Saint Vincent de Paul - Founder Of The Vincentians

EWTN ^ | 00/00/00 | John J Crawley & Co Inc(Publisher)

[Lady In Blue]

More info on St Vincente from another source:

Vincent de Paul, Priest (RM)

September 27

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While serving in the poverty-stricken Clichy district of Paris, St. Vincent said to Cardinal de Retz, "I think the pope himself is not so happy as a parish priest in the midst of such kind-hearted people." He spent his life in self-giving ministry with and to the poor. St. Vincent said that such ministry liberates the one who serves as much or more than it sustains, relieves, and liberates the served. He didn't begin his priesthood with this attitude but rather grew into it.

St. Vincent was ordained in 1600. In 1605 he was captured by pirates and taken to Tunis, sold as a slave, and remained there for two years. He convinced his second master, a former monk, to return to France for absolution.

In France, St. Vincent found a patron in the papal vice-legate, who took Vincent back to Rome with him. He was sent back to France in 1609 and became the almoner (person who gives out alms) to the former wife of King Henry IV--Marguerite de Valois--and dispensed alms on a grand scale.

After serving in various other privileged posts, in 1617 he began a new life while in Chatillon-des-Domes near Lyons, where he founded the Confraternity of Charity to encourage ladies to minister "as if she were dealing with her son, or rather with God, who refers to Himself whatever good is done to the poor." There primary role was nursing the sick. The Confraternity served as the seed for the Sisters of Charity (co-founded with Louise de Marillac with pontifical approval in 1668) and the Ladies of Charity. The book says that he gave women their first public role in the Church in 800 years.

For St. Vincent social commitment and the spiritual life were united. He founded seminaries to mold missionary priests for rural France. He integrated acts of corporal and spiritual mercy. He combined unselfish commitment to the poor with his connections to the rich and powerful.

St. Vincent said, "I will set out to serve the poor. I will try to do so in a gay and modest manner, so as to console and edify them; I will speak to them as though they were my lords and masters. . . . Even when one scolds me and finds fault with me, I will not omit the fulfillment of my duty but pay . . . the respect and the honor due."

From G. Markus. The Radical Tradition: Revolutionary Saints in the Battle for Justice and Human Rights. NY: Doubleday, 1993, pp. 116-125.

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Northern Italy: Land of Saints and Popes / Katherine I. Rabenstein / Created August 1997 

[Lady In Blue]

ping

[JMJ333]

Oh thanks LIB! I love this saint. I worked at a soup kitchen about 5 years ago that beared his name. I used to make desserts for them. They would always get excited when I came on Fridays because I would make something different every week! And they always were so appreciative of me. I really enjoyed helping them. I bet I went through every recipe in my betty crocker dessert book!

[JMJ333]

And I love that graphic of him carrying the baby. Precious!

[Lady In Blue]

You're welcome,JMJ333! Wasn't he wonderful?! What a life he had.He was actually a slave for 2 years.

[Lady In Blue]

I love that one too.Our parish library used to have a video on his live.A very old film.I don't know what happened to it.I haven't seen it in a very long time.

[JMJ333]

Ping to a lovely thread. =)

[EODGUY]

Truly a magnificent, though humble man. Suffering silently for 6 years after being falsely accused of theft......that takes true courage and character, as well as faith.

[Salvation]

**Like his fellow saint, Francis de Sales, who was his friend and contemporary, Vincent de Paul performed an invaluable service to the Catholic Church in a period of confusion and laxness.**

Do we ever need someone like St. Vincent de Paul in this time of confusion and laxness!!!!!!!

[Salvation]

BTTT on 9-27-03!

[TotusTuus]

Do we ever need someone like St. Vincent de Paul in this time of confusion and laxness!!!!!!!

St. Vincent de Paul and St. Francis de Sales, there's a one-two punch!

To those who don't know, the St. Vincent de Paul Society was founded in 19th Century Paris by a Professor (layman) at the Sorbonne named Blessed Frederick Ozanam. He eventually took St. Vincent de Paul's name for the new organization as a patron saint for the work that they do helping the poor.

[Salvation]

BTTT on 09-27-04, Memorial of St. Vincent de Paul!

[Salvation]

Saint of the Day Ping!

Please notify me via FReepmail if you would like to be added to or taken off the Saint of the Day Ping List.

[vrwcagent0498]

A great saint.

[Renatus]

I'm going to brag a little. I come from the same blood line
as St. Vincent de Paul.

[Salvation]

Congratulations!

[Salvation]

BTTT on the Memorial of St. Vincent de Paul, September 27, 2005!

[Salvation]

BTTT on the Memorial of St. Vincent de Paul, September 27, 2006!

[Salvation]

St. Vincent dePaul

St. Vincent de Paul
Feast Day: September 27, 2007
(1580?-1660)

The deathbed confession of a dying servant opened Vincent's eyes to the crying spiritual needs of the peasantry of France. This seems to have been a crucial moment in the life of the man from a small farm in Gascony, France, who had become a priest with little more ambition than to have a comfortable life.

     It was the Countess de Gondi (whose servant he had helped) who persuaded her husband to endow and support a group of able and zealous missionaries who would work among the poor, the vassals and tenants and the country people in general.

     Vincent was too humble to accept leadership at first, but after working for some time in Paris among imprisoned galley-slaves, he returned to be the leader of what is now known as the Congregation of the Mission, or the Vincentians. These priests, with vows of poverty, chastity, obedience and stability, were to devote themselves entirely to the people in smaller towns and villages.
     Later Vincent established confraternities of charity for the spiritual and physical relief of the poor and sick of each parish. From these, with the help of St. Louise de Marillac, came the Daughters of Charity, "whose convent is the sickroom, whose chapel is the parish church, whose cloister is the streets of the city." He organized the rich women of Paris to collect funds for his missionary projects, founded several hospitals, collected relief funds for the victims of war and ransomed over 1,200 galley slaves from North Africa. He was zealous in conducting retreats for clergy at a time when there was great laxity, abuse and ignorance among them. He was a pioneer in clerical training and was instrumental in establishing seminaries.
     Most remarkably, Vincent was by temperament a very irascible person—even his friends admitted it. He said that except for the grace of God he would have been "hard and repulsive, rough and cross." But he became a tender and affectionate man, very sensitive to the needs of others.
     Pope Leo XIII made him the patron of all charitable societies. Outstanding among these, of course, is the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, founded in 1833 by his admirer Blessed Frederic Ozanam.

Comment:

The Church is for all God's children, rich and poor, peasants and scholars, the sophisticated and the simple. But obviously the greatest concern of the Church must be for those who need the most help—those made helpless by sickness, poverty, ignorance or cruelty. Vincent de Paul is a particularly appropriate patron for all Christians today, when hunger has become starvation, and the high living of the rich stands in more and more glaring contrast to the physical and moral degradation in which many of God's children are forced to live.

Quote:

"Strive to live content in the midst of those things that cause your discontent. Free your mind from all that troubles you, God will take care of things. You will be unable to make haste in this [choice] without, so to speak, grieving the heart of God, because he sees that you do not honor him sufficiently with holy trust. Trust in him, I beg you, and you will have the fulfillment of what your heart desires" (St. Vincent de Paul, Letters).

[Salvation]

Today's Saint

St. Vincent de Paul

September 27th, 2008 by Saints Editor 

Where Charity and Love Prevail, there is God

The name of the French priest St. Vincent de Paul (priest and founder) is today synonymous with charitable activities on behalf of the poor. Vincent was born c. 1580, the son of a peasant farmer, and was ordained at the relatively early age of twenty. For the next ten years, Fr. Vincent was content with an unchallenging, comfortable life in the bosom of the Church.

However, he came under the influence of the saintly priest Fr. de Berulle, and began to work among the poor. Their material and spiritual needs moved Vincent profoundly, and from then on he devoted himself to serving the forgotten members of society. Fr. Vincent arranged for groups of lay persons to minister to the poor, and in 1625 he founded the Congregation of the Mission (also known as the Vincentians), a group of priests who dedicated themselves to working with people in small towns and villages.

In 1633 Vincent, along with St. Louise de Marillac, founded a congregation of religious women known as the Daughters of Charity. Vincent’s generosity and goodness attracted many people, and he had little difficulty finding helpers for his ministry.

A gentle manner was not something that came easily to him, however; he had a severe temper, and stated that, without the grace of God, he would have been “hard and repulsive, rough and cross.” St. Vincent de Paul died in Paris in 1660, and was canonized in 1737. Pope Leo XIII made him the patron of all charitable activities in the Church, particularly the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, which was founded in 1833 by Frederic Ozanam.