ABSTRACT
When the beloved Roman Catholic bishop Francis de Sales died prematurely in Lyon, France at the close of the year 1622, word spread like wildfire among the many people he had touched over his very public lifetime. De Sales had been accompanying the court of his native country of Savoy as it toured through France, and crowds gathered to mourn his passing. When his body was brought back to the town of Annecy where he had resided as the exiled Catholic bishop of Geneva, a public cult soon grew up. Flowers and votive offerings piled up at his tomb and streams of pilgrims visited the site. Soon his fellow countrymen mounted a campaign to have their favorite son declared a saint, despite the fact that recent reforms in the official Catholic process forbade canonizing anyone until three-quarters of a century after their death.
