ST. VINCENT DE PAUL. 129 



he met. His early promise induced his father to educate him 

 for the church; arid he was admitted, at the age of twenty, 

 into ecclesiastical orders. In 1605, he was taken prisoner by 

 a pirate, when on a voyage from Narbonne to Marseilles; and 

 carried as a slave to Tunis. After having been three times sold 

 in the public market, Vincent at last became the property of a 

 renegade, upon whom his conversation, his patience, and his 

 resignation produced such a change, that he repented of his 

 apostacy, and was anxious to escape from Tunis with Vincent. 

 In the middle of the night, in a frail boat, without compass and 

 without a pilot, these two men set sail to traverse the Mediter- 

 ranean; but Providence guided their bark, and they reached 

 France in safety; and Vincent had soon afterwards the joy of 

 seeing his renegade companion again admitted into the church 

 which he had forsaken. Nor was he, in after life, unmindful of 

 the lesson taught him by the rigors of his three years' captivity. 

 After having sent a large sum to redeem his successors in 

 misfortune, and having founded an hospital for them within 

 the walls of Algiers, he established a permanent fund for the 

 redemption of the slaves, and sent them colonies of mission- 

 aries to confirm and strengthen their faith during their contin- 

 uance in bondage. Hearing that the parish of Chatillon 

 was without a pastor, it having been three times refused in 

 one year, in consequence of the poorness of its endowment, 

 Vincent directly applied for the appointment, and obtained 

 it. Here he had a full opportunity of seeing the influence of 

 a conscientious minister; and while he gained the confidence 

 and affections of his flock, he was able to mature his plans 

 for the reformation of the abuses which existed among the 

 clergy. But he was soon* called upon to leave' his parish 

 and to take charge of the three sons of the Marquis de Gondi, 

 the general of the galleys: one of these pupils was the cele- 

 brated Cardinal de Retz, well known in the war of the Fronde, 

 and who profited but little from the lessons of such a master, 

 although he afterwards, when in authority himself, sanctioned 

 and protected all the establishments of Vincent de Paul. 



* 1613. 



