St. Vincent de Paul's Feast Day celebrates the life of St. Vincent de Paul, a 17th century French priest who founded the Daughters of Charity in 1633. Born in Pouy, France outside of Paris in 1581, St. Vincent was the third of six children born to a poor country folk couple. He was ordained as a priest at age 19 and earned his bachelor's of theology in 1604.
He spent the first years of priesthood living in relative ease in Paris. The year 1617 marked a turning point in St. Vincent's life. It was then that he decided to dedicate his life to serving the poor. He came to believe that God lived in every person, no matter what their condition in life or where they came from. In July 1617, St. Vincent abandoned his comfortable life as a priest in Paris and became a parish priest dedicated to the poor.
St. Vincent saw that the poor needed nursing and social services, often in their own homes. In 1633, he and Louise de Marillac, also an avocate of the poor, taught 12 peasant girls to care for the poor, to read and write, and to lead religious lives. These women were the first Daughters of Charity, a group that would grow to a world-wide network of sisters that today care for millions of poor in every continent in the world. The Daughters of Charity own the Seton Healthcare Network among many other health facilities across the United States.
For his great works, St. Vincent was coanonized in 1729.
[From Heartbeat, A Seton Heathcare Network publication, Volume 6 Issue 39.]
Return to St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church home page.