Feast Day – September 27th
Vincent was born in France in 1581 to a peasant family. He joined the seminary when he was 15yrs. old.
When he was still a young priest, he was captured by Turkish pirates who sold him into slavery for two years he had to work hard for the master who bought him. He converted his last master and was then set free.
Vincent was sent to do parish work near Paris. He was a very great friend of the poor. He organized groups to look after the needy. The women nursed the sick and cooked meals for them. Men found jobs for the poor who were able to work, and gave food and clothes to those who could not work.
Vincent also founded the Daughters of Charity. With the help of these Sisters, he gathered money to clothe and feed the poor and to nurse the sick. He built homes for the poor for the sick, for the aged and for abandoned children. Vincent also founded the Congregation of the Mission, or Lazarists, a society of priests and missionaries; priests devoted to poverty, chastity and obedience. He spent the rest of his 43 years working for the poor. He was almost eighty years old when he died in Paris, in 1660. His body was found to be incorrupt fifty years after his death. St. Vincent is called the Apostle of Organized Charity.
He died September 27, 1660. He was canonized in 1737.
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