Saint Vincent de Paul

Vincent de Paul was born in 1581 in Pouy, in Gascony, France, to a peasant family and was ordained a priest very young, in 1600, hoping for a comfortable career. According to his own later letters, he was captured by pirates and spent two years as a slave in Tunis before escaping. In Paris he became chaplain to the wealthy Gondi family, and gradually his heart turned to the poor peasants on their estates.

In 1617, as a country pastor, he founded the first Confraternity of Charity to care for the sick poor. In 1625 he founded the Congregation of the Mission, the Vincentians, to preach missions in rural areas and train priests, and in 1633, with Saint Louise de Marillac, the Daughters of Charity. He cared for galley slaves, abandoned babies, refugees of war and the starving. He died in Paris on September 27, 1660, and was canonized in 1737.

Pope Leo XIII named him patron of all charitable organizations. The Society of Saint Vincent de Paul, founded in 1833 by Blessed Frédéric Ozanam, now serves the poor in parishes around the world, and its members often hold food drives and special collections on his feast.

Vincentian priests, Daughters of Charity and many schools and hospitals in Latin America and the United States celebrate with Mass and service to the poor.