St. Vincent de Paul

St. Vincent de Paul was born in 1581 to a peasant family at Pouy in Gascony, France, and died on 27 September 1660 at Paris. Ordained a priest young, he was, by his own account, at first ambitious for comfort and advancement, but encounters with the rural poor and the galley slaves he was appointed to serve worked a deep conversion in him, turning his life wholly toward the service of the needy.

He became one of the greatest organizers of charity in the Church's history. He founded the Congregation of the Mission (the Vincentians or Lazarists) to preach and form clergy in the countryside, and together with St. Louise de Marillac established the Daughters of Charity, a revolutionary community of women who served the poor in their homes and hospitals rather than behind convent walls. His works embraced foundlings, the sick, prisoners, and refugees of war. Canonized in 1737, he is honored as the patron of all works of Christian charity.