SAINT FEAST DAY 27 SEPTEMBER: ST VINCENT DE PAUL

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN SEPTEMBER

Saints celebrated on the 27th of September

WELCOME!

SAINT VINCENT DE PAUL, CONFESSOR

Vincent de Paul was born at Pouy in Gascony, and even from boyhood displayed exceptional charity towards the poor. From the care of his father’s flocks, he was sent to study letters and then, having been ordained a priest, fell into the hands of the Turks, being led captive by them into Africa. Together with his owner, an apostate, whom he brought back to the faith of Christ, he escaped and returned to France.

HIS LIFE AFTER THE ESCAPE FROM AFRICA

He displayed marvellous zeal for the parishes and entrusted to him and then, as chaplain, for the salvation of souls on board the galleys. He directed the nuns of the Visitation with the greatest prudence for nearly forty years. He universally devoted himself to the preaching of the Gospel to the poor, especially to the country people, until he was disabled by old age.

HIS WORK

To this apostolic work, by a perpetual vow confirmed by the Holy See, he obligated both himself and the members of the congregation which he founded under the name of Secular Priests of the Mission. He also founded many societies for seeking out and alleviating the lot of the wretched and also for the education of the girls.

PATRON OF CHARITABLE SOCIETIES

At length, worn out with bodily pains, labours and old age, in the year of salvation 1660, he calmly fell asleep in the Lord. Illustrious for miracles, he was placed among the saints by Clement XII, and Leo XIII proclaimed and appointed him the special patron before God of all charitable societies existing in the entire Catholic world, which, in any way soever, emanate from him.

PRAYER:

O God, who endowed St Vincent with apostolic strength to preach the Gospel to the poor and to enhance the dignity of clerical life; grant, we beseech you, that we who honour his holy merits may also conform to the example of his virtues. Through our Lord.

From: An Approved English Translation of the Breviarium Romanum, Burns & Oates, London, 1964