CONTACT US - ORDER
GOLDEN COUNSELS OF
SAINT FRANCIS de SALES
The origins of the Golden Counsels, beloved by many
people, are not clear. A pamphlet, St. Francis de Sales:
Wise and Loving Counsels, was published by Paulist Press
early in the twentieth century. It seems to have been an
abridgement from a French work compiled by Pere Huguet.
An
English translation from the Seventh French Edition appeared as
The Consoling Thoughts of St. Francis de Sales.
Pere Huguet says that he read all the works of St. Francis with
pen in hand. He noted all the passages which referred to the
same subject, then arranged them as a single chapter. A page
might be from seven or eight sources in St. Francis's writings, but
almost nothing was taken from the Introduction because
the author assumed everyone had a copy of that.
(This use of
various sources has resulted in the intertwining of first and
second person. Some sections use 'we' while others are directed
to 'you' as the quotations alternate from letters to sermons to
published books.)
By the 1930's, a sister at the Visitation
Monastery in Saint Louis, Missouri, was printing Golden
Counsels of Saint Francis de Sales, noting that it was a
revision of the earlier pamphlet. It has continued to be
published by the Sisters and has also been adapted and published by other
groups.
This present revision has been done to present
St. Francis's ideas in contemporary English and to include
information for further reading. All passages were traced to
their original source in the Complete Works of Francis de
Sales and then newly translated. For those passages that
could not be located in the original, similar passages have been
substituted. Every attempt was made to retain the wise and
loving counsels that have given hope, comfort, and joy to
several generations of reader.
To
order copies of Golden Counsels
You may order pocket-size booklets of Golden
Counsels for quick and easy referencing from Visitation
Monastery.
We ask you to offer the following donation:
1-24 copies, $1.00 each
25-99 copies, $0.50 each
100 copies or more, $0.35 each
Please send your order to:
Sr. Mary Grace McCormack
Monastery of the Visitation
3020 North Ballas Road
Saint Louis, MO 63131
