Joyful Servant, Grateful Heart: The Life of St. Vincent de Paul

Fr. Scott Haynes

A Meditation for the Feast of St. Vincent de Paul

July 19

Today we celebrate the Feast of St. Vincent de Paul. Born into a poor family, he raised pigs and did hard farm labor before he was ordained a priest at the tender age of 19. After only five years as a priest, Vincent received news that he had been left in the will a sum of fifteen hundred livres (comparable to $23,000 in American money). Filled with gratitude, Vincent set about his journey, hoping to use the money to help the poor.

On his way to Toulouse, he accepted an invitation to board a sea vessel to Narbonne, which would have significantly reduced his trip on foot.  Not long after boarding the ship, three African boats bore down upon them and opened fire.  The Frenchmen refused to surrender.  Three on board were killed, and the rest were wounded – including Vincent de Paul.  The Muslim pirates boarded the French ship, and chained their prisoners together.

Vincent and his fellow captives held out hope that the French authorities would hear of their troubles and rescue them, but it was not to be.  The Muslim captain had sent word that a Spanish ship had captured Vincent and his friends, who now had only faith and patience to keep them alive.

Once in Tunis, Vincent and his shipmates were paraded through town several times daily and sold into slavery.  They were subjected to much public humiliation. Vincent soon found a master in local fisherman, but before long was sold to an old chemist who had sought the Philosopher’s Stone. 

The chemist promised to give Father Vincent all of his money and teach him everything he knew about science if only Vincent would convert to Islam.  Of course, Vincent was horrified at this prospect.  When the chemist died, his possessions instead passed on to his nephew.  One of those possessions was, of course, Father Vincent. The nephew sold Vincent to a man who was a native of Savoy, born a Christian but now a Muslim convert.  This new master had married three wives, according to Turkish custom. 

One of the wives witnessed Vincent cheerfully gardening and singing to himself, and approached him about how he was able to serve with such joy as he was a slave.  Vincent, who by this time had learned enough Arabic to converse, told her of his boyhood in Gascony and how he had become a priest. The Turkish woman implored her husband to find out more about his former Christian faith.  After some soul searching, Vincent’s master decided that he and Vincent should disguise themselves and set sail for France.  On June 28, 1607, they arrived and Vincent was back home. 

But he knew that his job was not done; he brought his master to the city of Avignon. The master made his confession to the Pope's legate, and was admitted back into the Christian religion. The following year, this man entered the monastery and worked with the poor the rest of his life. Vincent de Paul returned to Paris and continued his works of charity. It has been said that there wasn’t a poor man who didn’t know of Vincent’s kindness. Despite his trials, Vincent was not a bitter man. Rather, he had a grateful heart. He was able to see through the difficulties to realize God was working good somehow through it all.

St. Vincent De Paul took great spiritual strength from his devotion to Our Lady and he instructed the members of his order to depend more on the Rosary than upon their preaching.  Entrusting all the missionary efforts of his congregation to Our Lady, St. Vincent sent some Vincentian priests to Scotland. Among them was a Fr. Duggan who went to the Hebrides. One day Fr. Duggan came across a young man in tears and asked him what was the matter.

“My poor father is dying ... He said that he will not die until he has seen a priest, and that he has said the Rosary every day for this intention all his life, i.e. he has asked Our Lady fifty times a day ‘pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.’”

It was impossible to see a priest. There were no priests in Scotland because of the persecution. But in this moment, Fr. Duggan, who was disguised as a layman, revealed who he was and gave the old man the last sacraments. Our Lady had answered the old man’s prayers in spite of the impossibility of the situation. 

St. Vincent used to say that nothing was so efficacious in winning the heart of God as a spirit of gratitude for his gifts and blessings—this spiritual wisdom St. Vincent learned at the feet of Mary as he prayed his rosary. St. Vincent de Paul said,

“We must give as much time to thanking God for his favors as we have used in asking him for them.”  

Let us thank God today as St. Vincent de Paul did – through the Rosary – for there will learn, as did he, all spiritual wisdom.