UFPP Makes it to Catholic365.com!

Uncle Frankie’s Pen Pals was featured on Catholic365, a major lifestyle & news site for Catholics!

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In a post-literate society, it’s more important than ever that Catholics are cherishing and studying the theological literature that is our inheritance. We are the beneficiaries of wisdom from 10,000 and more saints and 38 Doctors of the Church. Many of them have written gems of theological letters and books for us, but one in particular has had a tremendous impact on my life. St. Francis de Sales’ Introduction to the Devout Life is a long-celebrated manual for spiritual growth, and there’s a brand-new way for Catholics to experience this book like never before. 

I first read the Introduction to the Devout Life in the spring of 2025, during a time of desperate financial straits I didn’t see a way out of. I felt as though I’d never forget St. Francis de Sales and his words, and one day I decided I’d write about them. It was a solution to our money problems, I hoped, and better still it was a way to share what I’d learned from St. Francis with anyone who would listen. I knew that if people read what St. Francis had to say, they would know and love God even more than they already did. 

And so, I reread the Introduction. I read more of  St. Francis de Sales’ writing and learned as much as I could about his life. I learned that he was born in France in 1567, in the midst of the Calvinist vs. Catholic conflict that would come to define his entire life and career. I learned that he was a bookworm, that he adored his mother and siblings, and that he survived both a swordfight and a nasty bout of typhoid. I learned that he established 33 Catholic parishes in Huguenot territory, oversaw 450 existing parishes, established clerical education programs, raised standards of clerical conduct, and founded 3 religious orders. He found a soulmate in St. Jane Frances de Chantal and was a revolutionary thinker in a dark period of French and Church history. And the more I learned about him, the more affection I felt for the 19th Doctor of the Church. I thought of him as Uncle Frankie, and he became an integral member of my saintly intercessors. 

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Read the full article here!