St John Francis Regis

John Francis Regis begins as a son of the lesser gentry in southern France, educated by the Jesuits and admitted into the Society in 1615. It first lingers over the spiritual shape of the young Jesuit: severe with himself, tender toward others, and already unusually effective with ordinary people. While still a student he is teaching catechism in country places and winning not only children but adults. During his theology years at Toulouse he spends much of the night in prayer, and after his ordination in 1631 he is sent at once into the missionary work that will consume the rest of his short life. This life follows him first through Languedoc and then through the Vivarais and the Velay. His style is plain rather than polished, but it carries such warmth and urgency that enormous crowds gather. He gives the mornings to Mass, preaching, and the confessional, and the afternoons to hospitals and prisons. He is drawn especially to the poor, to neglected country people, and to women trapped in lives of sin. At Montpellier he helps convert Huguenots and lax Catholics, organizes ladies to visit prisoners, and rescues a number of women from vice.

In the mountain regions his work becomes even harder. This life describes lawless districts, bitter winters, long journeys in snow, and villages almost cut off from the sacraments. Regis keeps going anyway, sometimes with nothing but a few apples in his pocket, sometimes delayed by drifts and storms, sometimes walking with an injured leg. Priests later testify that whole parishes seemed changed after his missions. In Le Puy he widens the work again, setting up relief for the poor, a granary, prison aid, nursing help, and a refuge for vulnerable women and girls, even while criticism and suspicion rise around him. It also preserves the miracles that strengthened his reputation, including cures and the replenishing of food stores in time of need. The end is austere and beautiful. Sensing his death near, he sets his affairs in order, heads out in dreadful weather to La Louvesc, contracts pleurisy on the road, yet still preaches and hears confessions through Christmas. On December 31 he dies with his eyes fixed on the crucifix after crying out that he sees our Lord and His Mother opening heaven for him.