St. Vincent de Paul

Author’s Note: This post contains mentions of slavery. If this triggers you, you may go to the next post. We understand.

Vincent de Paul (April 24, 1581-September 27, 1660; 79 years old at the time of his passing) was a French Catholic priest who dedicated himself to serving the poor & is best known for founding the Congregation of the Mission & Daughters of Charity.

After being ordained a priest in 1600, de Paul was kidnapped/adult-napped (he was 19 years old at the time) & enslaved for 2 years in Tunis (This was a semi-autonomous territory of the Ottoman Empire; it’s in modern-day Tunisia). He returned to Europe after escaping in 1607 (26 years old at the time).

He then served as a parish priest & in the French royal court before dedicating himself to the poor, founding the Ladies of Charity in 1617 (36 years old at the time). In 1622, de Paul was appointed as chaplain to the galley slaves in Paris.

De Paul founded the Congregation of the Mission (a.k.a. the Vincentians or Lazarists) in 1625 (44 years old). Having vowed poverty, chastity, obedience, & stability, they were to devote themselves entirely to people in smaller towns/villages.

He was a pioneer in seminary education & also founded the Daughters of Charity in 1633 (52 years old). He’s the namesake of the Vincentian Family of organizations, which includes the religious order he founded, among others.

He was renowned for his compassion, humility, & generosity. He was canonized in 1737. He was venerated as a saint in both the Catholic Church & the Anglican Communion.

Vincent de Paul was born on April 24, 1581, in the village of Pouy, in the province of Guyenne & Gascony, Kingdom of France, to peasant farmers. His dad was Jean de Paul & his mom was Bertrande de Moras. He wrote the name on 1 word, Depaul, but none of his correspondents did so.

He had 3 brothers & 2 sisters. He was the 3rd child & demonstrated a talent for literacy early in life. He worked as a child, herding his family’s livestock. At age 15, his dad sent him to a seminary. He paid for this by selling the family’s oxen.

For 3 years, he studied at a college in Dax, Aquitaine. It adjoined a monastery of the Friars Minor (a.k.a. the Franciscans), where he resided. In 1597, he enrolled in theology at the University of Toulouse. The atmosphere at the university was rough. Fights broke out between various factions of students, which escalated into armed battles. An official was murdered by 2 students. Vincent continued his studies, financing them by tutoring others.

Vincent was ordained subdeacon & deacon at Tarbes Cathedral in the French Great South-West, near Périgueux. This was against the regulations established by the Council of Trent, which required a minimum of 24 years old for ordination. So when he was appointed parish priest in Tilh. An appeal against the appointment was made to the Roman Curia.

Rather than respond to a lawsuit in which he would probably not have prevailed, he resigned from the position & continued his studies. On October 12, 1604, he received his Bachelor of Theology from the University of Toulouse. Later, he received a Licentiate in Canon Law from the University of Paris.

Vincent wrote a letter in July 1607 & a postscript in February 1608 that described his experience of abduction & slavery. In 1605, he sailed from Marseille on his way back from Castres, where he had gone to sell property he’d inherited from a wealthy patron in Toulouse. He was taken captive by Barbary pirates, who took him to Tunis. Vincent was auctioned off as a slave, & spent 2 years in bondage.

His 1st “master” was a fisherman. But this wasn’t the life for Vincent because he got seasick. He soon was sold. His next “master” was a spagyric physician (this is a modern medical movement based on the theories & therapies of Paracelsus), alchemist, & inventor. Vincent became fascinated by his art & was taught how to prepare the attention of men who summoned him to Istanbul.

During the passage, the old man died & Vincent was sold once again. His new “master” was a former Catholic priest & Franciscan from Nice, Guillaume Gautier. Gautier had converted to Islam to gain his freedom from slavery & was living in the mountains with 3 wives.

The 2nd wife, a Muslim by birth, was drawn to & visited Vincent in the fields to question him about his faith. She became convinced that his faith was true & admonished her husband for renouncing his Christianity. Her husband became remorseful & decided to escape back to France with his slave.

They had to wait 10 months. But finally they secretly boarded a small boat & crossed the Mediterranean, landing in Aigues-Mortes on June 29, 1607. After returning to France, Vincent went to Rome. There he continued his studies until 1609, when he was sent back to France on a mission to King Henry IV.

Once in France, he made the acquaintance of Pierre de Berulle, whom he took as his spiritual advisor. Andre Duval, of the Sorbonne, introduced him to Canfield’s Rule of Perfection.

In 1612, he was sent as a parish priest to the Church of Saint-Medard in Clichy. In less than a year, Berulle recalled him to Paris to serve as a chaplain & tutor to the Gondi family. The Gondi family was a prominent Florentine banking family and a financial partner of the Medici family.

Although Vincent had initially begun his priesthood with the intention of securing a life of leisure for himself, he underwent a change of heart after hearing the confession of a dying peasant. It was the Countess de Gondi who persuaded her husband to endow & support a group of able & zealous missionaries who would work among poor tenant farmers & country people in general.

On May 23, 1643, after King Louis XIII had passed away, Queen Anne had her husband’s will annulled by the Parlement de Paul (a judicial body composed mostly of nobles & high clergymen), thereby making her the sole Regent. Anne appointed Vincent de Paul as her spiritual advisor.

He helped her deal with religious policy & the Jansenist issue. Jansenism is/was a 17th-18th century Christian theological movement within the Catholic Church, rooted in the writings of Dutch bishop Cornelius Jansen.

Vincent is the patron of all works of charity. Several organizations inspired by his work & teaching & which claim Vincent as their founder or patron saint are grouped in a loose federation known as the Vincentian Family.

Vincent died in Paris on September 27, 1660. Vincent’s body was exhumed in 1712, 53 years after his death. The written account of an eyewitness states that “the eyes & nose alone showed some decay.” However, when the body was exhumed again during the canonization in 1737, it was found to have decomposed due to an underground flood.

According to the custom of the time, his bones were encased in a waxen figure, which is displayed in a glass reliquary in the chapel of the mother house of the Vincentian fathers in Paris (the St. Vincent de Paul Chapel). His heart is still incorrupt & is displayed separately in a reliquary in the chapel of the mother house of the Daughters of Charity.

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Quote of the day, 9 January: The Carmel of Morlaix

The Carmelite friars were therefore fully justified in judging that Father de Bérulle exceeded his authority when, in 1620, he suddenly produced for the first time his Brief of 1614—whose existence he had until then concealed even from his two co-superiors—and attempted to invoke it in order to subject the Carmel of Morlaix to his jurisdiction.

Albert du Saint-Sauveur, O.C.D.

The story of the Carmel of Morlaix belongs to the unsettled early years of the Teresian Carmel in France. In 1619, at the request of the King and by mandate of the Holy See, a small community of Discalced Carmelite nuns came from Flanders to establish a new foundation at Morlaix. Morlaix is a port town in northern Brittany, in western France, situated between the dioceses of Tréguier and Saint-Pol-de-Léon—a location that would later prove decisive in the community’s fate. From the outset, the understanding was clear: the nuns were to live under the governance of the Discalced Carmelite friars. They came on those terms and with that expectation.

1762 map of western France, showing Morlaix in Brittany and its location in relation to Lisieux, Compiègne, and Paris.

Before long, however, this arrangement was challenged. Pierre de Bérulle, Superior General of the Oratorians, asserted authority over the new foundation by appealing to an earlier papal brief. The difficulty was that this earlier document had already been set aside for Morlaix by a later papal act. What followed was not a disagreement about faith or religious observance, but a prolonged struggle over governance—one that placed a heavy burden on a young and vulnerable community of nuns.

Father Albert du Saint-Sauveur, OCD, writing in the 19th century, notes that later accounts often blurred these events, especially in ways unfavorable to the Carmelite Order. In these pages, he draws not only on the Carmelite annals of Father Louis de Sainte-Thérèse, OCD, but also on 17th-century historians, manuscript acts of the Assembly of the Clergy of France, archival letters preserved in Paris, and contemporary correspondence surrounding Pierre de Bérulle. Albert du Saint-Sauveur further observes that even long after the fact, details of the Morlaix foundation continued to be reused and reshaped to support particular narratives:

“Even in our own day, people have returned to exploiting all the details of this foundation, by distorting them.”

Unable to establish themselves in the part of Morlaix belonging to the diocese of Tréguier, the nuns found support in the neighboring diocese of Saint-Pol-de-Léon. There, Bishop René de Rieux authorized their foundation and offered them protection. Meanwhile, other Carmelite communities in France were pursuing their own appeals in Rome. These cases were separate, though they were often confused in later retellings.

In 1622, after the Morlaix nuns appealed directly to the King, a papal Bull was issued in their favor. Soon afterward, the Discalced Carmelite friars met in Provincial Chapter and made a notable decision: they formally renounced any claim to governing Carmelite nuns in France. Their intention was to remove even the appearance of self-interest. As Father Albert du Saint-Sauveur records:

“They declared themselves to renounce not only any such claim, but even to refuse the charge, should it be offered to them.”

Ironically, this renunciation was later used as an argument against the Morlaix community. A new papal brief placed the nuns under a different form of governance. During the uncertainty that followed, Bishop de Rieux continued to shelter the nuns, at one point even welcoming them into his own episcopal residence.

The conflict reached a painful climax when the Dean of Nantes, acting as a delegated official, imposed excommunications and interdicts not only on the nuns, but on the bishop’s residence and the cathedral itself. This provoked a strong reaction from the French bishops, gathered in the General Assembly of the Clergy, who denounced these actions as abusive. Their language was unusually blunt:

“Never has presumption been carried so far.”

Rome later annulled the Assembly’s declaration, and with the accession of a new Pope, the balance shifted decisively in Bérulle’s favor. Conferences were held, compromises proposed, and the immediate crisis gradually subsided.

In the end, the Discalced Carmelite nuns of Morlaix returned to Flanders. Father Albert du Saint-Sauveur is careful to note that this was not a punishment imposed upon them, but a concession to their steadfast refusal to accept a form of governance contrary to the terms under which they had come:

“Their departure was less an order imposed than a satisfaction granted to their refusal.”

The story of the Carmel of Morlaix is not an easy one, but it sheds light on the fragile beginnings of the Teresian Carmel in France. It reminds us how exposed early foundations could be, how much cloistered nuns could suffer from conflicts beyond their control, and how fidelity to their Teresian charism was sometimes preserved only at great cost.

Albert du Saint-Sauveur, O.C.D.

Annals of the Discalced Carmelites in France, 1608–1665
Adapted and translated by Carmelite Quotes

Note: The Carmelite nuns who came to Morlaix from Brussels and Tournai stood in the spiritual lineage of Blessed Anne of Jesus, who left France for Brussels in 1604 and died there in 1621, and Blessed Anne of Saint Bartholomew, who withdrew from France to Spanish Flanders in 1612. Both chose departure over prolonged conflict when disputes over governance threatened the peace of the Teresian Carmel. The stance of the Morlaix nuns reflects that same discernment—not resistance for its own sake, but fidelity to Saint Teresa’s charism when peace could no longer be preserved.

Readers who wish to explore the full historical account may consult the complete English translation (pp. 250–260) in the linked document.

Louis de Sainte-Thérèse OCD & du Saint-Sauveur A OCD 1891, Annales des Carmes-Déchaussés de France: de 1608 à 1665, nouvelle édn, vol. I, Chailland, imprimeur-libraire de l’Évêché, Chailland, France, pp. 250–260.

Translation from the French text is the blogger’s own work product and may not be reproduced without permission.

Featured image: Jean Janvier (French cartographer, 18th century), Le Royaume de France divisé par gouvernements militaires (1762) is an engraved map of France, published in Jean Lattre’s Atlas moderne (c. 1775). Image credit: Geographicus Rare Antique Maps / Wikimedia Commons (Public domain).

#CarmelInFrance #CarmelOfMorlaix #controversy #history #PierreDeBérulle

In this first episode of our second season on the podcast, discover the inspiring life of Blessed Anne of St. Bartholomew, St. Teresa of Avila’s close companion. Learn about her spiritual insights, contributions to the Carmelite Order, and her role as the Protectress of Antwerp.

For, aside from the love I bore [Saint Teresa] and that she had for me, I had another great consolation in her company: almost continually I saw Jesus Christ in her soul and the manner in which He was united to it, as if it was his heaven. This knowledge filled me with the deep reverence one should feel in the presence of God. Truly it was heavenly to serve her, and the greatest torture was to see her suffer.

I spent about fourteen years with her. Immediately, when I entered to receive the habit, she took me into her cell, and during the rest of her life I was always with her, except during her journey to Seville; for then, as has already been said, I was sick at Avila. And these fourteen years seemed to me less than one day.”

Blessed Anne of St. Bartholomew

Book III, Chapter X

Born Ana García Manzanas on 10 October 1549 in Almendral de la Cañada, Spain, Blessed Anne of St. Bartholomew was a close companion of St. Teresa of Avila and a significant figure in the Carmelite Reform. She entered the Discalced Carmelite Order as a lay sister in 1570 and made her profession on 15 August 1572.

Anne served as St. Teresa’s nurse and secretary during the last years of the saint’s life and was with her until her death on 4 October 1582. This date marked the last day of the Julian calendar in Spain, and the next day, 15 October 1582, introduced the Gregorian calendar. St. Teresa died in Anne’s arms.

After St. Teresa’s death, Anne continued her work within the Order, living in Avila, Madrid, and Ocana. In 1604, she traveled to Paris with Venerable Anne of Jesus and a group of Carmelite nuns to establish the first Discalced Carmelite monastery in France. She was later elected prioress of Pontoise and Tours.

In 1611, seeking to escape the influence of Cardinal Pierre de Bérulle, Anne moved to Flanders to be under the spiritual leadership of the Discalced Carmelite friars. In 1612, she founded the Discalced Carmelite monastery in Antwerp, where she became known as the Protectress of Antwerp.

Anne of St. Bartholomew passed away on 7 June 1626 in Antwerp. She was beatified by Pope Benedict XV on 6 May 1917. Her feast day, 7 June, gives way to the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart this year.

Listen to the full biography on our podcast above!

Additional Resources

You can find Blessed Anne’s autobiography in ePub format for download on archive.org. A magisterial biography of Blessed Anne by Sister Paqui Sellés, OCD was published in 2014 on the Spanish blog, Teresa, de la Rueca a la Pluma, edited by the Discalced Carmelite nuns of Puçol (Valencia). The Discalced Carmelite General Postulation website also has a biography published in Italian.

Join us to pray and reflect on the Liturgy of the Hours for the Optional Memorial of Blessed Anne of St. Bartholomew.

Anne of St. Bartholomew, M; Bouix, M 1917,  Autobiography of the Blessed Mother Anne of Saint Bartholomew, inseparable companion of Saint Teresa, and foundress of the Carmels of Pontoise, Tours and Antwerp, translated from the French by Michael, M A, H. S. Collins Printing Co., Saint Louis.

Translation from the Italian text is the blogger’s own work product and may not be reproduced without permission.

Featured image: Y el almendro floreció (And the almond tree blossomed) is an oil on canvas painting by Sister Isabel Guerra, O.Cist., an artist from the monastery of Santa Lucia in Zaragoza, Spain. This artwork is found in one of the chapels in the Primatial Cathedral of St. Mary of Toledo, Spain. Image credit: Discalced Carmelites

https://carmelitequotes.blog/2024/06/06/7jun24-podcast/

#Antwerp #biography #BlessedAnneOfStBartholomew #CarmelOfPontoise #PierreDeBérulle #Podcast #ProtectressOfAntwerp #StTeresaOfAvila