Saint of the Day – 27 September – St Vincent de Paul CM (1581-1660) Confessor

Saint of the Day – 27 September – St Vincent de Paul CM (1581-1660) Confessor, known as the  “Great Apostle of Trumpets” – Priest, Founder, Apostle of Charity, Doctor of Canon Law, Reformer of Society and Priests, founder of Hospital and Orphanages.   Born on 24 April 1581 near Ranquine, Gascony near Dax, southwest France – the Town is now known as Saint-Vincent-de-Paul, Landes, France  and died on  27 September 1660 at Paris, France of natural causes.   His body was found incorrupt when exhumed in 1712 and the incorrupt heart is displayed in a reliquary in the Chapel of the Motherhouse of the Sisters of Charity in Paris.  St Vincent was Beatified on 13 August 1729 by Pope Benedict XIII and Canonised on 16 June 1737 by Pope Clement XII.   Patronages – lepers; against leprosy, all charitable societies (given on 12 May 1885 by Pope Leo XIII),  charitable workers; volunteers, horses, hospital workers, hospitals, lost articles, prisoners, for spiritual help, Madagascar, Brothers of Charity, Richmond, Virginia, diocese of, Saint Vincent de Paul Societies, Sisters of Charity, Vincentian Service Corps.   Attributes – 16th century cleric performing some act of charity, cleric carrying an infant, priest surrounded by the Sisters of Charity, cannon ball and sword (referring to prisoners of war he ransomed).

St Vincent was born of poor parents in the village of Pouy in Gascony, France, about 1580.  He enjoyed his first schooling under the Franciscan Fathers at Acqs.   Such had been his progress in four years that a gentleman chose him as subpreceptor to his children and he was thus enabled to continue his studies without being a burden to his parents.
In 1596, he went to the University of Toulouse for theological studies, and there he was ordained priest in 1600.

In 1605, on a voyage by sea from Marseilles to Narbonne, he fell into the hands of African pirates and was carried as a slave to Tunis.   His captivity lasted about two years, until Divine Providence enabled him to effect his escape.

After a brief visit to Rome he returned to France, where he became preceptor in the family of Emmanuel de Gondy, Count of Goigny, and General of the galleys of France.   In 1617, he began to preach missions, and in 1625, he lay the foundations of a congregation which afterward became the Congregation of the Mission or Lazarists, so named on account of the Priory of St. Lazarus, which the Fathers began to occupy in 1633.

The deathbed confession of a dying servant opened Vincent de Paul’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.

The Countess de Gondi–whose servant he had helped–persuaded her husband to endow and support a group of able and zealous missionaries who would work among poor tenant farmers and 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.

It would be impossible to enumerate all the works of this servant of God.   Charity was his predominant virtue.   It extended to all classes of persons, from forsaken childhood to old age.   The Sisters of Charity also owe the foundation of their congregation to St. Vincent.   In the midst of the most distracting occupations his soul was always intimately united with God.   Though honoured by the great ones of the world, he remained deeply rooted in humility.   The Apostle of Charity, the immortal Vincent de Paul, breathed his last in Paris at the age of eighty in 1660.

St Vincent De Paul is among the Incorruptibles.  The Incorruptibles are Catholic Saints who’s bodies show no decay after their death.   The Incorruptibles are a consoling sign of Christ’s victory over death, a confirmation of the dogma of the Resurrection of the Body, a sign that the Saints are still with us in the Mystical Body of Christ, as well as a proof of the truth of the Catholic Faith – for only in the Catholic Church do we find this phenomenon.