The Spirit of St. Francis de Sales

A friend and biographer offers a sympathetic portrait of a devout pastor through conferences, anecdotes, and meditations on Christian living. The text examines faith, temptation, trust in God's mercy, and the primacy of charity, while treating practical virtues such as humility, patience, poverty, chastity, obedience, and gentleness toward servants and sinners. It provides pastoral counsel on fraternal correction, judging others, forgiveness, and adapting conduct to circumstances, arguing that disinterested love of God and humble self-surrender, rather than prolonged self-condemnation, lead the soul toward union with God.