Forget him, he whose life was elegy, tasting and tracing death’s shadow. In touching it, he fought the umbrageous, audacious canopy it stretched over El Salvador, the death-squad-valleys so cruelly cooing with caracara, woodcreepers wounded by the weight of the noise, the Lete’s screeching flow he had so swam and strained against.

When I think of St. Francis de Sales the first word that comes to my mind is gentleness. Gentleness and humility are often seen as signs of weakness. But in reality only a person who is very strong can be humble and gentle. I don’t think anyone would describe Francis as weak once they have read of his experiences when he went to bring the protestant Calvinists back to the Catholic Church.

As we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Innocents today, I feel it is fitting that we acknowledge and give thanks for the ministry of our Sisters who cared for vulnerable women and their babies in our Mother and Baby Homes in Ireland and the U.K. Wounded, broken women sought refuge at our door and were never turned away.