7. Placing a virtuous life clearly at the center.

Both Vincent and Father Triest attach great importance to living a virtuous life and will emphasize certain virtues in a very special way, by living them out in a radical manner themselves and also offering them as a model to their brothers and sisters.

For Vincent, humility is the essential foundation from which all other virtues flow.  He calls it the cornerstone of our faith, based on self-denial, as lived by Jesus Christ himself.  To his Daughters of Charity, he imparts the following three virtues as the foundational attitude of the Company: humility, simplicity, and love; but according to him, everything begins with humility.  “Sisters, you must know well that the spirit of your community consists of three things: loving Jesus Christ and serving Him in a spirit of humility and simplicity.  As long as these are present, you may say that the Company exists.  But when you no longer find these three things, then say: the poor Company is no more.”  He believes he finds true humility among the poor.  “In them you find humility; they are not ambitious.  They are not proud and do not pursue wealth because they are content with what they have.  They are frugal, they are poor, they work as if they possess nothing.  Nowhere does one find more faith and more trust in God when things go badly for them, and more gratitude when things go well for them.”  At the same time he realizes that humility is not an easy virtue. “Humility—it is lovely to speak of it, but it is ugly and demanding in practice.”  He also imparts humility to his priests as the most important virtue: “Humility must be the hallmark of the missionary, so that everyone who sees us may recognize us by it.  May the Lord grant us the grace to do so.  When we are asked what our state of life is, we must answer: it is humility.  When the question is asked: who is going there?  Then the answer must be: humility.  It is good that everyone loves humility.  But that is not enough.  We must also, as a group, live out humility, accept it, and even be glad when they consider us useless, when they place us on the lowest rung.”   He therefore urges the priests to be simple in their sermons, which he calls “the little method”: preaching from personal conviction and experience and using examples drawn from life.

Vincent imparts five virtues to the priests of the Mission: simplicity, humility, meekness, mortification, and zeal for souls.  According to him, humility goes hand in hand with honesty, straightforwardness, truth, and modesty, which contribute to transparency, spontaneity, and authenticity.  It is the attractive gentleness, the hospitable kindness, the courteous sensitivity.  He therefore calls simplicity his favourite virtue, “my gospel.”  “God is exceedingly simple, or rather, He is simplicity itself; thus, where there is simplicity, you encounter God, and as the wise man puts it: whoever lives in simplicity walks his path with certainty.”  Simplicity is, above all, speaking the truth, saying things as they are, without concealing or hiding anything.  In Vincent, we indeed find that wonderful combination of a certain diplomacy—for he knows how to navigate the highest circles of the society—yet he always remains faithful to speaking the truth.  It is a simplicity that dispels all pretence.

Meekness is also a characteristic of Vincent that he proclaims to his followers.  In the rule of life for his communities, in his letters, and in his conferences, he uses this expression some 400 times, but with a wide variety of meanings.  At times it sounds like “being able to empathize with the feelings of others,” then as “proving the authenticity of your feelings through delicate attentions,” or “never resorting to bitterness that only breeds more bitterness.”  For him, it is very important to live out meekness as the antithesis of his sometimes quick-tempered character.  He says very honestly about this: “Those who are meek are not spared from outbursts of anger, but they stand firm and do not give in.  Even if his face changes colour, he regains his composure on the spot.  So do not be surprised that you will have to fight this passion, but ask for the grace to overcome it, in the certainty that feelings contrary to meekness that arise within you will be dispelled by it.”  He also describes meekness as warmth, kindness, and hospitality, especially in relation to the poor.  “The second manifestation of meekness consists in greeting those who come to us with a friendly, warm, and serene expression on our face to put  them at ease .  Some people naturally draw everyone to them through their smile and their pleasant manner.  God has given them a warm, gentle, and friendly demeanour through which they seem to give their heart and ask for the heart of the other.  Therefore, a true missionary will behave in such a way as to inspire comfort and trust in those who turn to him.  Since we live among the poor rural population and among other people, we would not be able to do fruitful work if we were dry ground where only thistles grow.”  He also links gentleness with warmth.  “Warmth is the fruit of the love you feel deep in your heart.  It is the joy that wells up within you when you meet another, and that joy must be visible on your face.  Even if you do not feel it, you must still show it.  If love is an apple, cordiality is its colour.”  But meekness does not mean we should just let things happen.  Resolve is also necessary.  “If your meekness needs a dash of vinegar, borrow a little from the spirit of Our Lord.  He knew so well how to find the bittersweet when it was needed.”

As for mortification, Vincent may have interpreted this virtue in the spirit of his time, but in substance he sees it primarily in connection with his trust in God, the space he wishes to create for God in his life, which requires self-emptying. “The saints are holy because they walk in the footsteps of the Lord, deny themselves, and mortify themselves…  Prayer and mortification are like two sisters: one is never to be found without the other.”

His zeal for souls, his dedication to the spiritual life, is indeed one of Vincent’s most characteristic traits.  The development of the popular missions, the founding of the Congregation of the Mission, his oversight of priestly formation and the establishment of seminaries, and the spiritual guidance he provided to so many are all expressions of his great zeal for souls.  But he also always accompanied his care for the materially poor with a concern for their spiritual life.  In his “davantage—ever more,” he expresses that zeal for souls knows no bounds—no natural limits, nor any limits within itself. “No matter how old and sick I may be, I would not fail to say yes if I were asked to go to India myself to win souls for the Lord.  Let us not forget that there are millions of souls reaching out to us to be saved and calling us by name.  Let us therefore love God, but let us do so with the strength of our arms and the sweat of our brow.”

Let us now turn to Father Triest.  He, too, regards the virtue of humility as the mother of all virtues.   In his final address in 1836, he reiterates this explicitly: “Be humble and pray unceasingly, and you will persevere, for the Lord Himself has said that He will give His grace to the humble and reject  the proud.”  He often refers to St. Augustine and how he describes the importance of the virtue of humility.  “St. Augustine was once asked what the first thing was in the spiritual life. And the great man replied: ‘That is humility.’  ‘And what is the second?’ they added.  And he replied: ‘It is humility again.’  ‘And the third?’ they asked him. And he replied for the third time: ‘It is humility.’ Draw your own conclusions from this as to what the feelings of that great saint were regarding that virtue.  And what else  have we come to seek in the convent if not humility, humiliation, and the contempt of men?”  Father Triest finds his inspiration for the virtue of humility in the words of Jesus himself: “Learn from Me: I am gentle and humble of heart” (Mt. 11:29) and also in the example Jesus gave when washing the feet of his disciples.  He therefore asserts that “this God-like and amiable virtue is absolutely necessary to make happy progress in the spiritual life.  For humility is the beginning, the root, and the source of all virtues, just as, conversely, pride is the beginning, the root, and the source of all sins.  I could demonstrate that love for God is all the more fervent the more it finds its origin in humility, because one must not attribute it to one’s own merits.”

He finds the source of humility in daily prayer, especially in the Eucharist as true nourishment for his spiritual life.  According to him, it is only through God’s grace that one can grow in humility. “Oh, beloved, what graces would you not receive if you were to visit that divine Savior in His holy sacrament of love frequently.  Grant then, loving Jesus, that we may come here to visit and adore You with reverence and humility, with faith and trust, with love and perseverance.”

For Father Triest, Mary is the great example of humility.  “The higher she was exalted in heaven, the greater was her humility.  The Most High chose her as his mother, a ministry of ineffable dignity.  An angel descends from heaven to announce this to her.  He says that the Lord is with her.  He wishes her much happiness. He calls her full of grace. And amidst all these titles of honour, she still exclaims: ‘Behold the handmaid of the Lord.’ According to Bernard, it is not difficult to be humble when you are rejected, but it is rare to see that humiliation is accompanied and remains with exaltation.” 

It is from and with this humble attitude that, according to Father Triest, one must go to the poor. “We will go to the sick with humble reverence by seeing in them Jesus himself suffering in them.  If certain sick people were to frighten us, we must put that strong faith into action by seeing Jesus himself.”  And in his well-known New Year’s letter of 1828, he once again explicitly describes the humble and servant-hearted attitude from which one must care for the sick.  “You follow God’s power and providence, for you feed the poor of Jesus Christ.  You cause manna to fall upon the hungry; you give drink to the thirsty.  Is that not like splitting the rocks and causing living waters to flow from them for them?… To give life to such people, to provide them with clothes to cover themselves, to prepare medicines that,  while not fully curing their ailments, at least alleviate them, … : is that not raising them up, pulling them out of death, letting the sun shine for them, and creating a new earth?”   He therefore concludes with complete clarity: “Works of ministry have no merit and do not please God unless you can perform them in a spirit of contrition, humility, zeal, and love.”  To his sisters he adds: “Humility is the most beautiful and pleasing virtue that can be found in a religious.  Through this, we become like God’s Son, who took on the nature of a slave to humble Himself; He came to serve and He even gave His life for our redemption.  Thus, love for humility will lead us to love the least of all and to despise ourselves in the eyes of the world.  Meekness is the radiance of humility.  The first and last step of perfection is humility.  In a house where humility reigns, all the other virtues also dwell.  If you are humble, the other sisters are virtuous.”

In preparing for the beatification process that has thus far led to the veneration of Father Triest, our task was to determine whether Father Triest lived the virtues in a heroic manner.  This concerned the four cardinal virtues, namely prudence, justice, courage, and temperance; the three theological virtues, namely faith, hope, and love; the three evangelical virtues of obedience, poverty, and chastity; and the source of all virtues: humility.  We have already discussed some of these virtues in the previous sections and will now highlight a few more.  In drafting the first rule of the Hospital Brothers of St. Vincent, later known as the Brothers of Charity, he explicitly refers to the virtues that St. Vincent lived out and that are also important for the brothers.  “Humility, meekness, patience, temperance, obedience, chastity, love for the poor, and above all, love for God and true love for one’s neighbour, mercy toward the afflicted and miserable members of Christ—these, in accordance with the spirit of Jesus Christ, were the good virtues of St. Vincent de Paul, which all brothers of this Congregation of Charity must strive to emulate with great zeal.” 

No one would doubt that Father Triest was a man who embodied the virtue of courage in an extraordinary way.  But we must immediately add that it was a courage he did not draw solely from his own strength.  It was in his daily prayerful communion with the Lord that he drew the courage to shape and continue his path of charity time and again without hesitation.  Especially during the period when he was responsible for the Commission of the Hospices in Ghent, he seems truly inexhaustible in his constant search for ways, people, and resources to provide positive answers to the many requests for help that came his way.  But even as a young assistant priest, he was convinced that it is love that gives the strength to remain courageous in caring for the poor and the sick. “Nothing is as powerful as love, which is the source of everything.  Love has a special power to move a person and conquer the spirit; love is so eloquent that it even penetrates the innermost part of the heart.”  Of course, the fact that, in the wake of the French Revolution, he refused to take the oath of allegiance to the new Republic and was therefore forced to live in hiding for five years is a sign of courage.  This is once again explicitly demonstrated when, in February 1800, he goes to administer the last rites to Brigadier Cotton’s wife in the barracks, at the risk of being arrested.  The true source of the courage he radiates then and continues to radiate later lies in his spiritual life, in daily prayer.  He constantly reiterated this to his religious brothers, and he himself was a man of prayer .  “Pray and meditate, for remember that a religious without the spirit of prayer is like a soldier without weapons, a bird without wings, a city without ramparts, a body without spirit or soul. Those who are called to the active life must devote themselves to this without doubt and with great fidelity.  But they must be careful not to fall into illusions.  They will fall into them when they have no time for prayer.  The more you are exposed to distractions through your duties, the more care you must take to draw near to God through interiority, so that you may never cease to remain united with Him through love.”  He also realizes how easy it is to lose heart.  According to Triest, the only remedy for this is constant prayer.  “When we feel sorrow, reluctance, or dryness, we must not lose heart or become discouraged, but remain faithful and steadfast at the feet of the divine Master, patiently waiting until He deigns to rest His gaze upon us.  If we try to rely on our own strength, we deceive ourselves, for God will withdraw His hand from us, and then we will become powerless.  But through prayer, we will receive all the resources we need to serve the sick well, to sanctify ourselves, and to edify our fellow human beings by our good example.”

Another virtue we certainly wish to mention is his strong sense of justice and his commitment to a more just world, where the poor and the sick might also find their place. Through his education, which certainly had Jansenist elements, the young Petrus Jozef Triest initially came to know God as a rather strict God who punishes sinners out of His justice.  But he soon came to understand that God is also mercy, and that His justice is overshadowed by mercy.  He expresses this very aptly in a short prayer: “O Christ Jesus, I greatly fear that I am eternally damned, because You are just.  But I also firmly hope that I will be saved, because You are gracious and merciful and my supreme God.  Your divinity fills me with fear, but your humanity strengthens my hope.”  He would later add to this with the words: “God’s mercy is greater than anything we can conceive of.” Of course, what is important is the way Father Triest lived out justice in his own life.  Even as a young priest, Triest had a strong sense of justice.  When he was a vicar in Asse, he was confronted with a parish priest suffering from dementia, whose family was attempting to take control of the parish’s assets.  With the bishop’s support, Vicar Triest did everything in his power to oppose these unjust actions—and succeeded.  When, after five years of living as a priest in hiding, he was able to preach in public for the first time, one of his first words—words of forgiveness—clearly demonstrated how he truly allowed mercy to take precedence over justice. “As for me, I forgave my enemies long ago.  I now openly renew that I forgive them from the bottom of my heart.  I give them the kiss of true brotherly love and desire nothing as revenge but that they be reconciled with their God.”

During the many years he was active in caring for the poor in Ghent, his commitment to a more just world naturally stood out, with special attention given to those who risked falling through the cracks due to extreme poverty and illness.  Upon his death in 1836, he left the city of Ghent a different place than the one he had found in 1803 when he arrived there.  Thanks to him, an entire network of care and education was established, which is continued by his brothers and sisters.  His appeals to the authorities for financial support for the care of the poor also laid the foundation for greater solidarity within society.

Brother René Stockman,
Brother of Charity