Saint Francis de Sales died in Lyons, during a journey, on 28 December 1622. His solemn funeral took place in his cathedral in Annecy on 24 January 1623, and on 29 January that year his body was buried in the church belonging to the first Visitation monastery in Annecy. He was listed among the saints in 1665. Blessed Pius IX proclaimed him as a Doctor of the Church in 1877. On 26 January 1923, Pius XI proclaimed him as the patron of journalists. In 1967, in his letter Sabaudiae gemma Saint Paul VI described him as “doctor of divine love and evangelical kindness” as well as “doctor of spiritual direction”[8].
For us in the Congregation and the Salesian Family, there is no lack of reasons for celebrating a year dedicated to Saint Francis de Sales:

• Don Bosco, drawing inspiration from the kindness and zeal of the holy Bishop of Geneva, gave us the name Salesians, and pointed out a programme of life in the maxim: Da mihi animas, cetera tolle (C. 4);
• Other than to Our Lady Help of Christians and st Joseph, Don Bosco entrusted our Society to Saint Francis de Sales, “zealous pastor and doctor of charity” (C. 9);
• The Salesian relies on the intercession of Saint Francis de Sales in order “to be faithful” (C. 24);
• The entire Salesian Family of Don Bosco is placed under the protection of this great Patron Saint.

​The main objective that we set ourselves in this anniversary is to make the figure, spirituality and pedagogy of St Francis de Sales known among us Salesians.
Saint Francis de Sales reminds us that holiness is for everyone and that we must accompany the young on the way to this goal.
At this moment in the life of the Church and our Family, we are especially sensitive to spiritual accompaniment. And our Patron is one of the great teachers of this art in the Church’s history. We have much to learn from him. To the practice of spiritual direction, inherited from St Ignatius of Loyola, St Francis de Sales wanted to add the friendship between the one who accompanies and the one being accompanied – and Don Bosco, spontaneously, added the community dimension to this.
But in the first instance St Francis de Sales speaks to us about the heart and invites us to recover the loving-kindness and healthy affection that are at the heart of the Preventive System that Don Bosco left us, since “whosoever gains the heart has won the whole man”.[9]