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Feb 2009 St. Vincent de Paul Since the St. Vincent de Paul Society was featured in the church alcove in January, it seems like a good idea to delve a bit into the life of the man for whom the Society is named. Vincent de Paul was born to a peasant family in Gascony (southwest France) around 1580. He died in Paris in 1660. In those eighty years he was a teacher, an evangelist, and a diplomat. He developed retreats which grew into seminaries. He established an order of nuns who worked directly with the poor, revolutionizing the way nuns had previously lived and worked. He confronted heresy and tried to redirect the thinking of one involved in it. He established schools and homes for the homeless. He worked with prisoners and galley slaves, and he directed missionaries to work in many lands around the Mediterranean. A little historical background may help. The huge religious battles of the Reformation had occurred before St. Vincent de Paul was born, but the disagreements between the different sides continued as religious differences grew into political differences. These culminated in the disastrous Thirty Years’ War – 1618 to 1648. The series of wars ranged over Europe, pitting the various factions against one another. You can imagine the ruined towns and farms, the desolation, the families torn apart. St. Vincent spent much of his energy in charitable works. It’s clear why so much charity was needed. After his ordination in 1600, St. Vincent remained in Toulouse, tutoring while continuing his own studies. A trip to Marseilles in 1605 changed his life: on the return trip by sea, the ship he was on was captured by pirates. He was sold into slavery in Tunis, where he remained for two years. He managed to convert one of his captors and together they escaped back to France. During a study trip in Rome he was sent on a secret mission to King Henry IV of France, which he apparently carried out with distinction, as he was sent to Paris and given a suburban parish. He then became spiritual advisor to the aristocratic Gondi family, but even though he could evangelize and educate those in the employ of the family or under their protection, he left about 1517 to go to a parish, where he could work directly with a wider range of people who needed help. At this parish, Chatillon-les-Dombes, he converted many people and founded an order of mission priests which eventually (in 1633) became the Lazarist Fathers. This example prompted other Parisian priests to join him in this project, and together they founded a number of charitable missions to aid the poor in a number of towns. These charitable agencies continued until the Revolution in 1789. St. Vincent’s own experience as a slave was a catalyst to his helping French convicts, at that time often condemned to serve in galleys. The head of the Gondi family, as it happened, was the general of the galleys. This connection gave St. Vincent the opportunity to minister to the convicts in the ships, both physically and spiritually. He never flinched from any service for the prisoners; no matter what terrible conditions he found when he aided them. Over time he established hospitals for the convicts in Paris, Marseilles, and Bordeaux. As St. Vincent continued to evangelize in rural areas, he realized that the lack of priests made it difficult for the converts to maintain their faith. (Seminaries had closed during all the wars.) He began a series of retreats for candidates for Holy Orders which over time grew into seminaries for the training of priests. It took years to develop, but the system lasted until the Revolution. He directed the overall establishment, with his assistants running the individual seminaries. At the time of his death in 1660, he had developed eleven seminaries. The system continued under the Lazarist Fathers, eventually founding 62 seminaries. Another aspect of our Saint’s life was his work in helping the poor. As early as 1617 he encouraged women of substance to aid the needy in charitable causes. The Sisters of Charity, also often referred to as the Daughters of Charity, founded with the cooperation of St. Louise de Marillac, was unusual in that it encouraged nuns to go out to the people to do good works, and not remain behind the convent walls. He also developed a group of wealthy women known as the Ladies of Charity. It was due to these groups that the poor were tended, the sick ministered to, convicts visited, orphans installed in a school managed by the Sisters of Charity. An anonymous donation was the impetus for St. Vincent and the Ladies of Charity to found a home for the aged where they could live with dignity-at the same time performing appropriate work. This concept grew until this home became a huge asylum. Due to St. Vincent’s appeals, donations arrived to support this project which was turned over to the Sisters of Charity to run. St. Vincent’s charitable works extended to the countryside to aid those distressed by the Thirty Years’ War. Working with the Sisters of Charity (the womanpower) and the Ladies of Charity (the money), he had alms distributed, the dead buried, areas cleaned, soup kitchens established. He rescued young women at risk from marauding soldiers and sheltered them in convents in Paris. While he was doing all this, St. Vincent had time and energy to think on a larger scale. He sent priests to numerous other countries to preach. He was also concerned with the plight of the captive slaves in North Africa, remembering his own years in that same predicament. Most of the slaves were Christians, so St. Vincent arranged for priests and brothers to give them spiritual and physical aid, to act as agents for their families, and even, in some cases, to arrange for their ransom. If you think that all this might be enough to keep a person busy, St. Vincent had time to be involved in a serious theological dispute. He was acquainted with the Abbot of St. Cyran when he realized that the Abbot was embracing heretical thoughts. Although St. Vincent was unable to convince him to change his thinking he argued for kindness when the Abbot was eventually arrested. Through all of his life, with his alms and his charities and his hard work, he was extremely well liked, but he remained unaffected by all the praise. He was faithful and pious, devoted to prayer and spiritual exercises. He died on September 27, 1660, and all Paris mourned his passing. Vincent de Paul was declared ’Blessed’ Vincent de Paul by Pope Benedict XIII in 1729 and was canonized by Pope Clement XII on June 16, 1737. In 1885, Pope Leo XIII declared him the patron of the Sisters of Charity. His feast day is September 27th. Sources: Funk and Wagnall’s Encyclopedia Catholic Online – www.catholic.org Catholic Encyclopedia – www.newadvent.org To top of page |
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