VINCENT DE PAUL, N' 11r 1)61. SAINT (1576-160). A distinguished French priest, founder of the missionary Order of the Lazarists. lie was horn at Ila.nquines, near Pony, in Gascony, April 24,1576, and was sent to school at Toulouse. Ile became an ecclesiastical student, and was ad mitted to priest's orders in 1600. On a voyage Which he was making from Ma rseillos to Narbonne his ship was captured by corsairs, and he with his companions sold into slavo-ry at. Tunis, where lie passed through the hands of three different masters. The last of these, who was a renegade Savoyard, yielded to the exhortations of Vincent, resolved to return to the Christian faith, and, with Vincent, made his escape from Barbary. They landed in France in 1607. Having gone thence to Rome, he was intrusted with an im portant mission to the French Court in 1608, :Ind continued for sonic time to reside in Paris as the almoner of Marguerite de Valois. The acci dent of his becoming preceptor of the children of M. de Gondy, the commandant of the galleys at Marseilles, led to his being appointed almoner general of the galleys in 1619. For the founda tion of the Congregation of Priests of the Mis sion, which occupied a large part of his time from 1624, see LAZARISTS. llis life was devoted
to the organization of works of charity and benev olence. To him Paris owes the establishment of the foundling hospital, and the first systematic efforts for the preservation of the lives and the due education of a class theretofore neglected or left to the operation of chance charity. The Sisters of Charity (see BROTHERS AND SISTERS OF CHARITY ) were founded under his direction, and he was intrusted by Saint Francis of Sales With the direction of the newly founded I )rder of Sisters of the Visitation. He left nothing behind him but the Constitutions of time Congregation of the Mission, Conferencms on these constitutions, and a number of letters, chiefly on spiritual subjects. Lie died at Saint Lazare, September 27, 1660, and was canonized by Clement X11. in 1737. His festival is July 19th, the day of his canonization. Consult his Life by Adderley (London, 1901), Jones (ib., 1873), and in French by Loth (Paris, I850), 'Morel (1884). De Broglie (Eng. trans., London, 1809), and Bougaud (Eng. trans., New York, 1000),