Vincent de Paul, son of a poor farmer, was sent off to study as a boy because his parents recognized how bright he was. He earned money to pay for his studies by tutoring others, and when he was ordained at only 19, too young to become a pastor, he continued his studies, earning a doctorate in canon law. Frédéric Ozanam began studying Latin around the age of six. He would eventually learn eight different languages, including Greek, Latin, and Sanskrit, and complete two doctorates by the time he was twenty-six years old. At the time of his appointment, he was the youngest professor in the history of the Sorbonne.

Both men had a fluency in scripture that permeated their everyday language, and a deep devotion to the study of the saints who preceded them (in some cases, saints whom they had personally known.) There is no doubt that they both understood the importance of academic study to a holistic formation, but they also shared another strong belief: you can’t just read and study, you have to go out and do something.

For Vincent, this became very apparent as he toured the de Gondi lands, finding people who were poor, starving, and ignorant of their own faith. Meanwhile, Paris was filled with educated clergy who, like Vincent himself had aspired to do, lived in idleness and comfort. When he founded the Congregation of the Mission, each candidate was expected to “seek God alone, submit himself to everyone as the least of all, be persuaded that he has come to serve and not to govern, to suffer and work, not to live in ease and laziness.” [Abelly, Vol I, 183]

Frédéric, for his part, went so far as to declare that “Religion is less for thinking than for acting…” [70, to Falconnet, 1834] He recognized that the challenge of the Saint-Simonians to prove the good of the church was more than a simple debate question, to be answered with logic or research; it was a call to action. Like Vincent, he saw in the conditions of his times, the calling of the church.

Study and prayer, Vincent taught, is essential, but it cannot stop there. As he explained, there were many people who, “filled with lofty sentiments of God interiorly, stop at that, and when it comes to the point of doing something, and they have the opportunity to act, they come up short… if there’s a question of working for God…alas! they’re no longer around; their courage fails them.” [CCD XI:33]

In an 1842 Circular Letter, President-General Emmanual Bailly warned against the danger of carrying on long discussion of charity “instead of being satisfied with doing its deeds…our Society,” he reminds us, “is one of action, it should do much and talk little…” [Bailly, Circ. Ltr. Dec 1842]

Contemplate

Are there times I think and talk about the poverty I see when I really could do more myself?

By Timothy Williams,
Senior Director of Formation & Leadership Development
Society of St. Vincent de Paul USA.