Vincent de Paul

The Lives Of The Saints: Volume 08, July Pt. 2 · S. Lazare. He thought of Vincent de Paul and his little

S. Lazare. He thought of Vincent de Paul and his little community, and invited them to take up their quarters in the priory. S. Vincent was staggered. He hesitated. M. le Bon insisted. Friends interfered, pressed the Saint to accept the offer; and on January 8th, 1632, S. Vincent entered for the’ first time the great building which was thenceforth to be the home and mother-house of his congregation.

No sooner was S. Vincent settled in his new house than he cast about him to make use of the new opportunities of doing work for God that it afforded him. Shortly before his arrival at S. Lazare, he had instituted religious exercises for candidates for Holy Orders ; and the large resources of his new residence gave him the means of receiving young ecclesiastics into his house, that he might carry out more thoroughly the system.

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Biographical overview

Vincent de Paul, CM (24 April 1581 – 27 September 1660) was a French Catholic priest who dedicated himself to serving the poor and is best known for founding the Congregation of the Mission and the Daughters of Charity. After being ordained a priest in 1600, de Paul was kidnapped and enslaved for two years in Tunis and returned to Europe after escaping in 1607. He then served as a parish priest and in the French royal court before dedicating himself to the poor, founding the Ladies of Charity in 1617. In 1622, de Paul was appointed as chaplain to the galley slaves in Paris. De Paul founded the Congregation of the Mission, also known as the Vincentians or Lazarists, in 1625. Its members, with vows of poverty, chastity, obedience, and stability, were to devote themselves entirely to the people in smaller towns and villages. Vincent was zealous in conducting retreats for clergy at a time when the local clergy's morals were flagging. He was a pioneer in seminary education and also founded the Daughters of Charity in 1633. He is the namesake of the Vincentian Family of organisations, which includes, among other groups, both of the religious communities he founded. De Paul was renowned for his compassion, humility and generosity, and was canonised in 1737. He is venerated as a saint in both the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion.