Saint Vincent de Paul, Priest

Vincent de Paul (Vincent Depaul) was born on 24 April, 1581, of a Gascon peasant family in Pouy, in the south-east of France. He went to a Franciscan school in Dax and graduated in theology at Toulouse University.  He remained in Toulouse until he went to Marseilles to collect an inheritance. On his way back from Marseilles, there is a story that he was seized by Turkish pirates and brought to Tunis where he was sold as a slave.  But after converting his ‘owner’ to Christianity, he was freed in 1607, though some doubt the veracity of this event.

Vincent was ordained priest at the unusually early age of 19.  He began his priestly life as a court chaplain and was supported by the revenues of a commendatory abbey, but his life changed following a false accusation of theft. In 1609, he was associated with Pierre (later Cardinal) de Berulle and became tutor to the children of the Gondi family.  In 1617, he was made parish priest of Chatillon-les-Dombes.  All during his life he combined an apostolate among the well-off upper classes with an utter devotion to the care of the poor and oppressed.  While chaplain with the Gondi family, he gave help to prisoners condemned to work on galley ships, and in 1622 preached missions to prisoners in Bordeaux.

Vincent is probably best known for the two religious congregations he founded. In 1625, he set up a congregation of priests.  They lived from a common fund and renounced all church honours.  They devoted themselves to serving Catholics in the smaller towns and villages.  The purpose was to restore a more flexible apostolate among the diocesan clergy.

In 1633, they were given care of the Paris priory church of Saint-Lazare.  From this church the congregation came to be known as ‘Lazarists’.  Because of their founder they are also known as Vincentians, although the official name is the Congregation of the Mission (CM). Also in 1633, Vincent founded the Daughters of Charity (Filles de Charite).  They were the first congregation not to live in cloister so that they could devote themselves entirely to the poor and the sick.

Vincent said that their cloister was the street. In this he realised the original idea of Francis de Sales, whose congregation had been made to follow a more traditional religious life by Rome. In this venture, Vincent was aided by (St) Louise de Marillac, who was the first superior.  Together with Louise de Marillac, Vincent organised hospitals for the sick poor, founded institutions for abandoned children, opened soup kitchens, created job training programmes, taught young women to read, improved prison conditions, and organised countless local charities in the villages throughout France.

It is said that, even during his life, Vincent became a legend. Every level of society—clergy and laity, rich and poor, outcasts and convicts—all were won over by his charisma and selfless devotion.  Here was a man totally guided by his love for God and neighbour.

Rich women collected money and in other ways supported his countless good works. He gave alms for war-victims in Lorraine, and sent his priests to Poland, Ireland, and Scotland (even the Hebrides). From 1643, during the regency of Anne of Austria, who greatly admired him and valued his advice, he had considerable influence in her court.  The one exception was when he tried to persuade her to dismiss Cardinal Mazarin. He was also very aware of the dangers of Jansenism, to which he was strongly opposed.

He died on 27 September, 1660, at the age of nearly 80 and was canonized by Pope Clement XII in 1737. Pope Leo XIII named him patron of all charitable societies.  Among these is the lay movement called the Society of St Vincent de Paul, which was founded in 1833 by Frederick Ozanam.

Both the Vincentians and the Daughters of Charity are found today in many parts of the world.  The Irish Vincentians sent many priests as missionaries to English-speaking parts of the world, especially Britain, Australia and the US.

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Saint Vincent de Paul, Priest- Readings

Commentary on 1 Corinthians 1:26-31; Matthew 9:35-38

The Gospel reading from Matthew is a short description of the public life of Jesus.  We are told that he moved constantly through towns and villages.  He taught in synagogues and proclaimed the Good News of the Reign of God, inaugurating a society where people’s lives were based on mutual love and service and living together as brothers and sisters in God’s family. He also brought healing to those suffering from all kinds of sickness, of whatever kind.

When Jesus saw the crowds of people he was moved with compassion for them.  He saw them troubled and abandoned, not knowing where they were going, like sheep without a shepherd.

He saw the vastness of their needs and knew that he himself, in his humanity, could not serve them all.  So Jesus called on his disciples to help and for them to call on many others to help in the work of making God’s Reign a reality in the world.  He told them:

The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.

One person who answered this call with extraordinary generosity was Vincent de Paul.  We find him doing exactly the same work of Jesus—proclaiming the Gospel, bringing healing to the sick, and help to the poor and destitute.  And like Jesus, he invited a large group of both men and women to involve themselves in this work.  We thank God for the all great work they have done and continue to do.

But we too, must hear the word of Jesus.  The harvest is still great and the labourers are not nearly enough to bring it in.  Every baptised Christian is being invited to answer this call to help make our world the kind of place God wants it to be—a world of love, service and mutual sharing.

The First Reading is from the First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians.  In the passage Paul is telling the Christians of Corinth how few of them have come from either the educated or influential classes.  But it is precisely through their lack of the world’s resources that the Wisdom of God can shine through them:

But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to abolish things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God.

And it is true that the Christian communities in the early Church largely consisted of simple people and even slaves.  Yet, such was the power of the Gospel message that Christian message spread throughout the Roman Empire and beyond to the rest of the world.  As Paul says, because the Message itself has a power to win over people of all kinds, we should just tell it:

Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord..

Vincent de Paul himself came from peasant stock, but like his Master, reached out with the Gospel message to people of all classes.  But like his Master, too, he was filled with compassion for the poor and needy and did so much for them.  And his work continues both in the congregations he founded and in those lay organisations inspired by his example. We must ask for ourselves, where do I fit into all this?  And my family?  And my parish?

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