St. Vincent Ferrer

St. Vincent Ferrer was born on 23 January 1350 at Valencia, Spain, and died on 5 April 1419 at Vannes in Brittany, France. A Dominican friar of great learning, he became one of the most powerful itinerant preachers in the Church's history, traveling across Spain, France, Italy, and beyond for some twenty years. Enormous crowds followed him, and his preaching on sin, death, judgment, and repentance is credited with countless conversions of Jews, Muslims, and lapsed Christians.

He lived during the Western Schism, when rival claimants divided the papacy, and for a time he supported the Avignon line; but recognizing the harm the division did to the Church, he ultimately withdrew that support, helping to clear the way for the Council of Constance to restore unity under a single pope. Preaching often on the Last Judgment, he was called the 'Angel of the Apocalypse.' He was canonized in 1455.