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St. Jane de Chantal and Depression
By Bert Ghezzi
Although the saint struggled with depression-like feelings for forty years, dedication to God and service of others helped
her live a very productive life.
[Sidebar]
Depression Statistics and Symptoms
The National Institute of Mental Health reports that in any given year approximately 18.8 million American adults 18 and older
suffer from depression. Studies also show that about 80% of depressed people don’t get any treatment. And that medication
and therapy work only for a minority of the 20% who do.
Signs that a person may be suffering from depression include:
Sadness throughout the day, nearly every day
Loss of interest in or enjoyment of your favorite activities
Feeling of worthlessness
Excessive or inappropriate feelings of guilt
Fatigue or lack of energy
Change in appetite or weight
Trouble making decisions
Sleeping too much or too little
Thoughts of death or suicide
[End sidebar]
What can you do if you believe that depressive feelings keep you from living a productive life? You could look forward to
a time when medicine and psychology may discover a real cure for your illness. That may be a long way off. In the meantime,
you could look back several centuries to imitate the example of a seventeenth-century French saint who battled with feelings
of depression, but nonetheless lived a remarkably successful life.
St. Jane de Chantal (1572–1641) was a marvelous person, who excelled in a succession of callings—wife and mother,
manager of a large estate, widow and single parent, founder of a religious community, and spiritual adviser to thousands of
women. To get an idea of what Jane was like, imagine a lovely woman who combined the organizational skills of Elizabeth Dole,
the charismatic charm of Oprah Winfrey, and the practical spirituality of St. Thérèse of Lisieux. The remarkable thing about
Jane is that she accomplished so much all the while suffering from depressive feelings most of her adult life.
Jane was madly in love with her soldier husband, Christophe. She dates the onset of her life-long depression from the hunting
accident that killed him in 1601. “A few months after I became a widow,” she later recalled
it pleased God that my whole being should be beset by so many different, distressing temptations that, if he in his mercy
had not taken pity on me, I am sure I should have perished in the fury of that storm, for I could get almost no relief from
this anxiety, and I lost so much weight that I became quite unlike myself—you would hardly have recognized me.
The temptations that hit Jane while she was mourning would crop up repeatedly throughout her life. She never specified the
content of these troubling thoughts, except that she once described them as “suggestions of blasphemy, infidelity, and
unbelief.” We know only that doubts about faith, probably indistinct and formless, and fear of displeasing God often
tormented her. St Jane de Chantal suffered this affliction for four decades.
Jane’s agony seems to be like the lifelong suffering of Mother Teresa. The recent publication of the saint of Calcutta’s
correspondence shocked the world by revealing that for half a century she felt abandoned by God. Mother Teresa’s spiritual
directors believe that God allowed her to endure the cross of this perpetual darkness as a way of relating to and praying
for the suffering poor that she served. Jane does not tell us enough to allow a detailed comparison of her anguish to that
of Mother Teresa, except that she, too, suffered for many years. It seems, however, given her symptoms of sadness, doubt,
weight loss, excessive guilt, and indecisiveness, that Jane experienced a form of depression.
Through the years Jane learned some ways to deal with her depressive feelings. Her wise choices brought her some relief and
made her emotional pain endurable. Although her prescription for depression did not cure her illness, it enabled her to live
a very productive life. Consider with me the key elements of her effective approach to her problem: trusting God, relying
on the support of friends, disciplining her negative thoughts, and serving others.
Trusting God.
From the onset of Jane’s depression, a light shone in her darkness. Amid the crush of doubt and fear, she recognized
the Lord’s invitation to rely on him to get her through the pain. She came to believe that he was allowing her troubles,
so she made a heartfelt decision to embrace his will. “O Lord Jesus,” she prayed, “I surrender to you all
my will. Let me be your lute. Touch any string you please. Always and forever let me make music in perfect harmony with
your own. Yes, Lord, with no ifs, ands, or buts . . . let your will be done in me.” Jane’s relationship with
Christ brought her moments of joy, but the reprieve was always temporary. Her depressive feelings would often return with
a vengeance. But Jane never abandoned her trust in God. Toward the end of her life she said, “I’ve had these
temptations for forty-one years now—
do you think I’m going to give up after all this time? Absolutely not. I’ll never stop hoping in God. . . . If
I can keep from offending God in spite of all this, then I am content with whatever it may please him to allow me to suffer,
even if I must suffer for the rest of my life. I want only to do it knowing that he wants me to, and that in suffering I am
being faithful to him.
Relying on the Support of Friends.
St. Jane de Chantal developed healthy relationships with friends, who supported her. Chief among these was St. Francis de
Sales (1567–1622). In 1604, Jane first encountered Francis during Lent at Dijon, France, where he was preaching daily
sermons. When she heard him on Ash Wednesday, she sensed that God had sent him to help her with her trials. For the next
six weeks Jane checked her eagerness to pour out her heart to Francis and engaged him only in light conversations. But by
Wednesday in Holy Week she felt compelled to seek Francis’s counsel. She unburdened herself to him with great relief.
Over the next several months, Francis gently encouraged Jane to abandon herself to God and pay no attention to her doubts.
Finally, late in the summer he became her spiritual director. “O Lord, how happy that day was for me!” she said.
“I could feel my soul turn completely around and step right out of its inner imprisonment. . . .” The two saints
became fast friends. Until his death in 1622, Francis’s care enabled Jane to experience a degree of spiritual freedom
and inner peace. But even with the encouragement of her great friend, she still had to battle her troubling thoughts.
Disciplining Negative Thoughts
Early in their relationship Francis told Jane that her temptations distressed her because she dreaded them. And that if she
thought less of them, they could not harm her. He summed up his counsel with this memorable example:
Recently I was near the beehives, and some bees flew onto my face. I wanted to raise my hand to brush them off. “No,”
a peasant said to me. “Don’t be afraid and don’t touch them. They won’t sting you unless you touch
them.” I trusted him, and not one stung me. Trust me, don’t fear these temptations; don’t touch them, and
they won’t hurt you.
Jane embraced this wisdom and applied it as best she could. But sometimes her doubts swarmed her like bees, and while she
tried not to touch them, their noisy buzzing still tormented her. Paradoxically, Jane used this advice to help many women
to stop being hard on themselves. She just seems to have been unable to extend the same kindness to herself.
Serving Others
Throughout her life, Jane de Chantal devoted herself to serving others. This selfless, outward focus brought her some measure
of healing for her depression. After Christophe’s untimely death she spent herself in care for her children. And for
seven years she unselfishly managed the household of her mean and inconsiderate father-in-law.
In 1610, Jane collaborated with Francis in founding a religious community for women. That year she and two other women opened
the first convent of the Sisters of the Visitation of Mary in Annecy, the town that served Francis as his base. Propelled
by Jane’s charism and inspired by Francis’s guidance, within a few years the new order attracted many members.
The community spread quickly throughout all France. Building this new religi0us order consumed Jane’s energy for the
next three decades. The road was not easy, as Jane had to deal constantly with poverty, inadequate housing, sickness, internal
conflicts, slander, and opposition. Before her death in1641 she had established eighty-seven Visitation convents. She criss-crossed
France in arduous journeys to encourage the nuns in person. Appropriately, Jane became known as Mother de Chantal as she tenderly
mothered her sisters as her own daughters. So the community surrounded Jane with women whom she loved. And caring for them
took attention away from her problems.
Not a Cure-all
So anyone who wants to find some relief from depression could imitate these elements in St. Jane de Chantal’s example:
Trust the Lord
Maintain wholesome relationships with friends
Refuse to fear or engage troubling thoughts
Divert attention from your problems by reaching out to others
This prescription is not a cure-all. And it is not a substitute for professional help. Anyone who has signs of depression,
should seek a medical assessment. If a doctor has prescribed medications, Jane, who had a real concern for people, would
want him to continue taking them.
Following Jane’s example, however, will reduce the impact of depressive feelings. Depressed persons may find it difficult
to trust God, but they should keep on praying, even if it sometimes seems that no One is listening. That’s what Mother
Teresa and Jane did. And they may sometimes fail to shun destructive thoughts, but like Jane they should work at ignoring
those buzzing tempters. And sufferers of depressed feelings may find a measure of relief by spending time with people who
love them and by reaching out to people in need.
Wise application of these principles and medical advice, will help a person struggling with depressive feelings live more
successfully, as it did for St. Jane de Chantal.
You can read more about St. Jane de Chantal in Bert Ghezzi’s book, The Heart of a Saint: Ten Ways to Grow Closer to
God.
© Copyright 2009 by Bert Ghezzi
The following sources are cited at HYPERLINK "http://www.upliftprogram.com/depression_stats.html#14" http://www.upliftprogram.com/depression_stats.html#14:
National Institute of Mental Health, “The Numbers Count: Mental Illness in America,” HYPERLINK "http://www.nimh.nih.gov/publicat/numbers.cfm"
\t "_blank" Science on Our Minds Fact Sheet Series; “National Healthcare Quality Report”, 2003; “ HYPERLINK
"http://query.nytimes.com/gst/health/article-page.html?res=990CE0D81E3EF933A05755C0A9649C8B63" \t "_blank" Antidepressants
Lift Clouds, But Lose 'Miracle Drug' Label,” New York Times, June 30, 2002. Also C Bruce Baker, MD, “Quantitative
Analysis of Sponsorship Bias in Economic Studies of Antidepressants,” The British Journal of Psychiatry 2003, 183: 498-506.
See HYPERLINK "http://www.cymbalta.com" http://www.cymbalta.com and http://www.mayoclinic.com.
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