Life of St. Vincent de Paul

								


Produced by David McClamrock

SAINT VINCENT DE PAUL
c. 1581-1660
By F.A. [Francis Alice] Forbes

"Blessed is he that understandeth concerning the needy and the poor:
the Lord will deliver him in the evil day."
--Psalm 40:2
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. Wherefore he hath anointed me to
preach the gospel to the poor, he hath sent me to heal the contrite
of heart, to preach deliverance to the captives, and sight to the
blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the
acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of reward."
--Luke 4:18-19

Nihil Obstat: Francis M. Canon Wyndham

              Censor Deputatus
Imprimatur:   Edmund Canon Surmont

              Vicar General

              Westminster

              July 2, 1919

Originally published in 1919 by R. & T. Washbourne, Limited, London,
as Life of St. Vincent de Paul in the series Standard-bearers of
the Faith: A Series of Lives of the Saints for Young and Old.

"Extend mercy towards others, so that there can be no one in need
whom you meet without helping. For what hope is there for us if God
should withdraw His mercy from us?"
--St. Vincent de Paul

CONTENTS
1.  A Peasant's Son
2.  Slavery
3.  A Great Household
4.  The Galleys
5.  Mission Work
6.  The Grey Sisters
7.  The Foundlings
8.  At Court
9.  The Jansenists
10. Troubles in Paris
11. "Confido"

SAINT VINCENT DE PAUL
"Dearly beloved, let us love one another, for charity is of God. And
every one that loveth, is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth
not, knoweth not God: for God is charity."
--1 John 4:7-8

Chapter 1
A PEASANT'S SON
A MONOTONOUS line of sand hills and the sea; a vast barren land
stretching away in wave-like undulations far as eye can reach; marsh
and heath and sand, sand and heath and marsh; here and there a
stretch of scant coarse grass, a mass of waving reeds, a patch of
golden-brown fern--the Landes.
It was through this desolate country in France that a little peasant
boy whose name was destined to become famous in the annals of his
country led his father's sheep, that they might crop the scanty
pasture. Vincent was a homely little boy, but he had the soul of a
knight-errant, and the grace of God shone from eyes that were never
to lose their merry gleam even in extreme old age.
He was intelligent, too, so intelligent that the neighbors said that
Jean de Paul was a fool to set such a boy to tend sheep when he had
three other sons who would never be good for anything else. There was
a family in the neighborhood, they reminded him, who had had a bright
boy like Vincent, and had put him to school--with what result? Why,
he had taken Orders and got a benefice, and was able to support his
parents now that they were getting old, besides helping his brothers
to get on in the world. It was well worthwhile pinching a little for
such a result as that.