5. Together with others.

Vincent and Father Triest were both skilled at motivating others to work with them and to continue this care for the poorest even after they were no longer there.

Vincent was impressed by the willingness of the parishioners of Châtillon-les-Dombes when he called on  them in 1617 to help that poor family, but at the same time he felt that this required more organization if one wished to help the poor in a more adequate and sustainable way.  This marked the birth of his first charitable association, which he founded with a few willing women, entrusting them with the mission to serve the poor in humility, simplicity, and love. These three virtues would become the foundation of his spirituality.  He would later also begin working with a number of priests to preach popular missions in the parishes, based on his observation of how poor the spiritual life of the faithful was at that time.  This became the cradle of the Congregation of the Mission, which was founded in 1625.  The formation of priests also became one of his priorities, and together with the members of his Congregation, he organized retreats and formation sessions for both seminarians and priests.  He entrusted the leadership of the Congregation to a rather shy young priest, Antoine Portail, whom he encouraged and who would grow into a capable leader.

When he observed that his charitable societies, consisting mainly of wealthy women, sometimes remained quite distant in their direct contact with the poor, Vincent began to consider the idea of actually founding a Congregation of women.  Together with Louise de Marillac, a widow whom Francis de Sales had entrusted to his spiritual guidance, he founded the Daughters of Charity, which gradually took shape beginning in 1633.  His vision was very strong: it was primarily through the poor that he could truly serve the poor.  He saw in a simple girl from a farming family, Marguerite Naseau, the prototype of a Daughter of Charity. Louise de Marillac was certainly not a natural leader, but under Vincent’s encouragement, she became the superior of the new Congregation.

Vincent knew how to encourage people and bring out the best in them, and he was not afraid to entrust them with real responsibility.

It is through the charitable associations and the two Congregations founded by Vincent that the work he began continues to this day and constantly takes on new forms. A large number of congregations were subsequently founded based on and in accordance with Vincentian  spirituality.  The best proof that Vincent’s legacy is still very much alive is the way in which the multilingual website “VinFam” seeks to reach and unite the entire Vincentian family.

Father Triest was also someone who possessed the gift of inspiring others to join him in working for charity.  As early as 1800 in Ronse, during the period when he had to live in hiding, he started a workhouse and brought together some young women to teach poor children.  Due to political circumstances, this could not be expanded further, and it was the postal clerk, François Soudan, who would oversee it from then on, while Father Triest would also continue to monitor it from a distance.

It was in 1803 that he launched his first Congregation in Lovendegem.  His initial intention was to integrate this group into the Daughters of Charity, but when this failed, he was encouraged by the bishop to draft a rule himself and thereby found his own Congregation.  We could say that it was rather because of a failure that he became a founder, and that he would go on to establish three other Congregations.  He chose to impart Vincentian spirituality to the Sisters, while at the same time introducing them to the contemplative life in the spirit of St. Bernard.  We recognize his own vision in this: that charity must always begin with the love of God. In 1806, his first Congregation had already been approved by Napoleon as hospital sSsters.

When, a year later, he was confronted with the poor care of needy elderly people at the Bijloke Hospital in Ghent, he gathered a number of young men together at the end of December 1807 and called them “Hospital Brothers of St. Vincent.”  Perhaps he hoped that this name would also enable him to have them recognized by Napoleon, but this remained a dream. In the Commission, he had the following recorded: “With your approval, I am bringing five virtuous young men to the old men’s home, in whom I believe I detect the talents necessary to properly carry out the duties for which we are assigning them. … Unless a Christian and selfless love inspires those who take on the service of the needy elderly, it is absolutely impossible for them to perform it properly.” 

For both his Sisters and his Brothers, he found capable leaders: Sister Placida Vandergauwen for the Sisters of Charity, who had already gained experience with the Bernardines of Oudenaarde, and for the Brothers, Brother Bernard De Noter, who had worked for many years with the Cistercian Sisters at the Bijloke; both, therefore, were trained in the spirituality of Bernard.  Both would truly embody, exemplify, and live out the vision of combining a contemplative way of life with charitable action alongside their brothers and sisters.

In 1823, a third Congregation followed, the Brothers of Saint John of God, with the aim of caring for the sick at home.  Given that the Brothers of Charity were not yet officially recognized, Triest had to be cautious about sending them out and therefore chose to found a new Congregation with a few Brothers.  And a year before his death, in 1835, he founded a fourth Congregation for the care of foundlings, the Sisters of the Childhood of Jesus. After initially considering entrusting this task as well to the Sisters of Charity, he decided it would be better to establish a new Congregation with an adapted rule.  He also found a capable leader for this new group, Sister Johanna Van Uytfang, and at the same time entrusted its further development to his close collaborator and successor, Canon De Decker

Brother René Stockman,
Brother of Charity