Remembering St Vincent de Paul

Today we celebrate the feast of St Vincent de Paul and his life is a perfect ilustration of today's gospel (Luke 9:46-50). Jesus was aware that the disciples were arguing about which of them was the greatest. He placed a little child by his side and said, ''Whoever welcomes this child in my name welcomes me, for the least among you is the greatest.'' Vincent was born in France in 1581 and his early life seems to have been complicated. He was somehow ordained a priest when he was 19 years old, when the required age was 24, and he first ministered to the rich and powerful, enjoying a comfortable life. Like many saints, he underwent a conversion when he was assigned to a poor parish and discovered the reality of those suffering from poverty and slavery. He was also converted to living his priesthood not as a career but as a personal relationship with Jesus. To help the most marginalised, he organized wealthy women in Paris to collect funds for mission projects and to ransom 1,200 galley slaves from Northern Africa. With Louise de Marillac, he founded the Daughters of Charity and for men, the Congregation known as the Vincentians for rural missions and the formation of the clergy. He urged his followers to bring God's justice and peace to those who were unable to lead a full life. ''There is no charity without justice ,'' he was fond of saying. The Vinnies, or Society of Vincent de Paul, as we know it, was founded much later in 1833 by Frederick Ozanam, taking Vincent as it's patron. Perhaps today our best way to honour St Vincent would be to support the work of the Society named after him, which continues his work for those in need.