed through innumerable editions, and still retain their popularity. There are French Lives by Hamon (5th ed. 1867) and Perennes (3d ed. 1879); and in English by Mrs Lear (1877).