Hidden in God; - Essays and Talks on St. Jane Frances de Chantal

By Elisabeth Stopp

The present volume brings together Elisabeth Stopp’s talks and essays on St. Jane Frances de Chantal. Some of the items (I, II, V, VI, IX ) were written in the early 1960s, when she was involved in the all-consuming task of researching the saint's biography. When this appeared in 1962, under the title Madame de Chantal: Portrait of a Saint, it was received by reviewers with acclaim, and the quality of its writing prompted her election to the Royal Society of Literature. Today, almost forty years later, it remains the standard work on the subject in English. Other items (III, IV, VII, VIII) date from the 1980s, when she accepted an invitation from sisters of the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary to deliver a series of talks about the life and spirituality of their foundress. Among the topics addressed are the co-founding of the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary by Francis de Sales and Jane de Chantal; the changing image of Jane over the period of four centuries. In these, she looked back reflectively on her earlier work, and focused attention on the "hiddenness” of St. Chantal, an aspect of the saint's personality and holiness that she found of absorbing interest, and the precise nature of which she longed to be able to describe.

ISBN: 9780916101343

Price: $19.95 (122 pages + foreword)

Publisher: Saint Joseph's University Press (Published in 2000 at Philadelphia)