MEMORIAL OF SAINT VINCENT DE PAUL, PRIEST: Today, we celebrate the Memorial of Saint Vincent de Paul, Priest. Through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary, Mother of Mercy and Saint Vincent de Paul on this feast day, we humbly pray for the poor, the needy, the weak and most vulnerable among us and in the world. We pray for volunteers and charitable organizations, such as the Saint Vincent de Paul Society that attend to the needs of the poor and most vulnerable among us. We pray for the sick and dying, especially those who are mentally and physically illness and those suffering from cancers and other terminal diseases. We pray for the souls in Purgatory and the repose of the souls of the faithful departed. We pray for all widows and widowers. We pray for peace, love, and unity in our marriages, our families and our world. And we continue to pray for our Holy Father, the Bishops, the Clergy, for vocations to the priesthood and religious life, for the Church, for persecuted christians, for the conversion of sinners, and Christians all over the world…. Amen🙏
SAINT VINCENT DE PAUL, PRIEST: St. Vincent de Paul (1581 – 1660) was born to poor parents, Jean de Paul and Bertrande de Moras in southwest of France, near Dax in the Landes (in the old Province of Gascony) on April 24, 1581, Saint-Vincent-de-Paul, France. He was a 17th century French Catholic Priest who dedicated himself to serving the poor and marginalized. A great apostle of charity, and brought a great revival of the priesthood in the 17th century. St. Vincent enjoyed his first schooling under the Franciscan Fathers at Acqs. He showed his intellectual gifts from a young age. Such had been his progress in four years that a gentleman chose him as a tutor for his children, and he was thus enabled to continue his studies without being a burden to his parents. In 1596, around age 15 he went to the University of Toulouse for theological studies, and there he was ordained a priest in 1600, and worked as a tutor to students in Toulouse.
During a sea voyage in 1605, from Marseille to Narbonne, as a young priest, St. Vincent was captured by Turkish (Moorish) pirates who sold him into slavery and carried him to Tunis in North Africa. His ordeal of captivity lasted for two years, until 1607, during which time the priest converted his owner to the Christian faith and escaped with him from Tunisia. Afterward, he spent time studying in Rome, and – in a striking reversal of fortune – served as an educator and spiritual guide to members of an upper-class French family when he returned to France. The family of Emmanuel de Gondy, Count of Joigny, and general of the galleys of France. St. Vincent served as a parish priest and ministered to the nobility; however, two life-changing encounters with destitute people inspired him to begin work among the poor and marginalized. Although Vincent had initially begun his priesthood with the intention of securing a life of leisure for himself, he underwent a change of heart after hearing the confession of a dying peasant. Moved with compassion for the poor, he began undertaking missions and founding institutions to help them both materially and spiritually. The one-time slave also ministered to convicts forced to serve in squalid conditions as rowers aboard galley ships. He became successively a parish priest and chaplain to the galley-slaves.
In 1617, he began to preach missions, and in 1625 he laid the foundation for a religious Congregation under the title of Priests of the Mission or Lazarists (now known as Vincentians), was so named on account of the Priory of St. Lazarus, which the Fathers began to occupy in 1633. He bound them by a special way to undertake the apostolic work of charity; he sent them to preach missions, especially to the ignorant peasants of that time, and to establish seminaries. The congregation was part of an effort to evangelize rural populations and foster vocations to remedy a priest shortage. Not long after this, in order to help poor girls, invalids, and the insane, sick and unemployed, he gathered the wealthy women of his parish to collect funds for missionary projects. From this group came the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul. He worked with the future Saint Louise de Marillac to organize the Daughters of Charity, now better known as the Sisters of St. Vincent, the first congregation of women religious whose consecrated life involved an extensive apostolate among the poor, the sick, and prisoners. Under Louise’s direction, the order collected donations which Vincent distributed widely among the needy. These contributions went toward homes for abandoned children, a hospice for the elderly, and an immense complex where 40,000 poor people were given lodging and work. Vincent was involved in various ways with all of these works, as well as with efforts to help refugees and to free those sold into slavery in foreign lands.
Though admired for these accomplishments during his lifetime, the priest maintained great personal humility, using his reputation and connections to help the poor and strengthen the Church. Doctrinally, Vincent was a strong opponent of Jansenism, a theological heresy that denied the universality of God’s love and discouraged reception of the Eucharist. He was also involved in the reform of several religious orders within France. St. Vincent worked tirelessly to help those in need: the impoverished, the sick, the enslaved, the abandoned, the ignored. St. Vincent de Paul died at the age of eighty, on September 27, 1660, at St. Lazarus’s house, Paris, France, only months after the death of St. Louise de Marillac in March of the same year. Pope Clement XII canonized him in 1737. Leo XIII proclaimed him special patron of charitable institutions. St. Vincent renewed the faith of France during a time of spiritual crisis. For this he was named the patron of charitable works. In 1835, the French scholar Blessed Frederic Ozanam took him as the inspiration and namesake for the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul, a lay Catholic organization dedicated to working for the relief of the poor, now working in 132 countries. St. Vincent de Paul is the Patron Saint of charitable societies; horses; hospitals; leprosy; lost articles; prisoners; volunteers; spiritual help; Saint Vincent de Paul Societies; Vincentian Service Corps; Madagascar; diocese of Richmond, Virginia. His feast day is September 27th.
Saint Vincent de Paul’s motto: “God sees you. Let us love God; but at the price of our hands and sweat of our face.”
QUOTES OF SAINT VINCENT DE PAUL:
☆”Go to the poor: you will find God.”
☆”We should spend as much time in thanking God for His benefits as we do in asking Him for them.”
☆”Humility is nothing but truth, and pride is nothing but lying.”
☆”Charity is certainly greater than any rule. Moreover, all rules must lead to charity.”
☆”Make it a practice to judge persons and things in the most favorable light at all times and under all circumstances.”
☆”The kingdom of God is peace in the Holy Spirit; He will reign in you if your heart is at peace. So, be at peace, Mademoiselle, and you will honor in a sovereign way the God of peace and love.”
PRAYER TO ST. VINCENT DE PAUL (to End the Coronavirus Pandemic): “O Saint Vincent de Paul, our father and model, throughout your life you wished to imitate Jesus, the missionary and servant. In your time, you confronted the plague, the illness of the people. Intercede now with the Holy Trinity on behalf of all the nations on earth visited by the modern scourge. Help the bodies and hearts of all victims. Strengthen caregivers, be close to all neighbors, and enlighten researchers. Walk with those approaching the portals of death.
As you gave strong and ardent advice to struggle against evil, so now come to our aid! Teach us how to expose our lives for the weakest among us, and strengthen us to help them better in fearless perseverance. With the sole desire of aiding them in their needs, open our spirits to God’s infinite providence. Let us endow it with his total will for action. Inspire in us, also, obedience to our leaders, as we now place ourselves in your hands, confident and fortified with genuine feelings of dedication and zeal for our sisters and brothers. Amen”🙏
PRAYER: St. Vincent, patron of all charitable associations and father of those who are in misery, come to our assistance. Obtain from our Lord help for the poor, relief for the infirm, consolation for the afflicted, protection for the abandoned, a spirit of generosity for the rich, grace of conversion for sinners, zeal for priests, peace for the Church, tranquility and order for all nations, and salvation for them all. May we be united in the life to come, by your intercession, and experience joy, gladness, and everlasting happiness. Amen.🙏
God, You gave St. Vincent de Paul apostolic virtues for the salvation of the poor and the formation of the clergy. Grant that, endowed with the same spirit, we may love what he loved and act according to his teaching. Amen 🙏