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| Saint Vincent de Paul | |
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 Saint Vincent de Paul |
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| Confessor | |
| Born | April 24, 1581, Pouy, Gascony, France |
| Died | September 27, 1660 (aged 79) , Paris, France |
| Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church |
| Beatified | 13 August 1729, Rome by Pope Benedict XIII |
| Canonized | 16 June 1737, Rome by Pope Clement XII |
| Major shrine | St Vincent de Paul chapel, Rue de Sèvres, Paris, France |
| Feast | 27 September (Ordinary Form) 19 July (Extraordinary Form) |
| Patronage | charities; horses; hospitals; leprosy; lost articles; Madagascar; prisoners; Richmond, Virginia; spiritual help; Saint Vincent de Paul Societies; Vincentian Service Corps; volunteers |
- St Vincent de Paul and Church of St Vincent de Paul redirect here. For the church dedicated to him in Paris, see Saint-Vincent-de-Paul church, Paris, and for other uses, see Vincent de Paul (disambiguation).
Vincent de Paul (24 April 1581 – 27 September 1660) was a Catholic priest dedicated to serving the poor, who is venerated as a saint.
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Life
De Paul was born at Pouy, Landes, Gascony, France, to a peasant family. He had three brothers and two sisters.[1]
de Paul studied humanities at Dax, France with the Cordeliers and he graduated in theology at Toulouse. He was ordained in 1600, remaining in Toulouse until he went to Marseille for an inheritance. In 1605, on his way back from Marseille, he was taken captive by Turkish pirates, who brought him to Tunis and sold him into slavery.[2] After converting his owner to Catholicism, Vincent de Paul was freed in 1607.
After returning to France, de Paul went to Rome to continue studying until 1609, when he was sent back to France on a mission to Henry IV of France; he served as chaplain to Marguerite de Valois. For a while he was parish priest at Clichy, but in 1612 he began to serve the Gondi family. He was confessor and spiritual director to Mme de Gondi, and he began giving peasant missions on the estate with her aid.[3]
In 1622 de Paul was appointed chaplain to the galleys, and in this capacity he gave missions for the galley-slaves.[4]
de Paul founded the Lazarists, and with Louise de Marillac he founded the Daughters of Charity. He also fought against the Jansenist heresy.[5]
Towards the end of his life, de Paul suffered from serious ill-health, and he died 27 September 1660.
society of st. vincent de paul or known as ssvp
Veneration
In 1705, the Superior-General of the Lazarists requested that the process of his canonization might be instituted. On 13 August 1729, Vincent was declared Blessed by Pope Benedict XIII. He was canonized nearly eight years later by Pope Clement XII on 16 June 1737. In 1885, Pope Leo XIII gave him as patron to the sisters of Charity.[6] He is also patron to the Brothers of Charity.
St. Vincent's body was exhumed in 1712, 52 years after his death. The written account of an eye witness states that "...(t)he eyes and nose alone showed some decay." However, when the body was exhumed again during the canonization in 1737 it was then discovered to have decomposed due to an underground flood. His bones have been encased in a waxen figure which is displayed in a glass reliquary in the chapel of the headquarters of the Vincentian fathers in Paris. His heart is still incorrupt, and is displayed in a reliquary in the chapel of the motherhouse of the Sisters of Charity in Paris.[7]
In 1737, his feast day was included in the Roman Calendar on 19 July, because his day of death was already used for the feast of Saints Cosmas and Damian. It was originally to be celebrated with the rank of "Double", which was changed to the equivalent rank of "Third-Class Feast" in 1960.[8]
In the Novus Ordo calendar, he is remembered with a memorial on 27 September, Cosmas and Damian having been moved to 26 September to make way for him, as he is now better known in the West.[9]
DePaul University takes its name from Vincent de Paul.
References
- ^ Michael Walsh, ed. "Butler's Lives of the Saints" (HarperCollins Publishers: New York, 1991) pp 304.
- ^ http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15434c.htm
- ^ http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15434c.htm
- ^ Michael Walsh, ed. "Butler's Lives of the Saints" (HarperCollins Publishers: New York, 1991) pp 304.
- ^ http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15434c.htm
- ^ http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15434c.htm
- ^ The Incorruptibles, Joan Carroll Cruz, Tan Books and Publishers, Inc., 1977, pp. 248-9.
- ^ General Roman Calendar of 1962
- ^ Calendarium Romanum (Libreria Editrice Vaticana 1969), p. 140
This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913.
See also
- Saint Vincent College
- Society of Saint Vincent de Paul
- Vincentian Family
- Vincentian Studies Institute
External links
famvin.com
