His gaze was fixed on the poor, whom he respectfully and affectionately called “our masters… our kings… and it is no exaggeration to call them that, because the Lord is in the poor”. This expression encapsulated his way of life: not simply doing good from above, but recognising the true presence of Christ in the little ones and the suffering. For this reason, Saint Vincent can be defined as a prophet even for our own time, so marked by material and spiritual poverty.
The heart of his ministry was concrete love, expressed through works that still bear fruit today. He was the author of numerous charitable initiatives, born from his direct experience of the misery he encountered in his popular missions in French villages. With lucidity and realism, Vincent understood that evangelisation could not be separated from concrete help to the poor, and that the formation of the clergy was fundamental to making the Church and its mission credible.
He thus founded the Congregation of the Mission (the Lazarist Fathers), to whom he entrusted the popular missions and the formation of the clergy, and, with the help of Saint Louise de Marillac, the Company of the Daughters of Charity, who brought relief and dignity to the most needy. With the support of the laity, he also established the Company of Charity, showing a Church that knows how to become a family and a community of service.
Saint Vincent was no stranger to the halls of power: he became confessor to Queen Anne of Austria and spiritual advisor during the reign of Louis XIV, participating in the ‘Council of Conscience’. Although he lived in environments full of wealth and temptation, he never allowed himself to be seduced by power. On the contrary, he remained faithful to the Gospel, bringing the gaze of the poor to those places and defending their rights. With a surprisingly modern vision, he managed to obtain a complete picture of the social and religious situation of his time, founding missions in the places of greatest need.
His spiritual genius lay precisely in this: knowing how to look at the powerful and the peasants with the same gaze of love and respect, recognising in everyone the dignity of children of God.
St Vincent died in Paris on 27 September 1660. He was beatified in 1729 and canonised in 1737. Leo XIII proclaimed him patron saint of charitable works, which still today, throughout the world, are inspired by his example.
His body, preserved at the Mother House of the Vincentians in Paris, is venerated by the faithful from all over the world. From his tomb, his presence continues to spread: the Postulation still receives requests for relics from churches and parishes dedicated to the Saint, a sign of undying devotion.
Looking at the life of Saint Vincent, we are invited not to stop at words, but to unite faith with concrete charity. He reminds us that the poor are not ‘objects of help,’ but brothers and sisters who evangelise us. And today, as then, the Church finds in him a giant of charity, capable of showing the way to a love that embraces everyone, without distinction.
O God, who for the service of the poor and the formation of your ministers
gave your priest St Vincent de Paul
the spirit of the Apostles,
grant that, imitating him as our teacher,
and animated by the same fervour,
we may continue the mission of your Son in the world.
He is God and lives and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
for ever and ever.
Amen
Fr. Serhiy Pavlish, C.M.
Postulator General
