Book Review by Father Roland Calvert, OSFS

This is a remarkable compendium of Salesian material, the result of Fr. Boenzi’s extensivescholarship on Francis. He has given innumerable retreats, talks and classes on Francisand his spirituality, and this book is a valuable summation of his studies.In the preface the author defines Salesian Spirituality using the Vatican II phrase,“the universal call to holiness.” This spirituality has a common sense approach: “God issought in the ordinary events of life where the profane is not separated from the sacred.”Father Boenzi begins with a review of Francis’ life. He has many original commentsand insights. One of the salient early points is that Francis was a Savoyard and nota Frenchman. Francis wrote in the French language, but the Duchy of Savoy was quiteseparate from France and often in conflict with it.The capital of Savoy was Turin which eventually became part of Italy. Francis spokeItalian fluently and studied at the University of Padua as well as Paris. So he is aSavoyard and a reflection of the complex culture found in that duchy.A particularly valuable section of the book is a description of all the major publicationsof Francis and some of his lesser known works. One learns much about Francis in hisattitude toward these publications. In 1600, for example, he published “The Defense of the Holy Cross of Our Savior Jesus Christ.” In 1613 a pirated edition with inflated languageand a new title (“Pantology”) appeared. Francis protested: “Such boastful title pageshorrify me.” He cared very much about how his works were presented to the public.It is fitting that he’s the patron of writers.Francis gave a key to how he wrote when he commented in a letter to Jane abouthis masterpiece, the Treatise on the Love of God: “I will attempt to write it in my heartas I put it down on paper.”Father Boenzi has additional sections on St. Jane de Chantal and her writings.He then examines the historical sources of Francis’ spirituality and reflects onFrancis as a theologian. There is a valuable listing of religious congregationsand other groups who have been deeply influenced by Salesian spirituality.Francis de Sales: Life and Spirit is a rich treasury of Salesian material that willbenefit those advanced in their knowledge as well as neophytes. We are indebtedto the author for this beautiful distillation of his extensive studies.