This same Protestant was to return to the Catholic church where he was to see, one year later, in the course of a mission given by Saint Vincent, that the poor were being evangelised. Saint Paul, MN 55102, © - Cathedral of Saint Paul. [17]Dionysius was a writer in the late 5th or early 6th century. Required fields are marked *. 2) was one of the aims of the missions mentioned by the Common Rules. The royal house is divided by dissensions; the people are split into various factions; cities and provinces are ruined by civil wars; farms, cantons and towns are destroyed, ruined and burned. The essential place of the laity, their irreplaceable role both at the level of evangelisation and that of material sevice and promotion of the poor. After 1617 and up to his death, M. Vincent was to devote all his time to the evangelisation and service of the poor. We’re such great seekers of our ease! Then a parish priest whose nephew had been killed and the murderer was present at the ssermon came to prostrate himself on the ground and asked to kiss the crucifix. a) But Saint Vincent is also faced with the problem of follow-up to the missions. Such was, in broad outline, the story of Saint Vincent’s outlook with its stages and its maturing. This brief presentation of the principal challenges which Saint Vincent picked up with great clearsightedness and this glimpse of the responses which he brought through the parish missions are sufficient to enable us to understand how Saint Vincent truly got to grips with the society and the Church of his time and why he had such a real impact that he had “almost changed the face of the Church”. Vincent was a model of zeal in ministry and he appreciated the power of prayer, the need for spiritual growth and the happiness that comes from doing the work of God, especially among the poor. St Vincent did not straight away turn upon the world this compassionate look which we know and which made him undertake a rich diversity of apostolic and charitable works. Saint Vincent was able to involve himself and his various foundations (Confraternities of Charity,Congregation of the Mission and Daughters of Charity) in appropriate apostolic action which had a profound effect on the social and ecclesial life of his time because he could see and discern clearly the challenges of his times and the call of God involved in these. You can also request assistance online by filling out our form. He is called to visit Lazarus and he goes… He weeps with them, so tender and compassionate is he. He would send them into Champagne, Lorraine, Picardy, and the war-striken Paris region. Deep-rooted hatred, revenge, unjust taking of other people’s property, and lawsuits were frequent everywhere and were poisoning the life of families and villages. Let’s cite just one example from among the worst, taken from the account of a mission at Niolo in Corsica: vengeance was so rife that no sooner had children learned to walk and to talk than they were taught how to seek vengeance at the slightest offence. This is because in certain places the priests see them as such, even if this is incorrect, and they demand nothing more and missions are frozen out. His focus was now no longer on himself, on his social success, on his family. The missioners went to meet the abandoned rural populations and offered them a basic catechesis adapted to their level in which the principal aspects of the faith were proclaimed. Disunity between people in whatever form was a frequent evil in families and in village or parish communities. Faced with this type of problem the missioners would do what the Common Rules states about taking as an objective during the missions to settle differences and lawsuits ( C.R. It is this openness of the heart to the neighbour and to God which enabled him to read the meaning of events and to see God’s call in them. In 1595 he left his father’s farm and the testing life of country folk in order to go and study in the college at Dax, while lodging with the well-off family of M. de Comet, the lawyer from Pouy. I will divide my esposé into three parts: Fr Jean Morin in a fine study of the outlook of St Vincent’s which appeared in the book about the fourth centenary of St Vincent, “1581 – 1981”2, begins with this penetrating remark that in the portraits of St Vincent which have been preserved, “it is doubtless the eyes which are most impressive.. Noticeable in them is a great quality of attention, of observation; one also discovers a suggestion of Gascon mischievousness; above all one finds there a great goodness”. Let us recall it in a few words. With the new school year starting over the next few weeks, most Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis have pulled out all the stops to be able to provide their students with in-person instruction in accordance with state health guidelines related to COVID-19. I recall on one occasion in the school where I studied I was told my father came to see me, a poor farmer. Saint Vincent explains : Now working for the salvation of the poor country people is central to our vocation and all the rest is only accessory; for we would have never got involved in the ordinations, the ecclesiastical seminaries if we hadn’t judged that that was necessary to maintain the people and preserve the fruit brought about by the missions when there are good ecclesiastics, imitating in that the great conquerors who leave garrisons in the places they capture, for fear of losing what they have acquired with such effort (XI, 133). It is interesting to note that Saint Vincent and his missioners were very aware of this since it represents a clear contradiction of the gospel message given to us by Jesus. For the future he will have his eyes and his heart wide open to welcome and discern the various spiritual needs of the poor so as to respond to them. The country people are perishing with hunger for the word of God according to Saint Vincent’s beautiful and touching phrase. He died in Paris in 1660 and was canonized by Pope Clement XII in 1737. He was discovering also the generosity of these rich people who were helping the poor with their money and sometimes visiting them. a) Saint Vincent took up in Châtillon the challenge of permanent material poverty, involving principally the sick poor who lived in the village and he gave it a first response by setting up a Con- fraternity of Charity which would be followed by numerous others. St. Vincent de Paul was short and squat with a square jaw and a square beard. We cannot remain satisfied with walking in the steps of our predecessors, for the world is changing (even if we cannot of course belittle the experiences of the past). M. Vincent was called to the bed-side of a dying man in the neighbouring village of Gannes. We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the Traditional Custodians of this land, with deep respect. I tell you solemnly, in so far as you did this to one of the least of these brothers of mine , you did it to me. Three weeks after his arrival there took place the second event which was to challenge him as at Folleville and through which God was again going to speak to him. It continued to spread into France where the priests were not very competent or caring about giving good spiritual teaching to their parishoners. It is now time to conclude our remarks by analysing what one might call the “Vincentian procedures” which lay at the root of the rich fruitfulness of Saint Vincent’s ministry. That will be my second point. a) It is in a re-reading of the Gannes-Folleville event in the light of the Gospel, especially Luke 4, 17-22, that he understands the depth of the challenge which is thrown at him. These two wer followed by a throng of others, so much so that for the space of an hour and a half, we saw nothing but reconciliations and embraces. This year 1617 was therefore decisive for Saint Vincent. Châtillon was going to reveal to him another dimension to his vocation. He had the confidence of Mme de Gondi and was her spiritual director. Soldiers do as they please; the people are exposed not only to their thefts and pillaging, but also to murder and all kinds of torture. The great remedy invented by saint Vincent would be, as we know, parish missions. It felt surreal how quickly COVID-19 (the novel coronavirus) went from a faraway threat to a tangible risk at St. Vincent de Paul. And that’s where a new outlook on the world was to develop thanks to contact with the wealthy, an outlook from which he would subsequently know how to draw great profit in his apostolate. The reason for this is that he was still centred on himself and on his immediate family as extensions of himself. Thus it was that he experienced for the first time the poverty of living in the midst of small farmers who were needy, and also of humble work in the fields. St. Vincent dePaul is open at Sacred Heart Church Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 9 - 11:45 a.m. For more information call 256-737-5131. Thus at Niolo in Corsica, Etienne Blatiron writes: We found almost no other traces of the faith except that they said they had been baptised; and there were a few churches, but badly kept. 1952), is unsentimental and historically sound. Let’s give one example from among very many, drawn from the Niolo missions account: Finally, on the eve of the general Communion, I was coming to the close of the sermon, after exhorting the people once again to forgiveness, God inspired me to take in hand the crucifix I was wearing and to say to them that anyone who was willing to forgive should come and kiss it. | 239 Selby Ave, Saint Paul, MN 55102 | 651.228.1766 | Website by St. Paul Training, Baseball Card Auction for Charity: Read more, Monday-Friday at 7:30 a.m (also livestreamed, scroll down to see video). This will be for us an opportunity to make a critical appraisal of our own way of “seeing”, and of the attention which we pay today to the reality which surrounds us. Without delay they all off went at the same time bringing him help. These words of St. Vincent de Paul characterize this saint who "ran" with every opportunity to provide for the spiritual and material needs of the poor, and indeed, of all the people of his time. This “inside” view of the poor was to characterise him right to the end of his life, in spite of a period of separation. This gap between a professed christian faith and a life which contradicted the gospel was a challenge which Saint Vincent and his missioners clearly discerned and to which they would try to bring a solution in the course of missions. diversifying, ceaselessly adapting and gearing down his action, seeking numerous collaborations: priests, consecrated women, and laity; simultaneously pushing forward evangelisation and assistance or promotion of the poor, giving priority now to one , now to the other, but always linking them closely. These include external challenges such as: • Ongoing societal changes including globalisation and modernisation, economic upheaval and changes to Australia’s demographics. I refused to go out and see him.” So people began to accept what was said by Protestant ministers who were often zealous and explained the gospel to them. Saint Vincent believed that their eternal salvation was in danger. From St. Vincent De Paul we learn courage in the face of difficulties, and absolute trust in the grace and power of God .In the opening prayer of the mass we acknowledge in Vincent "the courage and holiness of an apostle." If you need to make contact or you are looking for information that you can not find on the website please feel free to contact your closest office. But he was still far from his hoped-for wealth. M. Vincent was challenged by the massive reaction in the parish of Folleville to his improvised preaching on general confession as much as by the confession of the man at Gannes. In their name he was meeting the poor, distributing the alms of Queen Margot or, in the company of Mme de Gondi, visiting the villagers working on her lands. He always linked evangelisation to the giving of material aid, asking the missioners to preach missions while they were organising relief aid. One need only think of the numerous Ladies of Charity from among the nobility and the WEALTHY. Let’s cite another great challenge which anyway is closely linked to the mission’s: Saint Vincent saw clearly that the clergy of his day, often lacking a true vocation, badly formed and with lax morals were incapable of looking after the ordinary spiritual needs of the people, especially in the country, as well as assuring a follow-up to the missions. The congregation was the first noncloistered religious institute of … The next day — Communion Day — a general reconciliation took place. In fact: We have been established, Saint Vincent used to say, to reconcile people with God and people with one another. The St Vincent de Paul Society NSW is a member-based lay Catholic organisation that has been assisting people experiencing poverty and disadvantage across NSW for 135 years. All this in order better to adapt our missionary action. A A. We will have occasion to come back to that on another day. The encounter with new forms of poverty would be for him pressing calls to take up the challenge by seeking to provide solutions through his diverse foundations: the Confraternities of Charity, the Congregation of the Mission, and the Daughters of Charity. Meanwhile he was to go away from them for about twenty-two years. He was beginning a long period of his life where he was seeking more and more to draw himself out of his milieu and make a career for himself. Your email address will not be published. Mission reports provide abundant descriptions of this profound ignorance of the country people. These words of St. Vincent de Paul characterize this saint who "ran" with every opportunity to provide for the spiritual and material needs of the poor, and indeed, of all the people of his time. He was able to provide for the needy through the charitable works that he established and met the challenges to the Church by the instructions that he gave. Let us reflect on what was decisive for Saint Vincent in his sensitivity to the great challenges of his day. The missioners would try to bring those whose situation was amenable into a true religious marriage and would try to persuade others to separate. Other moral disorders ought to be mentioned which the missioners tried to remedy: blasphemies, excesses of the carnival, drunkenness, etc. He was seeing things from the viewpoint of the wealthy. We are aware of what took place. That will help us to stand back and assess the outlook which we direct on to the world and the Church and which determines our manner of situating ourselves there and acting there. For the future he wanted to continue the apostolate which he had so well begun in Folleville. What are my key texts? After a few years of study he was ordained a priest at the age of 19 while continuing his theological studies at the University of Toulouse. Since the ecclesiastical state was the quickest way for young men from his background to climb the social ladder, they set him out along this way. Bonus Fact: St. Vincent de Paul did not found the St. Vincent de Paul Society When St. Vincent was canonized by Pope Leo XIII, he became the patron of charitable societies. Her spiritual director was sensitive to the poor Franciscan who was visiting the villages situated her... 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