Saint of the Day – 24 May – Saint Vincent of Lérins (Died c445) Confessor

Saint of the Day – 24 May – Saint Vincent of Lérins (Died c445) Confessor, Monk, Writer, the author of the ‘Commonitorium.’ Born in Toulouse, France and died in c445 in Lerins, France of natural causes.

After the Church was given the green light with the Edict of the Emperor Constantine and was able to come out into the open, becoming part of the new society which was born from the ashes of the secular Roman empire, many Christians felt a more yearning desire for “detachment from world” and the reference to the “desert,” that is to say, to the quiet and solitude of the contemplative life.

This yearning was translated into various forms of eremitucal, monastic or community life. St Jerome lived for a long time in a cave near Betlem; St Paulinus of Nola stripped himself of all his wealth to live in a small room next to the tomb of the Martyr St Felix. Many chose the real desert, such as St Antony Abbot; others put the sea between themselves and the tumultuous society and took refuge on a small island.

Among the main monastic refuges of the Fifth Century was the Island of Lérins, in the Mediterranean, right opposite of Cannes in France. Founded by St Honoratius, future Bishop of Arles, the Monastery of Lérins became a seedbed for Bishops, Saints and Writers. Let us recall St Eucherius who, before becoming the Archbishop of Lyons, stayed for a long time on the islet with his wife and children and wrote two books there with significant titles: In Praise of Solitude and Contempt for the World. He is remembered for his letters advocating extreme self-abnegation.

But the most famous name which came out of this “nurse of saints” is our Saint today St Vincent of Lérins. Born to a noble family, he is believed to be the brother of St Lupus of Troyes. In his early life he engaged in secular pursuits; it is unclear whether these were civil or military, although the term he uses, “secularis militia,” may imply the latter. He entered Lérins Abbey on Île Saint-Honorat, where, under the pseudonym Peregrinus, he wrote the Commonitorium in c434, about three years after the Council of Ephesus. Vincent defended the Blessed Virgin as the Mother of God, against the heretical teachings of the condemned Nestorius. St Eucherius of Lyon called him a “conspicuously eloquent and knowledgeable” holy man.

We do not have much information about his life. His fame is linked to a booklet on the tradition of the Church, entitled Commonitorium, which St Robert Bellarmine defined as “a golden book.” It is a manual of rules of conduct to be followed in order to fully experience the Gospel message. In 434 (the year in which the precious booklet was published), the Monk provided future Theologians with the famous canon of orthodoxy, i.e. the yardstick for judging the goodness of a Theological affirmation: “Quod ubique, quod semper, quod ab omnibus creditum est” – “Let us hold fast to what has been believed everywhere, always and by everyone.”

However, Vincent hoped for progress: “It is necessary for understanding to grow and to progress very vigorously,”
Living during the years of the Church’s struggle against the Pelagian heresy, Vincent of Lérins, born in northern France, perhaps in Belgium and landed definitively in Lérins, in whose peace he died around 450, with his writings provided a very effective weapon against “the frauds and snares of heretics.”

His relics are preserved at Lérins. Hid work is still quoted by Popes and Theologians.