Marie de Sales Chappuis, VHM (16 June 1793 in Soyhières, Canton of Bern (now Jura), Switzerland – 7 October 1875 in Troyes, Aube, France) was a Catholic nun and a spiritual leader in the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary. She also co-founded the congregation of the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales along with Fr Louis Brisson. The cause for her canonization was introduced at Rome in 1897. She has since been declared Venerable. Life Childhood Marie-Thérèse Chappuis was born in Soyhières, at that time in the Département du Mont-Terrible in France, on 16 June 1793, to innkeepers, Pierre-Joseph Chappuis (1752–1822) and Marie-Catherine Fleury (died 1837). Her father served in the Cent-Suisses, corps d'infanterie Suisse, attached to the personal guard of the king of France. Her mother was the daughter of François Fleury, Mayor of Soyhières and innkeeper of the village. She was also the niece of Joseph Fleury (1723–1812), the curate of Soyhières. Out of eleven children born of this union, seven entered religion life. As Marie-Thérèse appeared frail at birth, her mother wished her baptized, but due to the French Revolution there was no priest in Soyhières. An uncle carried the newborn in a market basket two miles over the mountain to the village of Petit-Lucelle, outside the jurisdiction of Revolutionary forces. Marie-Thérèse received her sacrament of First Communion in 1802. At the age of fourteen, she entered the Visitation Convent at Fribourg as an boarding student. She remained two years. Although the Visitandines were a cloistered order, the nuns provided an excellent education for girls at the schools attached to their monasteries. Religious Vows In June 1811, she returned to the convent as a postulant, but left it again in three months after a severe bout of home sickness. Three years later she came back and received the religious habit on 3 June 1815. Marie-Thérèse took the religious name of Marie-Françoise de Sales at her profession on 9 June 1816. She steeped herself in the writings of St. Francis de Sales and later exclaimed that she found everything she needed and wanted in his writings. From reading De Sales, Marie-Thérèse Chappuis came to see no necessary contradiction between the active and contemplative life. A year after taking her vows she was sent to Metz, but reasons of health compelled her to return to Fribourg. At a relatively young age, she was appointed Novice Mistress at