St. Vincent de Paul (1581-1660)
Image: Aquitaine
(EWTN) Born in France Gascony, Vincent like his fellow Saint Francis de Sales (Feast Day: 24 January) who was his friend and contemporary, performed an invaluable service to the Church in a period of confusion and laxness.
In 1625 St. Vincent de Paul established the Congregation of Priests of the Missions according to Catholic News Agency as part of an effort to evangelize rural populations and foster vocations to remedy a priest shortage in which he wrote courtesy of the Vatican a wonderful message so practical, for even in our day:
“Our vocation is to go and enflame the heart of men, to do what the Son of God did, He who brought fire into the world to set it alright with His love. What else can we wish for than for it to burn and consume all things?
Thus it is true that I have been sent not only to love God but also to make men love Him.
It is not enough to love God if my neighbor does not love Him. I must love my neighbor as the image of God and the object of His love and do everything so that in their turn men love their Creator who knows and considers them as His brothers who He has served. I must obtain that they love each other with mutual love, out of love for God who loved them to the point of abandoning to death His very Son. So that is my duty.
Now if it is true that we are called to bear God’s love near and far, if we must set nations alight, if our vocation is to go and spread this divine fire in the whole world, if it is so my brothers, if it is really so, how must I myself burn of this divine fire.
How can we give love to others, if we do not have it among us? Let us look if it is so not generally but if each one has it within himself, in due amount because if love is not on fire in us, if we do not love each other as Jesus Christ loved us and if we do not act as He did. how can we hope to spread such love throughout the world? You can not give what you do not have. The precise duty of charity consists of ‘doing to others what you reasonably would like done for yourself.’ Do I really behave towards my neighbor as I wish he would towards me?
Let us look at the Son of God. Only our Lord can be so taken by love for creatures so much as to leave His Father’s throne and take a body subject to infirmity and why? In order to establish among us, with His word and example, the love of our neighbors. This is the love that led Him to the Cross and accomplished the wonderful work of our redemption. If we had a little of such love, would we stay here with folded arms? Oh! No, love can not remain barren, it urges us to obtain Salvation and relief for others.”
Not long after establishing the ‘Congregation of Priests of the Mission’ Fr. Vincent de Paul worked with the future Saint Louise de Marillac (Feast Day: 15 March) to establish the ‘Daughters of Charity’ dedicated to serving the sick, poor and neglected.
Under Sister Louise de Marillac direction, the Order collected donations which Fr. Vincent de Paul distributed widely among the needy. — These contributions went toward homes for abandoned children, a hospice for the elderly and a large complex where some 40,000 poor people were given lodging and work.
Admired for great accomplishments during his lifetime, Fr. Vincent de Paul, maintained great personal humility, using his reputation and connections to help the poor and strengthen the Church.
Fr. Vincent de Paul passed away on this date in 1660 only months following the death of St. Louise de Marillac (1591-1660) — In August 1729 he was Beatified by Pope Benedict XIII and Canonized in June 1737 by Pope Clement XI
More here from Franciscan Media