Vincent de Paul

(1581–1660)

   Saint and Order Founder.

   Vincent was born in Ranquine, France, and he was educated in Toulouse. He was ordained in 1600. After an extraordinary period when he was captured by pirates, sold as a slave in North Africa and escaped, he settled in Paris in 1609. Influenced by Pierre de bé rulle, he founded the Lazarite Order (the Congregation of the Mission), which was dedicated to preaching and conducting retreats. In 1633, together with Louise de Marillac, he founded the Sisters of Charity, who were to become an important teaching and nursing order. During the minority of King Louis XIV, he attained considerable political influence, which he used to encourage poor relief and to oppose the Jansenists. He was canonised in 1737. The Vincent de Paul Society was founded in 1737 by Frédéric ozanam to encourage lay people to work among the poor.

   P. Coste, La Congrégation de la Mission dite de Saint-Lazare (1927) [no English translation available];

   A. Foucault, La Société de Saint Vincent de Paul (1933) [no English translation available];

   M. Purcell, St Vincent de Paul (1963).