By Leon Bent –
St. Vincent de Paul was born in France. His feast is on September 27. He is the founder of the Congregation of the Mission (Lazarists, or Vincentians) for preaching missions to the peasantry and for educating and training a pastoral clergy. The patron saint of charitable societies, St. Vincent de Paul, is primarily recognized for his charity and compassion for the poor, though he is also known for his reform of the clergy.
Later, Vincent established Confraternities of Charity for the spiritual and physical relief of the poor and sick in each parish. From these, with the help of Saint 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 the 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.
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 Frédéric Ozanam.
Saint Vincent de Paul: Mystic of Charity and of the Mission
We must be firm but not rough in our guidance and avoid an insipid kind of meekness, which is ineffective. We will learn from Our Lord how our meekness should always be accompanied by humility and grace so as to attract hearts to Him and not cause anyone to turn away from Him.
— Vincent de Paul
St. Vincent and have given us the intuitions of this mystic, intuitions that are capable of quenching our thirst, capable of impelling our search for God and capable of making fruitful our charity and our mission with the poor.
Vincent de Paul died in Paris on 27th September 1660, at the age of 79. He was canonised on 16th June 1737 and, in 1883, the Church designated him as the Special Patron of All Charitable Associations.
St. Vincent de Paul’s holiness can be judged by the following words: “Oh,” he said, “I would not want to go to God, if God did not come to me!” Such admirable words! … Words like these come from a heart perfectly enlightened in the science of love. That being so, a heart truly filled with charity, which understands what it is to love God, would not want to go to God unless God anticipated him and attracted him by his grace (CCD:XI:207-208).
Saint Vincent de Paul: Mystic of Charity and of the Mission
We must be firm but not rough in our guidance and avoid an insipid kind of meekness, which is ineffective. We will learn from Our Lord how our meekness should always be accompanied by humility and grace so as to attract hearts to Him and not cause anyone to turn away from Him.
— Vincent de Paul
St. Vincent and have given us the intuitions of this mystic, intuitions that are capable of quenching our thirst, capable of impelling our search for God and capable of making fruitful our charity and our mission with the poor.
Few missionaries knew how to be a mystic like Vincent de Paul, just as few mystics became as active as the prophet of charity and of the mission. Vincent’s concept of a missionary was in fact an image of his own spiritual profile: a Missionary — a true Missionary — is a man of God, a man who has the Spirit of God (CCD:XI:191). By way of conclusion, we cite here the wonderful prayer that arose from the mystical heart of our Founder as he spoke to the Missionaries: O my God! Grant me the grace of having your holy love imprinted very clearly on my heart, and that it may be the life of my life and the soul of my actions, so that, being apparent outside of me, it may also enter and work in the souls with whom I come in contact (CCD:XII:215).
Now, this gold nugget! 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.
And, this final flourish! “Love the poor. Honour them, my children, as you would honour Christ himself”
Leon Bent is an ex-Seminarian and studied the Liberal Arts and Humanities, and Philosophy, from St. Pius X College, Mumbai. He holds Masters Degree in English Literature and Aesthetics. He has published three Books and have 20 on the anvil. He has two extensively “Researched” Volumes to his name: Hail Full of Grace and Matrimony: The Thousand Faces of Love. He won The Examiner, Silver Pen Award, 2000 for writing on Social Issues, the clincher being a Researched Article on Gypsies in India, published in an issue of the (worldwide circulation) Vidyajyoti Journal of Theological Reflection, New Delhi. On April, 28, 2018, Leon received the Cardinal Ivan Dias Award for a research paper in Mariology.