Saint of the Day: St. Vincent de Paul

Founder of the Congregation of the Missions and the Daughters of Charity (1580-1660)

His life

+ Born in 1580, Vincent was ordained when he was only twenty-years old and appointed to serve as chaplain of Queen Margaret of Valois. He later became the private chaplain to the powerful Gondi Family.

+ While ministering to peasants on the Gondi estate, Vincent came to understand that God was calling him to serve the poor and most marginalized. 

+ Returning to Paris, Monsieur Vincent helped galley slaves, organized charitable confraternities to provide food and clothing for the poor, and founded a new community of priests and brothers dedicated to the missions and formation of the seminarians: the Congregation of the Missions (now more commonly known as the Vincentians). A short time later, aided by Saint Louise de Marillac, he founded the Daughters of Charity.

+ Always gentle, understanding, and aware of the needs of the poor, Vincent de Paul died in 1660. Canonized in 1737, he is honored as the patron saint of social workers. 

+ Inspired by the life and mission of Saint Vincent, Blessed Frederic Ozanam established a charitable organization dedicated to the care of the sick and poor. Since 1833 Frederic’s “conference of charity”—the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul—has provided care for countless people in need throughout the world. 

For prayer and reflection 

“If you consider the poor in the light of faith, then you will observe that they are taking the place of the Son of God who chose to be poor.”—Saint Vincent de Paul

Spiritual bonus

On this day we also remember three members (who were also biological sisters) of the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary who martyred during the anti-Catholic violence of the Spanish Civil War. Blessed Maria Carme Fradera Ferragutcasas, Blessed Maria Magdalena Fradera Ferragutcasas, Blessed Maria Fradera Ferragutcasas were killed in Lloret de Mar, Girona, Spain, on September 27, 1936, and were beatified in 2007. 

Prayer

O God, who for the relief of the poor
and the formation of the clergy
endowed the Priest Saint Vincent de Paul
with apostolic virtues,
grant, we pray, that, afire with that same spirit,
we may love what he loved
and put into practice what he taught.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

(from The Roman Missal)
Saint profiles prepared by Fr. Silas Henderson, S.D.S.