From Shame to Service: The Journey of Saint Vincent de Paul
Today, April 24, we remember the birth of Saint Vincent de Paul, founder of the Congregation of the Mission.
By Communication
Vincent was a young man who also knew fear and shame. During his student years, he was ashamed of his humble origins. Yet that experience was not the end of his story, but the beginning of a transformation.
Over time, he understood that true greatness is not found in prestige, but in service to the poorest.
His life reminds us that holiness is not born from perfection, but from allowing ourselves to be transformed by God and by our encounter with others.
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From September 18 to 26, 2026, in preparation for the feast of Saint Vincent de Paul, the Congregation of the Mission proposes a novena dedicated to those who are on the move. Nine days, nine real migration routes: the Darién Gap, the Mexican desert, the Central Mediterranean, the Red Sea, the Sahel, the Atlantic route to the Canary Islands, the Bay of Bengal, the Balkans, and the Andes.
This is not simply an exercise in addressing current events. It is the most faithful way to celebrate a saint who spent his life organizing relief for those fleeing the wars of his time.
Saint Vincent de Paul was not merely a man of action; he was a mystic capable of encountering God in the wounded flesh of the poor.
His charity does not separate prayer from service, but transforms every concrete act into a contemplation of Christ alive in history.
Among slaves, the sick, and the forgotten poor, Saint Vincent discovers a surprising truth: the poor do not only receive the Gospel.
Often it is they, with their hidden faith, who evangelise the Church.
When reading the letters and stories related to the work of St. Vincent de Paul, it quickly becomes clear that the word ‘poor’ does not refer to a marginal category of Christian life for him. The poor are the centre, the point from which to interpret the mission of the Church and the actions of missionaries. A decisive insight emerges strongly in many pages: the poor are not simply recipients of aid, but constitute the immense field of mission, the concrete place where the Gospel takes shape and becomes history.
There is a feature of St Vincent’s language that strikes anyone who pauses for a moment to read his letters: the frequency with which he uses words such as ‘my poor ideas’, ‘our poor words’, ‘our poor Little Company’. This is not an occasional formula; it is almost a fundamental breath. Important projects, difficult decisions, judgements on serious matters are often introduced or concluded with this self-relativisation: ‘they are only poor ideas’, ‘they are only poor words’.
A journey from the old heretic converted by prayer to today’s “misguided governments”, to rediscover with Saint Vincent the power of dialogue and the Gospel of peace.
