He was born on April 24, 1581 in a village called Pouy in Gascony in France. He was ordained a priest in the year 1600. When he was on a sea voyage from Marseilles to Narbonne, he fell into the hands of sea-pirates in the year 1605 and was taken as a slave to Tunis. He was in captivity as a slave for two years and escaped from captivity in the year 1607 by converting his owner to Christianity. He then returned to France and became preceptor in the family of Emmanuel de Gondy, Count of Goigny. In the year 1625 he laid the foundation of a congregation, which was later called as the Congregation of the Mission or Lazerists or Vincentians. In the year 1633 he founded the Daughters of Charity. He was renowned for his compassion, humility and generosity. He was also revered as the “great Apostle of Charity”. He died on September 27, 1660 and his heart is still incorrupt. He was declared blessed by Pope Benedict-XIII on August 13, 1729 and canonized by Pope Clement-XII on June 16, 1737. He was given as a patron to the Sisters of Charity by Pope Leo-XIII. He is also the patron of the Brothers of Charity. The Society of Vincent de Paul was established by the students of French University in the year 1833, led by the Blessed Frederic Ozanam.
St Vincent De Paul
“Go to the poor: you will find God.”
“The most powerful weapon to conquer the devil is humility.”
“Love the poor and honor them as you would Christ himself.”
“Our business is to gain heaven; everything else is a sheer waste of time.”
0927 St Vincent De Paul 2p LETTER 20251112St. Vincent de Paul Prayer
Lord Jesus, may the example of St. Vincent de Paul inspire us to be generous of hearts and hand to the needy. May our generosity flow from humble gratitude for your many gifts to us, rather than from false pride in our own abilities. We are all needy in our own ways-and so are dependent on your generosity and that of others. Help us to respond willingly to the Gospel call to self-giving love, to look for ways to serve rather than expecting to be served.
Prayer To St Vincent de Paul
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, tranquillity 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.
… St Vincent de Paul, Pray for Us …
Prayer For Homeless Persons
O God you are a God of justice, mercy, and compassion. Support us, your servants of the poor, as we endeavor to bring your love and compassion to people who are homeless and in need of your love. We pray that we will see you, our all-loving God in each homeless person we encounter and in our service for those in need. May we do all in our power to support each person reach their potential, so they experience the fullness of life. We ask this prayer through Jesus Christ Our Lord.
Amen.
Prayer To St Vincent de Paul I
Noble Saint Vincent de Paul,
beloved servant of the poor,
may we follow your example and do good works
among those whom society has abandoned,
enslaved, or forgotten.
Inspire us to feed the hungry,
to love a child,
to provide comfort and medicine to the sick,
to clothe those whose garments are threadbare,
and to offer hope and our Lord’s words
to all who need respite.
Pray for us to our beloved God
that we may commit ourselves selflessly
to doing the same charitable acts
that you did all your life,
and intercede with him
that we may have the favour of his guidance
and strength and love upon this important and meaningful work.
Amen.
Prayer of the Vincentian Family
Lord Jesus, you who willed to become poor, give us eyes and a heart directed toward the poor; help us recognize you in them — in their thirst, their hunger, their loneliness, and their misfortune. Enkindle within our Vincentian Family unity, simplicity, humility, and the fire of love that burned in St. Vincent de Paul. Strengthen us, so that faithful to the practice of these virtues, we may contemplate you and see you in the person of the poor and may one day be united with you and them in your Kingdom.
Amen.
Prayer to St. Vincent de Paul
O Glorious Saint Vincent de Paul,
The mention of your name,
Suggests a litany of your virtues:
Humility, zeal, mercy, self-sacrifice.
It also recalls
Your many foundations:
Works of Mercy,
Congregations,
Societies.
The Church gratefully remembers,
Your promotion of the priesthood.
Inspire all Charitable Workers,
Especially those who minister,
To both the spiritually
And the materially poor.
O Lord, give us the grace,
That You bestowed upon,
Your servant St. Vincent de Paul,
To relinquish the temptation,
Of material things,
In our holy effort,
To minister to the poor.
Amen.
St. Vincent de Paul: Apostle of Charity
Who He Was
St. Vincent de Paul was a French Catholic priest best known for his dedication to serving the poor with Christlike love, both regarding their material and spiritual well-being, as well as for his commitment to the sick, orphaned children, convicts, and slaves.
Like his fellow saint, Francis de Sales — who was his friend and contemporary — Vincent de Paul performed an invaluable service to the Catholic Church in a period of confusion and laxness. But unlike the aristocratic bishop of Geneva, Vincent was born in poverty, of peasant stock.
Early Life & Unlikely Path
Born of a peasant family, he made his humanities studies at Dax with the Cordeliers, and his theological studies, interrupted by a short stay at Saragossa, were made at Toulouse where he graduated in theology. Four years later, in 1600, he was ordained a priest.
Captured and Enslaved
Brought to Marseilles for an inheritance, he was returning by sea in 1605 when Turkish pirates captured him and took him to Tunis. He was sold as a slave, but escaped in 1607 with his master, a renegade whom he converted.
This episode — far from breaking him — forged in Vincent a profound solidarity with suffering humanity. The young priest, terrified that his faith would be corrupted in this alien environment, prayed for divine protection, particularly for the intercession of the Blessed Virgin. It was prayer and trust in Providence that carried him through — a pattern that would define his entire life.
Ministry to the Poor & Forgotten
Upon returning to France, Vincent’s apostolate took extraordinary shape:
- Assisted by a priest, he began visiting the galley convicts of Paris, speaking kind words to them and doing them every manner of service, however repulsive. He won their hearts, converted many of them, and interested several persons in their behalf. A house was purchased where Vincent established a hospital.
- He started confraternities to seek out and care for the sick in every parish. From these groups, under the leadership of Louise de Marillac, sprang the Sisters of Charity, “whose chapel is the parish church, whose cloister the streets of the city and wards of the hospitals.”
- Recalling his own sorrows as a slave in Tunisia, he raised enough money to ransom some twelve hundred Christian slaves in Africa.
- Through his care, soup was distributed daily to 15,000 or 16,000 refugees or worthy and poor; 800 to 900 young women were sheltered; in the single parish of St. Paul the Sisters of Charity made and distributed soup every day to 500 poor, besides which they had to care for 60 to 80 sick.
Founder of Lasting Institutions
He founded the Congregation of the Mission, which St. Vincent officially established in 1625, and which today numbers about four thousand missionaries — priests and brothers — serving in eighty countries throughout the world.
He bound these missionaries by a special vow to undertake the apostolic work of charity, sending them to preach missions — especially to the ignorant peasants of the time — and to establish seminaries.
Defender of Orthodoxy
Vincent was deeply concerned at the rise and spread of the Jansenist heresy. He protested hotly against a view of God that seemed to limit His mercy, and no priest teaching that error could remain in his congregation. St. Vincent induced 85 bishops to request the condemnation of the five famous Jansenist propositions, and persuaded Anne of Austria to write to the pope to hasten his decision.
His Interior Life
In the midst of great affairs, his soul never strayed from God; always when he heard the clock strike, he made the sign of the cross as an act of divine love. Under setbacks, calumnies, and frustrations — and there were many — he preserved his serenity of mind. He looked on all events as manifestations of the Divine will, to which he was perfectly resigned.
This exterior life, so fruitful in works, had its source in a profound spirit of religion and in an interior life of wonderful intensity. He was singularly faithful to the duties of his state, careful to obey the suggestions of faith and piety, devoted to prayer, meditation, and all religious and ascetic exercises.
Death, Canonization & Legacy
On September 27, 1660, he received the Last Sacraments and died calmly in his chair, being then eighty-five years old. He was buried in the church of St. Lazare, Paris. In 1729 he was beatified by Benedict XIII, and canonized by Clement XII in 1737.
When his body was exhumed, his heart was found incorrupt — a testament to the love that marked his life.
Pope Leo XIII proclaimed him patron of all charitable societies.
His motto says it all: “God sees you.” St. Vincent worked tirelessly to help those in need: the impoverished, the sick, the enslaved, the abandoned, the ignored.
St. Vincent de Paul is a living rebuke to the comfortable Christianity that confines itself to pews and prayers without boots on the ground. He saw Christ in every broken face, and he served Christ there — joyfully, tirelessly, and with the full weight of the Church behind him.
His feast day is celebrated on September
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