St. Jane Frances de Chantal was the Foundress of the order of the Visitation and a dear friend of St. Francis de Sales. She was born in Dijon, France, and married the Baron de Chantal. He was killed in a hunting accident in 1601, and Jane became a disciple and close friend of St. Francis de Sales.

After arranging for the care of her children Jane, Mary Faure, and Charlotte, and a servant, Anne Coste, she founded the Congregation of the Visitation in 1610, thanks to the encouragement of St. Francis de Sales.

The Visitation convents accepted widows and others who could not endure the more rigorous life of other convents. In the next three decades, Jane founded sixty convents before dying at Moulins on December 13 after a visit to Queen Anne of Paris.

Francis de Sales wrote On the Love of God for Jane and her companions, and he called Jane “the perfect woman.” She is buried near St. Francis de Sales at Annecy and was canonized in 1767.