On September 22, 2012, Fr. Louis Brisson, founder of the Oblate Sisters of St. Francis de Sales, will be beatified in Troyes, France where the Motherhouse is located. It was interesting that the miracle cited in the beatification process was the healing of an 8 year-old Ecuadorian boy named Carlos whose foot was crushed by a tractor. The Oblate Sisters placed a relic of Fr. Brisson on the foot and asked the family to pray a novena to Fr. Brisson. Some were skeptics but all participated and much to the doctor’s astonishment, within 10 days, Carlos was walking without pain or limping. Carlos later enlisted in the US Air Force and served in the Vietnam War!

It was a Visitation nun who urged Louis to found an Order in the spirit of St. Frances de Sales. With the aid of St. Leonie Aviat, the sisters were founded in 1868 and the fathers in 1876. They lead an active life of loving service that springs from a compassionate heart.  St. Francis de Sales had a great love for the Heart of Jesus and wrote to St. Jane de Chantal,  “I believe, dear Mother, if you are of one mind with me, that for our coat-of-arms we will choose a heart, transfixed by two arrows and ringed by a crown of thorns. Let it be surmounted by a cross upon which will be carved the holy names of Jesus and Mary. It was our Savior, when he was dying, who gave us life by the opening of his Sacred Heart.”