397 



VINCENT DE PAUL, SAINT. 



VINCENT DE PAUL, SAINT. 



893 



knew the truth." The real author of the robbery was at length dis" 

 covered, and the reputation of Vincent rose still higher in the estima- 

 tion of those who had witnessed the patience and resignation which he 

 had displayed under the false accusation. His adversity however was 

 alleviated by the sympathy and support of several influential personages, 

 whose friendship and esteem his merit had conciliated. Among them 

 was Margaret of Valois, sister of Henry III., and the divorced queen of 

 his successor, who appointed him her almoner, and Pierre de Berulle, 

 afterwards cardinal, and founder of the congregation of the Oratoire. 

 By the latter he was induced to accept the cure of the parish of 

 Clichy in the neighbourhood of Paris, where he discharged his duties 

 with exemplary diligence. His short residence in that village was 

 attended with the happiest results; not only were the sick attended 

 to, the poor assisted, and the afflicted consoled, but family discords 

 and dissent in religious matters were made by his pious influence to 

 cease. 



In 1613, he was obliged to abandon this peaceful scene of spiritual 

 labour, to undertake the education of the three sons of Philippe 

 Emmanuel de Gondi, count of Joigny, and general of the galleys of 

 France. These pupils of Vincent were destined to occupy an import- 

 ant position in the history of their country ; one of them became the 

 well known Due de lie'tz; another, the famous cardinal, who acted 

 so conspicuous a part in the civil wars of the Fronde. [RETZ, CAR- 

 DINAL DE.] 



In 1616, he accompanied the Countess de Joigny to her country 

 residence at Folleville, in the diocese of Amiens, where he commenced 

 a series of eminently successful missionary labours among the inhabi- 

 tants. The memory of this mission he was in the habit every year, 

 on the festival of the conversion of St. Paul, of celebrating with pious 

 gratitude. The following year, he left the residence of the Count de 

 Joigny to undertake the cure of the parish of Chatillon, in Bresse, 

 where his labours were attended with similar success. It was there 

 that he first established and organised a religious association for the 

 relief of the temporal and spiritual wants of the sick and poor, to 

 which he gave the name of the " confrerie de charite"," which became 

 the model of many similar institutions in France and other countries. 

 Towards the end of the same year, he was induced to return to the 

 count's family, and, with the permission and co-operation of the 

 countess, a lady of pious disposition and intelligent mind, who had 

 placed herself under his spiritual direction, he undertook several 

 successful missions in the dioceses of Beauvais, Soissons, and Sens. 

 An opportunity was now afforded him to labour in a cause still more 

 important, and which presented the prospect of much danger, disap- 

 pointment, and difficulty. He was in the habit of accompanying to 

 Marseille the Count de Joigny, whose situation as commander of the 

 royal galleys rendered it necessary for him frequently to visit that 

 city. He was there moved with compassion on witnessing the suffer- 

 ings and severities to which were subjected the unhappy criminals 

 condemned to the galleys. To ameliorate their condition and to 

 alleviate their sufferings was the task which Vincent took upon him- 

 self. He found them in narrow and unhealthy dungeons, almost 

 entirely deprived of air and light, with bread and water for their only 

 food : disfigured by filth, and covered with vermin, these wretched 

 victims of their own misdeeds, and of the misguided policy of the 

 state, sank shortly after their admission into a brutal state of igno- 

 rance and ferocity. Vincent began his work of reformation by intro- 

 ducing himself among them as their friend and benefactor, and 

 undeterred by the rude scoffs and jests to which he was at first 

 exposed, and undismayed by the havocks of a pestilential disease, 

 which was habitual in these prisons, he unremittingly pursued his 

 charitable mission ; his kindly manner, his patient attention to their 

 wants, his reproofs, tempered by mildness and Christian charity, and 

 above all, his own example of humility and self-devotion, soon over 

 came all obstacles; he gained their confidence, and thus secured a 

 ready acquiescence in his efforts for their welfare. In a short time, 

 the most unexpected success attended the improvements which he 

 introduced and the reformation which he effected. The ameliorated 

 condition of these criminals was sensibly felt and gratefully acknow- 

 ledged by his patron, who called the attention of the king, Louis XIII., 

 to the change which had taken place among the criminals under his 

 care, and to the devoted man by whom it had been produced, and the 

 king, with appropriate consideration for the services he had rendered, 

 appointed Vincent almoner-general of the galleys of France; the date 

 of bis appointment to this important office was 8th of February 1619. 

 In the beginning of the following year, Francis de Sales, the celebrated 

 bishop of Geneva, whose intimacy he hs.d for some time previously 

 enjoyed, confided to him the direction of the first convent of the order 

 of the Visitation, which he had lately established. [SALES, DE, 

 FRANCIS, SAINT.] 



In 1623, Vincent established two "confre"ries de charite" in the 

 town of Macon, one for men, and the other for women. He next 

 visited the city of Bordeaux, for the purpose of inquiring into the 

 condition of the criminals there condemned to the galleys. On leaving 

 that city, he visited his friends and relations in his native village; 

 having assembled together those who -remained of his family, he 

 informed them of his determination to die as he had lived, destitute 

 of all worldly wealth ; told them that money left by a priest to his 

 family seldom prospered, and thus weaned them from any expecta- 



tion they might have formed of obtaining property at his death. This 

 resolution however did not prevent him, on a subsequent occasion, 

 from distributing among them about a hundred pounds of our money, 

 which had been bequeathed to him. 



The next scene of Vincent's labour was the town of Chartree, where 

 he founded an association under the name of the " Congregation of 

 the Missions," which was intended to supply the provinces of France 

 with efficient teachers of religion, who were to act as assistants to the 

 regular clergy, and were to be subordinate to the authorities of the 

 church. On the 6th of March 1624, the "College des Bons Enfans" 

 was given to him as the first residence of the new company he had 

 formed. For the better watching of his infant institution, he left the 

 family of the Count de Joigny, and retired to this college. In 1627, 

 he had the satisfaction to see the Congregation of the Missions autho- 

 rised by letters patent from the king, and in 1631, formally approved 

 by a bull of the Pope Urban VIII. During this period he was actively 

 employed in establishing retreats for the membeis of the society, and 

 for persons destined to enter the orders of the church ; a measure 

 which greatly tended to the reformation of many existing abuses. 

 In 1632, he yielded to the repeated requests of the prior of St. 

 Lazarus, Adrien Lebon, to accept his house and property for the pur- 

 pose of furthering his projects for the instruction and relief of the 

 poorer classes of the peasantry. Small as were the beginnings of this 

 institution, he lived to see the order of the Lazarists spread its chari- 

 table influence over the greater part of Europe. The institution how- 

 ever which has probably been productive of the most beneficial 

 consequences was that which he established in 1634 ; it was composed 

 of a company of pious females, called Sisters of Charity, who especially 

 devoted themselves to the attendance of the sick ; a branch of this 

 society, called " les Dames de la Croix," was intended for the sole 

 service of 1 Hotel Dieu at Paris. To Vincent de Paul this city indeed 

 has been peculiarly indebted for many valuable and still existing 

 institutions. Among them may be mentioned the hospitals of ' La 

 Pitie",' ' Bicetre,' ' La Salpe"triere,' and ' Les Eufans Trouve's,' or 

 Foundling Hospital. The origin of this last-mentioned institution 

 exhibits a striking proof of the disinterested zeal of Vincent. Previous 

 to the establishment of the Foundling Hospital in Paris, an immense 

 number of children, the fruits of licentious intercourse or the victims 

 of their parents' poverty, were daily exposed in the streets and 

 public places of that city, and often left there to perish. The pitiable 

 condition of these innocent sufferers excited the commiseration and 

 stimulated the charitable zeal of this devoted minister of the church. 

 For the purpose of affording them food and succour, he enlisted in his 

 cause several ladies of the capital, over whom his simple piety had 

 already exercised a beneficial influence. He called them together at 

 the commencement of the year 1640, and so energetically set before 

 tliem the motives for their charitable intervention in the cause of 

 these unhappy foundlings, that they determined upon making the 

 trial of taking under their protection all who should hereafter be dis- 

 covered. The generous gift of an annual rent of 12,000 livres from 

 the Queen Anne of Austria was the first assistance they received in 

 their humane design. Soon however the wants of these foundlings 

 exceeded the funds which charity could raise ; discouraged in their 

 efforts, and fearful that the task which they had undertaken was 

 beyond their means and abilities, the adopted parents of these children, 

 were about to abandon their charitable enterprise. To avert such an 

 issue, Vincent, in 1648, called together another and more numerous 

 assembly, at which he pleaded the interests of these innocent outcasts 

 of society in a language of fervid and impassioned eloquence. The 

 termination of his address on that occasion has been recorded by a 

 high authority as one of the finest pieces of eloquence in any language. 

 (Maury, " Essai sur 1'Eloquence de la Chaire.') [MAURT, J. S.] Rich 

 and plentiful were the fruits of his energetic pleading ; alms were col- 

 lected in abundance, two large buildings were converted into hospitals 

 for foundlings, and the capital of France was no longer disgraced by 

 the daily exhibition in its streets of helpless children dying from the 

 want of food and succour. Besides the hospital already mentioned, 

 Vincent founded two others, which have been productive of consider- 

 able benefit : one at Paris, which went under the designation of the 

 name of Jesus, for the maintenance of forty poor men, whom age had 

 incapacitated from labour; the other, that of Sainte Heine, in the 

 diocese of Autun, in Burgundy, for the relief of the poor and sick 

 among the numerous pilgrims who are accustomed to visit the shrine 

 of that martyr. 



While occupied in the formation of societies and in the establish- 

 ment of institutions destined for the permanent relief of his fellow- 

 creatures, he was -no less zealous and persevering in attending to the 

 immediate wants of those who came within the reach of his assistance. 

 The province of Lorraine was, during the latter period of the reign of 

 Louis XIII., suffering under the threefold calamity of war, pestilence, 

 and famine. To that province, by his charitable exertions, for several 

 successive years, Vincent caused considerable sums of money, which 

 he collected in Paris, to bo sent for the succour of its inhabitants. 

 His biographers differ with respect to the amount, the highest stated 

 being two million livres, and the lowest from five to six hundred 

 thousand. 



During the wars of the Fronde, the Queen-regent, Anne of Austria, 

 instituted a council for the settlement of disputes on questions of 



