Produced by David McClamrock SAINT VINCENT DE PAUL c. 1581-1660 By F.A. [Francis Alice] Forbes "Blessed is he that understandeth concerning the needy and the poor: the Lord will deliver him in the evil day." --Psalm 40:2 "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. Wherefore he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, he hath sent me to heal the contrite of heart, to preach deliverance to the captives, and sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of reward." --Luke 4:18-19 Nihil Obstat: Francis M. Canon Wyndham Censor Deputatus Imprimatur: Edmund Canon Surmont Vicar General Westminster July 2, 1919 Originally published in 1919 by R. & T. Washbourne, Limited, London, as _Life of St. Vincent de Paul_ in the series _Standard-bearers of the Faith: A Series of Lives of the Saints for Young and Old._ "Extend mercy towards others, so that there can be no one in need whom you meet without helping. For what hope is there for us if God should withdraw His mercy from us?" --St. Vincent de Paul CONTENTS 1. A Peasant's Son 2. Slavery 3. A Great Household 4. The Galleys 5. Mission Work 6. The Grey Sisters 7. The Foundlings 8. At Court 9. The Jansenists 10. Troubles in Paris 11. "Confido" SAINT VINCENT DE PAUL "Dearly beloved, let us love one another, for charity is of God. And every one that loveth, is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God: for God is charity." --1 John 4:7-8 Chapter 1 A PEASANT'S SON A MONOTONOUS line of sand hills and the sea; a vast barren land stretching away in wave-like undulations far as eye can reach; marsh and heath and sand, sand and heath and marsh; here and there a stretch of scant coarse grass, a mass of waving reeds, a patch of golden-brown fern--the Landes. It was through this desolate country in France that a little peasant boy whose name was destined to become famous in the annals of his country led his father's sheep, that they might crop the scanty pasture. Vincent was a homely little boy, but he had the soul of a knight-errant, and the grace of God shone from eyes that were never to lose their merry gleam even in extreme old age. He was intelligent, too, so intelligent that the neighbors said that Jean de Paul was a fool to set such a boy to tend sheep when he had three other sons who would never be good for anything else. There was a family in the neighborhood, they reminded him, who had had a bright boy like Vincent, and had put him to school--with what result? Why, he had taken Orders and got a benefice, and was able to support his parents now that they were getting old, besides helping his brothers to get on in the world. It was well worthwhile pinching a little for such a result as that.