02/20/2020
18 February
Hope! sweet Sister of Faith, it is thou that with the key of the Precious Blood dost open the portals of life eternal. Thou guardest the city of the soul against the enemy of confusion. Thou dost not slacken thy steps when the demon would seek to trouble the soul with the thought of her sins, and so to cast her into despair, but generously pressing on in the path of virtue, and putting in the balance the price of the Precious Blood, thou placest the crown of virtue on the brow of perseverance. - Saint Catherine of Sienna Catechism of Mental Prayer, by Father Joseph Simler: Illusions Spiritual Combat, by Father Lorenzo Scupoli: How to resist the devil when he seeks to delude us by means of indiscreet zeal
Saint Jean-François-Régis Clet

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Tenth of fifteen children; his father was a farmer and merchant, and the boy was named after Saint John Francis Regis. He was raised in a pious family; one brother became a priest, one sister a nun. Studied at the Jesuit Royal College at Grenoble, France. Joined the Congregation of the Mission (Vincentians) in Lyons, France on 6 March 1769, making his final vows in 1771. Ordained in 1773. Professor of moral theology at the Vincentian seminary in Annecy, France. Nicknamed "the walking library" due to his encyclopedic knowledge. Rector of Annecy in 1786. Director of novices in Paris in 1788. Director of the internal seminary at mother-house of the Congregation of the Lazarists in Paris, France. His community was disbanded, and their house destroyed by the French Revolutionists. Missionary to China in 1791. Assigned to Kiang-si in October 1792, the only European in the area; in 28 years of work, he never mastered the language. In 1793 Clet moved to Hou-Kouang in the Hopei Province where he served as superior of an international group of Vincentian missioners scattered over a very large territory; his pastoral area covered 270,000 square miles. In 1811 government anti-Christian persecutions intensified; the m
