VINCENT DE PAUL, SAINT: Founder of the Roman Catholic orders of the Lazarists and the Sisters of Mercy (qq.v.); b. at Ranquines (a village near Dax, 125 m. w. of Toulouse), Gascony, Apr. 24, 1576; d. at Paris Sept. 27, 1660. He received his early training from the Franciscans at Dax; and then studied in Toulouse 1597-1600. In 1605, while on a voyage to Narbonne, he was captured by corsairs and taken to Tunis, where he fell into the hands of a French renegade whom he succeeded in restoring to the Church, who also brought him back to France. Vincent then went to Rome, and there won the favor of Cardinal d'Orsat, who employed him on a mission to Henry IV. He thus came to Paris early in 1609, and became chaplain to Margaret of Valois. Here, while aiding a troubled theologian to escape from doubt, Vincent himself became involved in a skepticism from which he was freed only by vowing to devote his entire life to the poor.

In 1612 Vincent was made parish priest at Clichy, and in the following year became chaplain and tutor to the family of Philip Emanuel, count of Gondy, finding wide scope for activity among the peasantry of the estate. In 1617, his pupils no longer requiring his care, Vincent became parish priest . at the wretched town of Chatillon-les-Dombes, where he founded the first confrArie du charitk for the personal aid of the poor by women. Meanwhile the Count and Countess de Gondy induced Vincent to return to their house in 1618. He now founded a number of sisterhoods like that at Chatillon, and gave special attention to the galley slaves, for whom he established a hospital. In 1619 King Louis XIII. appointed him royal almoner of the galleys of France. At Macon in Burgundy, in 1623, he found an enormous number of beggars, for whom, with the aid of the civil and religious authorities, he established an organization which did away with mendicancy.

In 1624 Vincent formed the beginnings of his body of mission priests for the care of the poor. He received as the mother-house of his order the

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College des bone enfants. His order soon gained powerful aid in the gift of 45,000 livrea from the Count de Gondy (1625), the royal approval be stowed by Louis XIII. (1627), and the papal sanc tion of Urban VIII. (1631); and in 1631 he received from the canons of St. Victor the house of St. Laza rus in Paris, which became the center of activity. At first the priests were sent chiefly to the country districts, but Vincent did not forget the cities, and some of his priests were detailed to visit the sol diers, the blind, the sick, the poor, and the laborers. In 1635 he established a seminary for his order, based on Jesuit lines. Especially admirable were the exertions of the order during the terrible cam paign in Lotharingia, where, within ten years, Vin cent was able to send no less than 400,000 thalera. He extended his activity to the shepherds of the Roman Campagna, as well as to the provinces of France, to Tunis, Algiers, Ireland, Genoa, Mada gascar, Poland, Corsica, Piedmont, etc. He was also spiritual councilor of state, and in 1634 he es tablished a sisterhood of matrons for the care of the sick in the Hotel Dieu of Paris, and in 1657 founded for the poor of Paris a great hospital which later became the Salpetricre. During the closing years of his life he was an invalid, but he bore his suffer ings with the humility and fortitude that charac terized his entire life. He was beatified by Bene dict XIII. in 1723, and canonized in 1737. By a breve of May 12, 1885, Leo XIII. declared him the patron of all Roman Catholic charitable organiza tions in any way connected with him throughout the world.

(Eugen Lachenmann.)

Bibliography: The "Letters" were issued in 2 vols., Paris, 1882. His life has been a frequent theme for biog raphers, accounts being written by: L. Abelly. Paris, 1884 and often elsewhere, Germ. transl., Regensburg, 1859 (Abelly's Vertua de S. Vincent de Paid was issued in a new ed., Paris, 1897); D. Acami, Venice, 1753; P. Collet, new ed., 4 vols., Paris, 1818; M. Orsini, Paris, 1852; H. Bedford, London, 1858; M. U. Maynard, 4 vols., Paris, 1860; F. A. P. Dupanloup. Paris, 1883; G. Rou quette, St. Vincent de Paul d son siFcie, Lyons, 1864; J. B. H. R. Capefique, St. Vincent de Paul et les sours de charity, Paris, 1865; T. S. Preston, New York, 1868; A. J. Ansart, The Spirit of St. Vincent de Paul, New York, 1887; C. A. Jones, London, 1873; R. F. Wilson, Edinburgh, 1873; E. Alcan, 2 vols., Paris, 1879; R. de Chan telause, St. Vincent de Paul d lee Gondi, Paris, 1882; Cavallier, St. Vincent de Paul et as mission socials, Mont pellier, 1885; J. Morel, Tours, 1888, reissue, 1908; H. Debout, Paris, 1889; J. B. Jeannin, Paris. 1890; H. Si mard, Lyons, 1894; J. B. Boudignon, 3d ed:, Paris, 1897; E. Bougaud, 3d ed., 2 vols., Paris, 1898, Eng. transl., London and New York, 1908; E. de Brogue, 5th ed., Paris, 1899, Eng. transl. of an earlier ed., London, 1898.