I've tried, and failed, I'll admit, to read St Francis de Sales' Introduction to the Devout Life - oddly, since I find Fr Faber's perfervid prose fine, and ditto for St Louis de Montfort, somehow the Baroque style of de Sales doesn't sit well with me: too much sugar?
In any case, far be it from me to do anything but laud the great works of St Francis de Sales, who (as his hagiographic lesson says) by the help of God converted 72,000 Calvinist and other heretics to the Catholic Faith by his indefatigable preaching of the Divine Word and writing - "By his writings recording heavenly doctrine he enlightened the Church" - and so he was declared by Bl Pius IX a Doctor of the Church.
His Collect, composed by Pope Alexander VII:
Deus, qui ad animarum salutem beatum Franciscum Confessorem tuum atque Pontificem omnibus omnia factum esse voluisti: concede propitius; ut caritatis tuæ dulcedine perfusi, ejus dirigentibus monitis ac suffragantibus meritis, æterna gaudia consequamur. Per...(God, Who for the salvation of souls willed blessed Francis Thy Confessor and Pontiff to be made all things to all men [cf. I Cor. ix, 22]: graciously grant, that imbued with the sweetness of Thy love, by his directing admonitions and assisting merits, we may attain eternal joys. Through...)
One of my missals provides the proper Mass of St Francis de Sales for his daughters, the nuns of the Order of the Visitation. The Epistle is Ephesians iii, 7-21, and the Offertory, Apoc. ii, 19: "I know thy works and thy faith, and thy charity, and thy ministry, and thy patience, and thy last works, which are more than the former." There is even a proper Preface:
Vere dignum... per Christum Dominum nostrum.Qui Ecclesiæ suæ beatum Franciscum Pastorem juxta cor suum suscitavit, ut scriptis, sermonibus et exemplis pietatem corroboraret et aspera converteret in vias planas. Quique illum suæ lenitatis spiritu tam mirabiliter adimplevit, ut non solum indurata peccatorum corda ad pœnitentiam flecteret, sed et rebelles tot hæreticorum mentes ad fidei catholicæ unitatem revocaret.Et ideo...(Truly worthy... through Christ our Lord.(Who raised up for His Church blessed Francis as a Shepherd after His own Heart [cf. Jer. iii, 15], to strengthen piety by his writings, sermons and examples and to convert rough places into level paths [cf. Is. xl, 4]. Who also so marvellously filled him with a spirit of gentleness [cf. Gal. vi, 1], that not only did he bend the hard hearts of sinners to penitence, but recalled the rebel minds of many heretics to the unity of the Catholic Faith.(And therefore...)
May he pray for us before the Face of God in heaven, that still to-day he may fulfil his God-given mission of grace, as an ambassador for Christ calling all of us to unity of Faith and right conduct, that the Lord may deign to work again such wonders through him that the sinner may repent and the heretic believe aright.
(It is a little-known fact that the Oratorians lay claim to St Francis de Sales, since it is thought that he met, if not St Philip Neri himself, then his close disciples, and at one stage sought to establish an Oratory in his area of operations prior to his becoming a bishop.)
