Vincent de Paul: Works

What did Vincent dePaul do?

Few saints have been as active as Vincent de Paul. Even if one highlights only his principal accomplishments, the list is impressive.

In 1617, struck by the need to organize practical works of charity in Châtillon, he founded “the Charities” (later known as the Ladies of Charity and now called AIC ). These spread rapidly throughout France and afterwards throughout the world, counting today more than 260,000 members. During his lifetime he wrote the statutes for numerous “Charities” that sprang into existence throughout France.
In 1625, he founded the Congregation of the Mission. By the time of his death, the Congregation had spread to Poland, Italy, Algeria, Madagascar, Ireland, Scotland, the Hebrides, and the Orkneys. During his lifetime the house at St. Lazare alone gave more than a thousand missions. He acted as Superior General of the Congregation until his death, holding regular council meetings, writing its rules, conducting general assemblies, and resolving a host of foundational questions like obtaining the approval of the Congregation by the Holy See, deciding whether the confreres should make vows, determining which ones should be pronounced and what should be their content.
In 1633, along with Louise de Marillac, he founded the Daughters of Charity. With Louise at his side, he acted as Superior General, guiding the frequent councils, drafting a rule, and working out the rather revolutionary juridical base that would make the Company such a powerful apostolic force in the years to come. In his lifetime, more than 60 houses sprang up in both France and Poland. The Company later became one of the largest congregations the Church had ever seen.
In the process of guiding the groups that he founded, Vincent carried on an enormous correspondence, writing more than 30,000 letters, of which only about 10% have been preserved. He gave frequent conferences to both the Congregation of the Mission and the Daughters. Only a small number of these are extant, and even these are merely copiers’ accounts of what he said. He also gave conferences to the Visitation nuns who had been entrusted to his care by Francis de Sales in 1622; none of these has been passed down to us.
From 1628 on he became more and more involved in the reform of the clergy, organizing retreats for ordinands, the Tuesday conferences, and retreats for priests. Abelly tells us that more than 12,000 ordinands made their retreat at St. Lazare. In the last 25 years of this life he took up the founding of seminaries for diocesan priests, a work he sometimes described as “almost equal” and at other times as “equal” to that of the missions. He established 20!
In 1638, he took up the work of the foundlings, more than 300 of whom were abandoned each year on the streets of Paris. Eventually he assigned a number of Daughters of Charity to the work and had 13 houses built to receive the children. When this work was endangered in 1647, he saved it by making an eloquent appeal to the Ladies of Charity to regard the foundlings as their children. [18]
Beginning in 1639 Vincent began organizing campaigns for the relief of those suffering from war, plague, and famine. One of Vincent’s assistants, Br. Mathieu Regnard, made 53 trips, crossing enemy lines in disguise, carrying money from Vincent for the relief of those in war zones. [19]
From 1643 to 1652 he served on the Council of Conscience, an elite administrative body that advised the king in regard to the selection of bishops. At the same time he was the friend and often the counselor of many of the great spiritual leaders of the day.
In 1652, as poverty enveloped Paris, Vincent, at the age of 72, organized massive relief programs, providing soup twice a day for thousands of poor people at St. Lazare and feeding thousands of others at the houses of the Daughters of Charity. He organized collections, gathering each week 5-6 thousand pounds of meat, 2-3 thousand eggs, and provisions of clothing and utensils.

So striking were Vincent’s activities that the preacher at his funeral, Henri de Maupas du Tour, stated: “He just about transformed the face of the Church.” [21]

The missionary desire of Vincent led him to grasp the sad situation of the Church of France, characterized by poverty, ignorance, divisions, wars, the lack of zeal in pastors and priests