SAINT VINCENT de PAUL

Saint Vincent was born in 1576 at Pouy, southwest France to Jean de Paul and Bertrande de Moras. His father sent him to be educated by the Cordelier Brothers at Dax. Saint Vincent continued his education at the Spanish University of Saragossa, and then returned to France to attend the University of Toulouse. At the age of twenty-four he was ordained a priest by the bishop of Perigueux but remained at Toulouse for four years to earn a degree of Doctor of Theology.

Saint Vincent made a trip from Marseilles to Narbonne by water on board a small coastwise vessel. The ship was attacked by three brigantines manned by Barbary pirates. When the Christians refused to strike their flag the pirates struck them with arrows. Three were killed and Saint Vincent was wounded. The pirates sailed to Tunis, Africa and sold their prisoners to the highest bidder. Vincent, bought by a fisherman, was sold again to an aged Moslem, a humane man, who had spent fifty years in search of the philosopher’s stone. Saint Vincent fearing that his faith would be corrupted prayed for divine protection, particularly for the intercession of the Blessed Virgin.

Saint Vincent remained with the old man until his death then he became the property of his master’s nephew. This man was a convert to Mohammedanism and had three wives. One was a Turkish woman who often wandered into the field where Saint Vincent was at work. Out of curiosity she would ask him to sing songs in praise of his God. The Turkish woman began reproaching her husband for abandoning his religion until she made him return to it. He repented of his apostasy and he and Vincent made their escape from Africa together. They crossed the Mediterranean and landed near Marseilles. The following year, accompanied by Vincent, he went to Rome where he entered the order of the Brothers of Saint John of God.

Vincent returned to France where Queen Marguerite of Valois appointed him her almoner. For a time he lodged in the same house as a lawyer, who was robbed of a considerable sum. He openly charged Vincent with the theft and spoke against him to all his friends. Vincent did nothing save quietly deny the charge, adding, “God knows the truth.” For six years he bore the slander, making no further denial, and at last the real thief confessed.

Vincent came to know a famous priest of Paris, Monsieur de Berulle, afterwards a cardinal. Father Berulle, who at that time was founding a branch of the Congregation of the Oratory in France, recognized Vincent’s worth. He found for him a curacy at Clichy, in the outskirts of Paris, and later through his influence Vincent became tutor to the children of Philip de Gondi, Count of Joigny and general of the galleys of France. The countess, a serious-minded woman, was so impressed by Vincent that she eventually chose him as her spiritual director.

Vincent devised a set of spiritual exercises for men about to take Holy Orders and special exercises for those desiring to make a general Confession. To the Biblical phrase,
“Thou art thy brother’s keeper,” he gave new practical meaning, by laying down
patterns of philanthropy that have been followed ever since.

His soul never strayed from God; always when he heard the clock strike, he made the sign of the cross as an act of divine love. Under setbacks, calumnies, and frustrations he preserved his serenity of mind. He looked on all events as manifestations of the Divine will, to which he was perfectly resigned. Yet by nature, he once wrote of himself, he was “of a bilious temperament and very subject to anger.” Without divine grace, he declared, he would have been “in temper hard and repellent, rough and crabbed.” With grace, he became tenderhearted to the point of looking on the troubles of all mankind as his own.

Vincent was deeply concerned at the rise and spread of the Jansenist heresy. He protested hotly against a view of God that seemed to limit His mercy, and no priest teaching that error could remain in his congregation. “I have made the doctrine of grace the subject of my prayer for three months,” he said, “and every day God has confirmed my faith that our Lord died for us all and that He desires to save the whole world.”

As the end of his long life drew near, Vincent endured much suffering. On September
27, 1660 he received the Last Sacraments and died calmly in his chair at eighty-five years old. He was buried in the church of Saint Lazare, Paris.

In 1729 he was beatified by Benedict XIII, and canonized by Clement XII in 1737. Pope Leo XIII
proclaimed him patron of all charitable societies. His emblem is, most appropriately, children.

Saint Vincent de Paul, Founder of the Vincentians. Feast Day is July 19.

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