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St. Vincent de Paul: Apostle of Charity ALUMNI QUARTERLY By Rev. Joseph I. Dirvin, C.M. 400th ANNIVERSARY BIRTH OF Volume Ill, No. 2 August 1981 ST. VINCENT DEPAUL 1581 - 1981 St. Vincent de Paul: Apostle of Charity . 3 St. John's University Today . 6 Born, Pouy, April 24, 1581 Ordained, September 23, 1600 What's Happening? . 9 First Mission Sermon, January 25, 1617 Alumni Calendar . 15 Founder Alumni Personals . 16 Vincentian Fathers, April 17, 1625 Daughters of Charity, Nov. 29, 1633 Redmen Sports. ... From the Sidelines . 20 Ladies of Charity, Winter, 1634 Basketball Season Ticket Plan . 22 Died, Paris, September 27, 1660 Hawaii . Inside Back Cover Blessed, August 13, 1729, Benedict XIII Saint, June 13, 1737, Clement XII Alumni Shopper's Corner Inside Back Cover Cardinal Silvio Oddi, Prefect of the Sacred Congregation of the Clergy, stands with the Very Rev. Joseph T. Cahill, C.M., President of St. John's Patron, All Organizations of Charity, University, while the citation is being read by the Rev. John V. Newman, C.M., for the honorary degree presented to the prelate during the convoca tion May 12, 1885, Leo XIII held to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the birth of St. Vincent de Pa ul. he current year marks the 400th Dax, France on April 24, 1581 , the third divine Son and one that he passed on to Light of the Clergy, pray for us ST. JOHN'S ALUMNI QUARTERLY , US PS 476-950, the Alumni magazine of St. John's Tanniversary of the birth of St. of six children of Jean and Bertrande de his two communities. University, New York , is published four times a yea r - May, August, November and Father of the Poor, pray for us Vincent de Paul, the founder of the Moras de Paul. The family was of that At the age of 12, through the gen­ February - by the Office of Alumni Relations. T he offi ce is loca ted at St. John's Uni versity, Apostle of Charity, pray for us Congregation of the Mission familiarly true peasant stock which is the back­ erosity of a lawyer of Dax, M. de Utopia and Grand Central Parkways, Jamaica, New York; telephone (212 ) 990-6161 , Ext. 6231. known as Vincentian Fathers, who bone of France. Jean de Paul, while Comet, Vincent entered the college Second Class Pos tage paid at Jamaica1 New York I 143 1, and all additional offi ces of entry. founded St. John's University in 1870 poor, owned his own farm. there. Three years later, intent on the and continue to sponsor it. The fact of Vincent's peasant origin priesthood, he went to study at the This great saint of the Church, and breeding is most important; he University of Toulouse, this time fi ­ universally hailed as Apostle of Charity, needed no lessons in manners and nanced by a great sacrifice of his poor ' OFFICE OF ALUMNI RELATIONS Light of the Clergy, and Fat her of the behavior in later years when he was peasant father, the sale of a yoke of Director Poor, was born in Puoy, Diocese of called to the royal court at Paris. His oxen. Dr. Edward G. Skirde birth in Gascony was important, too, On December 20, 1596 he received Father Dirvin is Vice President of for he brought the Gascon's energy, tonsure and minor orders at the hands Uniuersity Relations and Secretary of Assistant Director Assistant Director intelligence, suppleness of mind, and of Msgr. Diharse, Bishop of Tarbes, the Uniuersity. Father Diruin is known Queen s Campus Staten Island Campus wit to all his great works for State and that diocese which contains the great throughout the world as THE authority Margaret A. Poole Thomas M. Kitts Church. Shrine of Lourdes. The same bishop on St. Elizabeth Seton. He authored Assistant to the Director As a boy, Vincent was a shepherd; ordained him to the subdiaconate on Mrs. Seton, Foundress of the Daughters indeed, it was his wont when others September 19, 1598 and to the diaconate Staten Island Campu s of Charity. Ordained in 1943, Father Mary M . Kenny were boasting of their gentle or noble on December 19, 1598. The order of The cover portrayal of St. Vincent de Diruin receiued his B.A. in 1938 from St. origins to murmur that he himself had priesthood was bestowed by Msgr, Editor Paul is adapted from a drawing by Joseph's College, Princeton, N.J., and herded swine. His family was devoutly Francois de Bourdeille, Bishop of Bernard P. Begla ne Reverend Lawrence A . Lonergan, C.M. his M.A. in 1956fromSt. John's. Niagara Christian, so naturally was the boy, and Perigeux, in the Church of St. Julian at A lumni Quarterly Uniuersity presented him with an one of his earliest devotions was to the Chateau-1-Eveque on September 23 , honorary Doctor of Humane Letters The opinions and viewpoin ls expressed in Lhi s magazine are no Ln ecessari ly those o f St. J ohn's University, its Mother of God, a principal devotion of 1600. The new priest was only 19 years degree in 1973. administra ti on or its office rs. his !if e after his love and initation of her old! 3 Vincent to convey a secret message to From that time on Vincent's life was a Henri IV at Paris, which ever after was whirlwind of good and lasting works. At his permanent home. the death of his friend, St. Francis De Taken on as a chaplain by Queen Sales, Vincent had become superior of Marguerite de Valois, whose marriage the Parisian monasteries of the Visita­ with Henri had been annulled, the young tion and spiritual adviser of the co­ priest - he was still only 27 - came foundress, St. Jane Frances de Chantal. face to face for the first time with the Soon after 1626 he became spiritual horrors of the poor as he distributed the director of the newly widowed Louise Queen's alms among them. He also met de Marillac, and together they founded Father, later Cardinal, de Berulie, who the Daughters of Charity out of became his spititual director. numerous Confraternities of Charity he Sanctity now began to quicken in had established in villages where he and Vincent as, under Berulle's direction, his priests had preached missions. The he became at different stages pastor of founding date was November 29,1633. parishes at Clichy and Chatillon-les­ In the following winter, between dombes and tutor to the children of January and March 1634, Vincent The Very Rev. Richard McCullen , C.M., Superior General of the Congregation of the Mission and founded the Ladies of Charity by the Daughters of Charity, received an h_onorary Doctor of Laws_degree from the Very Rev. Joseph T. Admiral de Gondi, General of the King's bringing together for training in holiness Cahill , C.M., president, St. John's University, al the convocal!on. Galley. and charity the greatest ladies of the Good priest that he was, Vincent was a renegade Christian from Nice who Much as Vincent chafed in the gilded court, including the Queen, Anne of Father McCullen delivered the keynote address on St. Vincen t de Paul. far from being yet a saint! He had the put him to work in the fields. cage of the de Gondi palace, it was Austria, herself. normal desire to secure a living for One of the fellow's three wives, a more of Providence's work, for through Summoned by the Queen to assist at Through his knowledge on the Coun­ weekly gathering of serious-minded himself, which in those days depended Turk, was so moved by Vincent's singing the Admiral he became chaplain general the deathbed of Louis XIII, Vincent cil of the appalling condition of the priests at St. Lazare, the Vincentian upon the bestowal of a benefice of title of the Jewish psalm of exile, Super of the galleys, bringing spiritual comfort found himself embroiled, along with hierarchy and clergy, Vincent was able motherhouse, where they learned to a parish or other ecclesiastical F/umina Baby/onis, and the Salve and some measure of physical relief to everything else, at the Court for more to use his power for the stop-gap priestly holiness from the words and institution, and to repay his family and Regina that she, in his own words, "was these chained outcasts, and through years than he wished, first as the spirit­ measure of appointing more worthy example of Vincent himself. assist their needs. instrumental in drawing her husband Madame de Gondi was introduced to ual director of the Queen, then as a bishops, although a few rogues still Through his connections at Court, After a fruitless trip to Rome to out of her apostasy back into the the spiritual ingorance of the country member of the Council of Conscience slipped through; the most important and his highborn Ladies of Charity, secure title to a disputed benefice which Church and delivering me from slavery." poor on her vast estates. which had great influence in the ap­ results, however, were his employment Vincent was able to deploy his religious the Bishop of Dax wanted him to have The whole household escaped in a skiff These country poor were Vincent's pointment of bishops. of his priests to give retreats to those sons and daughters to the ravished in his own diocese, and a mysterious to France where the renegade was first major vocation, and he always This double !if e was not all bad, for about to be ordained, then to establish provinces during the never-ending wars trip to Bordeaux which may have reconciled to the Church by the Vice marked January 25 , 1617, the day of his one side of Vincent's work for the seminaries for a complete training and of the Fronde, where they brought involved a possible bishopric through Legate, Msgr.

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