DePaul University Via Sapientiae Vincentian Studies Institute Monographs & In the Footsteps of Vincent de Paul Publications 2007 South Follow this and additional works at: https://via.library.depaul.edu/footsteps Recommended Citation South. https://via.library.depaul.edu/footsteps/2 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Vincentian Studies Institute Monographs & Publications at Via Sapientiae. It has been accepted for inclusion in In the Footsteps of Vincent de Paul by an authorized administrator of Via Sapientiae. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 5 South Saint VinCCIlI J.' Paul p'lTiSh, Pouy Aquitaine , ViI/celli lie Pnll/, a lIatil't! of ,he regioll ofAq uila;"c (lmilhe mas/ /all/OIlS 5011 of lilt, Landes, was ordnillcd to the priesthood here for the diocese of Do),,". Aflh(Hlgh he did 110/ no IIllIell work ill 'his regiol/ after the /O/ll/(I(liioll of the COllgregmiollo/ the Mission, lie sell 1 I,is collfreres hcn-. He cOIl/hilled 10 l/al'/' friends I!( ~ n' (llId /0 ill: il1l aesled ill his IIlI/iFe regio/l tlmmg/lOlItlris life. 1:.1 Till; F OOTSTFI'~ 01' VIt'CI.:.IT 111, P,\lJ l AGEN not be repe:lted. He reaso ned that it O fa r as is known, Vincent never seell1('d not in keeping with Vincentian came to Agen. He accepted a hO llse ideals. It \."a s no t un til the Revolution Shere in 1650, however, to serve as a thai :1110ther French Vincentian was con­ seminary, wi th the proviso that the secrated a bishop. Undoubtedly because Vincentians should to be able to under­ Hebert was th e s pi r itual dircClor or stand the IDea! O cc it an language. Madame d e Mai n te non, a Lad )' of Previous attempts at a seminary had Charity and [;1\('1' wife of Lou is XIV, the been unsuccessful, and problems contin­ king hoped he wo uld be eiccted su perior ued "ner the Vin cc nti:ms arrived, mainly ge neral. When that did not h:lppen, he involving insufficient funds and a negli­ proposed him to the pope for this dio· gent bishop. Vi nccnt had w;lIlted to dose cese. Hebert's memoirs. published only th e sc minary, but hi s confreres remained in 1927, shed an interesting light 0 11 until the Revolu tion. The semillary in Versailles. particularly its rel igious life. Vincent's timc had been at what is now Hl' died in Agen. caHed Place des Droi ts de I' Homme. Among the Vincentians at the Agell These old buildings became th(' School seminary at th e time of th e Revolution of COllllllcrcc and Industry, lasting until were two who look the constitutional ;11 least Ihe 1930s. oalhs. AI/toille Labarthe (1740-1 820) The dioces'lIl seminary was then was elected constitutio nal bishop of Lot ­ reb uilt elsc \.,.here, and it conti nued in l'I -G,lfon ne ( the Il el'" designati on for this new location u ntil the Revolu tion. Agen). He quickly refused the office and Afterwa rds it too continued in usc as a later retracted his oath. He survived the sc hool. now the Lycee ).I!. de Baudre. Revolu tion and conti nued as a l):Jrish Th(' bu il d ings have been conVl'rted to priest. The other. Antoine Call1 ellet their new purpose. The chapel has been (176 1-1796) took alt the oaths and then ta ken down, for exa mple. (place Verdllll, abandoned the priest hood d uri ng the form(,rly Plact' (//1 Crt/lid Scmillaire, 011 Terror. He soon !led to Spain , however, me MIIT/k/I(I/ de Lo/lrl' rll' Timigll)') ;ln d d ied in Barcelona. After th e Agen is a lso impo rt an t I II Revol ution, until about 18 10, at least IWO Vinc<.. 'nti: m life since it was Ihe see of the Vincentia ns served the seminar}' until fi rst Vincc nti an bishop, Fmrlt;ois H e/Jert thl' Co ngrega tio n could get reestab ­ ( 1651-1728). He had been the superior lished. of the house in VC fsa ilk'S when, on 6 Daughters of Charit y came to Agc n Apr i! 170,1. at ,lge 53, he was o rdained b>' in 1686 whert' they worked in Ihe hospi­ the arch bisho p of !l;l ri s. VlIlcent had ta l a nd ran II school. Following the considered o thers of his confreres as Revolu tion, they returned to the school possible bishops in mission areas, such in 1836 and took up the hospital again as Lambert Aux Couteaux, but Hebert's in 1885, lind the)' con tinue th ei r work st:lection so worrit'd Ihe then superior here today. In 1733 Oil(' of t lit' Daught ers general. Edme Jolly, that he askl'd that it reportedl), was cured from various ail - 282 - IN Till! h)()TSl ' El~ or V1NCEt-'T l)l. PAUl. joined becallle family names. In 11ll' reli­ were Dc Pauls in Pou y fro 111 al least giolls records at POll Y, all the inhabitants 1509, one of them being n amed in the seventeenth cen tury, even the Vincence. humblest, had "dC''' or "du" befoTe their The family of Vil/cel/t's fa Ill er, lean mlllle. Vi ncent ahvays signed his name as de Paul. numbered se"eral im portant Dcp;llll, in aile word, a practice followed rural officials: lean de Paul ( 1545), a sometimes even by nobility for their roya l sergean t; .Itloth er Jean de Paul own names. Beginning as early as 1628, ( 1564),:1 canon of Dax; ,md Etienne de Louise and o thers began to call him Paul ( 1577), prior of Poupnartet at Monsieur Vincent. never Monsieu r Gourbcra, seven or eight kilometers Depaul. In addition he always spel led his north of Po uy. The famil}' of Vincent's first name in the Gascon fashion, with a mollier, Bertrande de Moras, was also of f inal s: Vin ccns, not Vincent, with a so me importance. She had seve ral fi nal I. lawyers and clergy in her family, people \Vc can presume thai the name "De wi th important posts in Dax, Bordeaux Paul" had Ihis kind of origin. However. and elsewhere. Besides, her famil y wa s the earliest registers, from the ca thedral related to the more important o nes in chapler of Dax, record the n;lI11C Paul (in the area: p;Hticularly to the S;linl Martin the forms de Paul, or even Pol) from as and COllll'l familit>s- nallies occu rring ea rl y as the 14005. This offers a solution in Vincent's b iographies. A co usin, to the meaning of " Paul." This name has Dominique [Jusi n, wa s the pas tor of nothing to do with Saint Paul the apostle Pouy \vith whom Vincent lodged when nor with 1..11 in paulus ("little, small") but he returned in 1624 to visit his family. ra th er with pn/o ( Latin pn/lI s, a marsh) It The date of Vil/cel/t's birtl, has seems to be a sout hern ve rsion of a com­ aroused lively discussion. Abelly, his first mon French family name, ,Ie Marl/is biographer, gave it as Easter Tuesday of ("from the marsh") . [t is common enough, also, in northern Spain, in the form PaIR Which marsh is meant? This is harder to define, bul half way between the Berceau :lIld Bug[ose runS:1 stream called " Pont de Palll. ~ and near the shrine of l3ug lo se is a house called " P.IlII". Di:; tant :m ccsto rs of his may ha\'e lived in that hOll se or on the banks of the marshy stream. He nce t hat name migh t have p;\ssed 10 their descendants. Some members of the Dc Paul f.unily still live in Pouy, an d others with the sa nlt: name, spelled Depaul, live in the ])~'SCl'lllhints of tne Del'aul famil y. surrounding area. Nevertheless, there 20th century photograpn 284 $oUTI I 1576. Easter Tuesda}' of tha t rear was 24 (cradle) is th e far m house ca ll ed April. Vi ncent's own testimony, however, Rallqllincs, pe r ha ps fro m t he Gascon is different. Depending on what weight term mntlueja, to li mp. The naille may one gives to va rious cit at io ns, he was recall t he fact t h at Vi nce nt 's fa t her born eit her in 1580 or 1581. As to the day limped, but it seems unli kely, the confu­ and month, his binhday could haw been sion coming from the fact thaI the prop­ 24 April, however, which Abell y convert­ erty o n which it stands is a lso c<l ll ed ed to Ea s \C'r Tuesday. If no t, Eastc r Ra nquines. Vincent was born here, not Tucsday of 1580 was 5 April, the fe;lst of in th is sam e bu ilding but in a n earli er Sai nt Vincent Ferre r, Vincent's second one on th e S<1me si te. I-Ie often described patron; a nd the s.1 me day in 1581 was 28 his fa ther as a p(lf/vre /(/bOllrClIr, meaning March. Vincent himself said his birthday not a si m ple ~ l abore r " or fa rm worker in fell in April, but no o ne seems to have English, but an owner o f property who celebrated it in his lifetime and not until was able to work it.