© Albator (CC BY-NC-SA)
© Albator (CC BY-NC-SA)
Fondateurs de l'Ordre de la Visitation - Médaille par L. Penin à Lyon ND
| Silver plated copper | 13.3 g | 32 mm |
| Location | France |
|---|---|
| Type | Medals › Religious medals |
| Composition | Silver plated copper |
| Weight | 13.3 g |
| Diameter | 32 mm |
| Thickness | 2 mm |
| Shape | Round |
| Technique | Milled |
| Orientation | Medal alignment ↑↑ |
| Updated | 2024-11-12 |
| Numista | N#341012 |
|---|---|
| Rarity index | 97% |
Reverse
Within a quatrefoil pattern studded with small crosses, a large haloed bust, facing right, of Saint Jeanne Françoise Frémyot, Baroness de Chantal (1572-1641), holding a large cross and the Sacred Heart. French legend all around, engraver's name below the bust and city of issue.
Lettering:
Ste. Jne. FRANCOISE - DE CHANTAL - PRIEZ POUR N.
L.PENIN A LYON
Engraver: Ludovic Penin
Edge
Plain
Comment
The Order of the Visitation of Saint Mary (Latin: Ordo Visitationis Beatissimae Mariae Virginis) or the Visitandines is a female contemplative monastic order of pontifical right.In 1604, Jeanne-Françoise Frémyot, Baroness de Chantal, a 28-year-old widow with four children, met François de Sales, Bishop of Geneva, in Dijon. They struck up a close spiritual friendship, which led her to move to Annecy and found the Visitation Sainte-Marie order.
Jeanne de Chantal, under the spiritual guidance of François de Sales, agreed to lead a group. He wanted it to be open to all women, even those who were rejected by other monastic orders: elderly, widowed or disabled women. François de Sales proposed to his "daughters" a life of humility and self-effacement. He wanted to endow the Church with daughters of prayer, without pomp. He chose the name Visitation for two reasons. The first was Mary's humility in the Gospel episode of the Visitation, when the Virgin Mary, pregnant with Christ, goes to help her elderly cousin Elizabeth, who is pregnant with John the Baptist. The second was that the feast of the Visitation (July 2 at the time) "was not very solemnized".
The first group was formed on June 6, 1610, and included Jeanne de Chantal, Jacqueline Favrenote, Jeanne-Charlotte de Bréchard and Anne-Jacqueline Coste. They settled in Annecy, in the Duke of Savoy's estates, in a small house on the outskirts of Annecy, the "Maison de la Galerie", along the road leading to the Capuchin friars' house, made available to them by Duke Charles-Emmanuel I of Savoy. As fate would have it, the foundation planned for Pentecost was only completed for Trinity Sunday, which this year fell on St. Claude's Day... By October, daily communion had been established in the small community.
After a year of novitiate under the guidance of François de Sales, the four women of this small community made their profession of faith on June 6, 1611 (Wikipedia).
