Translator’s note:
In the Spanish text, direct quotes from different
sources had been put in italics. In most cases, however, there is no
direct citation as to where these quotes are taken and it would
have taken an enormous amount of time to find them all. Therefore,
when a citation is given, I also make a reference in English. Because
of not being able to locate all the citations, some of the translation
of official Church documents may very well differ here, although
I am confident that we will be close in the majority of the cases.
Part I: THE HISTORICAL ORIGINS OF VINCENTIAN
VOLUNTEERS
The Conversion of Vincent de Paul,
the first Vincentian volunteer
If
we look at the first seventeen Centuries of the history of the Catholic
Church, we can conclude that Vincent de Paul was the first Vincentian
volunteer. This affirmation can sound like some kind of “word
game”, but it is not. True, Vincent de Paul did not inspire
himself to become the first Vincentian volunteer; rather the Holy
Spirit inspired him. Vincent’s response to this inspiration
was not forced or predetermined by the circumstances of his previous
life but was the result of a free decision.
If
Vincent had lived all his life in the same way that he lived his
first thirty-two years, he might have become an honest priest. At
the same time, however, he would have remained attached to his family,
while still hoping to forget the humble origins of his early life. He
viewed priesthood as a way to better his social position. For
example, at the age of twenty-four and recently ordained (he was
ordained at the age of twenty), he attempted to become a bishop,
motivated not by pastoral zeal but by the social and ecclesiastical
importance that was attached to this title. As bishop, he would
have received an income that would have allowed him to help his family.
All
of these ideas were put aside once and for all when Vincent decided
to leave the home of the de Gondi’s where he had educated the
de Gondi children and been the spiritual director for Madame de Gondi. He
traveled to the small, remote village of Chatillon where he became
a pastor and missionary for these country people. He was thirty-six
years old when he made this decision. His flight from the de
Gondi house, though inspired by the Holy Spirit, was a free and decisive
decision. He would remain faithful to this inspiration up to
the time of his death at the age of eighty. No other human
being in his time, or in previous times, provided Vincent with a
model, or an inspiration for such a radical change in the direction
of his life. Indeed, this change of direction can be called
a “conversion” in the strictest sense of that word. For
this reason, as we stated at the very beginning, Vincent de Paul
can be called the first Vincentian volunteer in the history of the
Church.
The first group of Vincentian volunteers:
the Confraternity of Charity at Chatillon
It
was at Chatillon where his own experience with people, in this case
poor country people, began to inspire others to live their Christian
faith in the same way. In Chatillon the volunteers were women. They
were eight women, married, single, widows, who became members of
a group that Vincent established there: the Confraternity of Charity
of Chatillon, the first group of Vincentian inspired volunteers in
the history of the Church.
In
the rule that Vincent wrote for them, we find the fundamental elements
that ought to characterize any group that wishes to be classified
as Vincentian. We will pause and analyze in some detail the
basic ideas of this rule that can be found in Correspondence,
Conferences, Documents, New City
Press: Hyde Park, New York, Volume XIIIb, 8-20.
The
Confraternity does not have a particular saint as its patron… the
Servants of the Poor will take for their patron Our Lord Jesus and
for its aim the accomplishment of His very ardent desire that Christians
should practice among themselves the works of charity and mercy
(XIIIb:9) since charity toward the neighbor is an infallible
sign of the true children of God (XIIIb:8). This is the basic and radical idea, valid
even today, for every movement that wishes to be known as Vincentian:
Jesus Christ, the absolute model of true love for the neighbor and
in this case for the neighbor most in need, the poor sick, who are
to be aided spiritually and physically.
As
we shall see, Vincent de Paul established other groups of volunteers,
but he gave the same fundamental principles to all of these groups. Indeed
all of the new associations that he founded were imbued with the
same understanding and way of living the Christian faith. Vincentians
are believers who are animated and inspired by the example of Saint
Vincent de Paul to live their faith centered on the love of Jesus
Christ and the love of the poor. Other important elements would
be added in future foundations (prayer, the sacraments, community
life, priesthood, vows), but the life of all Vincentians ought to
be based on, and orientated toward, that which is most fundamental:
the love of Jesus Christ and the love of the poor. This basic
orientation is made real by an active dedication to the human promotion
of people who are poor and by providing for their spiritual and physical
development.
True
Christians have always been and continue to be motivated by charity. Vincent
warned the members of the Confraternity that “the poor suffer
greatly because of a lack of organization and because there are not
enough charitable people.” In Chatillon, Vincent put in place an organization
composed of eight volunteers who dedicated themselves to an orderly
and systematic plan of action on behalf of the sick poor of the village. Vincent
said “it can be feared that after having begun a
good work, everything could be ruined in a short period of time if
this work did not also have some spiritual connection.”
A
spiritual connection: here we refer to a work that is inspired by
the Spirit of the God of Jesus Christ. This is the Spirit that
brought together eight women, and who inspired their Rule: weekly
meetings, orderly distribution of work, careful administration of
economic resources, prayer and Eucharist in common, distribution
of the different roles in the Confraternity (president, treasurer,
assistants, etc.), and a process for the distribution of goods that
was not dependent on the pastor but dependent on the members themselves. Indeed,
the Rule considered these women to be adult lay Christians who were
capable of governing themselves.
One
aspect of the Rule that shines out above all others is the detailed
description of the careful attention that should be given to each
poor person who is ill. It seems almost incredible that a priest,
thirty-six years of age, was capable of drawing up such a detailed
plan for the care of the sick — a plan that included details
about their spiritual care (this would certainly be expected of him),
as well as details about the way in which the sick person should
assisted, namely with joy and charity, and
more details about the clothing that should be brought to the sick
person and the way in which the bed should be made, details about
the way in which the meat should be cut and how the sick person should
be assisted in eating the meal when he or she was incapable of feeding
him/herself. All of these details arose from a great sensitivity
that was used to serve the poor and from a vision of faith that involved
serving the poor as though they were Jesus Christ himself.
The second group of Vincentian volunteers:
the Congregation of the Mission
Eight
years after the foundation of the Confraternity of the Charity at
Chatillon and the establishment of this Confraternity in many parishes
in Paris and the surrounding area, Vincent de Paul founded the Congregation
of the Mission. He was thirty-five years old at the time. In
this case, he was not dealing with good women from a particular town
or village, but rather with ordained priests.
In
the beginning, 1626, they were no more than three. The three,
including himself, were diocesan priests, with pastoral obligations
in their respective dioceses, obligations that provided them with
an income that allowed them to live fairly comfortable lives. They
had to renounce all of this in order to come together as volunteers
and collaborators in the missionary project of Vincent de Paul — a
project that in the beginning was centered on rural missions and
the care of the galley slaves.
We
have already stated that other priests gathered around Vincent de
Paul. One of them was a young priest who freely presented himself
for ordination in the first half of the Seventeenth Century. Yet
what he had to do as an ordained minister did not depend on his own
wishes — this had been defined by the Council of Trent which
concluded its work in the previous century: the priest acted as a
holy intermediary between God and the people in those matters that
pertain to public worship, in particular, the administration of the
sacraments. The Council documents, however, said nothing about
the missionary role of the priest (and nothing about the missionary
role of the laity). There was nothing in the documents that
spoke about dedicating oneself to the service of the poor, nothing
about an exclusive or preferential option for the poor.
Therefore,
Vincent offered the priests of his time a new model for priestly
life — a model that had not been defined or made obligatory
for all priests, but a model that depended on the willingness of
the individual to accept this new way of life. The priests
who left their dioceses and joined Vincent de Paul in his missionary
undertaking were surely motivated by the Holy Spirit, but they acted
freely. No one commanded them to join Vincent. They would
continue to be leaders of public worship, but from the moment that
they became part of this new Congregation that had been established
by Vincent de Paul, they knew that their primary task — their
vocation — was to dedicate themselves, body and soul, to the
evangelization of the poor and only the poor (as Vincent would say many times during his life). We
know from trustworthy witnesses (Martin de Barcos, the nephew of
Saint Cyprian) that the priests of the Congregation of the Mission
were popularly knows as “the priests of the poor.”
At
the very beginning we said that the priests who gathered themselves
around Vincent, dedicated themselves to giving missions to the rural
poor and caring for the galley salves. As the years passed,
their field of action among the poor was broadened to include those
displaced by war, wounded and mutilated soldiers, the elderly, immigrants,
slaves, the people of Madagascar.... indeed, poor people everywhere.
Knowing
that the growing list of poor people entrusted to the missionaries,
and the work that was entailed in aiding these people, might alarm
and startle some members of the Congregation, Vincent, two years
before his death, told them that this is only the beginning — the
Congregation ought to be ready to assist those groups of poor people
who might arise in the future.
The
priests who joined Vincent de Paul took on certain elements in their
lives that were not demanded of the volunteers who became part of
the Confraternity of Charity. First of all they accepted priesthood
(though very soon non-ordained lay persons would join the Congregation)
and they agreed to live together in community and accepted a Common
Rule and later took vows. The principal animators of their
spirituality, however, were the same as those that motivated the
Confraternity of Charity at Chatillon. Furthermore, the new
elements mentioned above had to be integrated into the basic principles
that were already laid down for the Confraternities. Their
priesthood was for the poor, their community life was to provide
them mutual support in serving the poor and the three vows (poverty,
chastity and obedience) were pronounced in order to support and affirm
the fourth vow of dedicating one entire life to the service of the
poor.
In
the last year of his life Vincent summed up his vision concerning
the work of the members of the Congregation: If there are
any among us who think they are in the Congregation of the Mission
to preach the Gospel to the poor but not to comfort them; to provide
for their spiritual needs and not for their temporal wants, listen
then to these words, for we ought to help them in every way that
we can and we ought to influence others to work for them. To
act in this way is to evangelize in word and deed. This is
also what our Lord Jesus Christ did. (Conference
of Vincent de Paul to the missionaries, On the End of the
Congregation of the Mission,
December 6, 1658).
Vincent
founded and established another group of diocesan priests, but the
members of this group continued to work in their respective dioceses. This
new association was called the Tuesday Conferences. Membership
in this group was completely voluntary (the bishop did not order
them to participate in these conferences) and the first members were
priests from the diocese of Paris. They gathered together weekly,
on Tuesday’s (hence the name of the group) to participate in
a program of on-going formation. Each week a different theme
was chosen: sacraments, liturgy, theology, moral, etc.
In
the Rule that was written for this group, Vincent stated very clearly
that this association of priests is established to honor our Lord
Jesus Christ, his eternal priesthood and his love for the poor. The
priests who belonged to the Tuesday Conferences learned this lesson
very well. Inspired by Vincent de Paul, they offered a mission
to the carpenters who were building the palace of Louvre, and later,
another mission in a hospital for the blind. We should point
out here that among the priests who joined this association, many
of them were from aristocratic families — one of them was the
famous Bossuet who was one of the best preachers in the history of
the Church.
The third group of Vincentian volunteers:
the Daughters of Charity
In
the beginning, the Daughters of Charity were a small group of four
women, including Louise de Marillac who was forty-three years old,
a widow, and a mother of one son. Louise gathered the other
three women in her house and formed them in ways to serve the poor. This
occurred sixteen years after Vincent had established the first Confraternity
of Charity.
This
third group of volunteers was established to help the Confraternities
of Charity in Paris. They provided on-going care to the sick
poor — a care which the members of the Confraternity were unable
to give because of their social position and/or family obligations. To
dedicate themselves to this work required continual attention. Therefore,
it was necessary that the women who wished to become part of this
group would be free from other social and family obligations that
could impede their service. Thus, the first three volunteers
(and thousands of Daughters of Charity who would follow them) voluntarily
left their families and through the vow of chastity, renounced the
formation of their own family.
The
first Daughter of Charity, Marguerite Naseau (Vincent called here the
first Daughter of Charity who showed the others the way) was a country girl who had taught herself to read. She presented herself
to Vincent so that she might assist the Confraternities of Charity
in caring for the sick poor.
These
first three women, as well as those who would join the group later
on, presented themselves to Louise de Marillac as volunteers to assist
in this same work, that is, assisting the Confraternities in caring
for the sick poor. They lived together in community and Louise
guided this group of women. From the very beginning they were able
to count on the support of Vincent de Paul, who for twenty-seven
years (the remainder of his earthly life), spoke to them almost weekly,
guiding them and orientating them by sharing his vision and his way
of living the Christian faith. Vincent imbued these women with
the same spirit that he had previously proposed to the women who
joined the Confraternity of Charity, the same spirit that he gave
to the Congregation of the Mission, the same spirit that he gave
to the priests who participated in the Tuesday Conferences.
Vincent
urged the Daughters to live their lives in the same way as the missionaries,
that is, to live in community and commit themselves to serving the
poor. He also proposed that they take vows. The Daughters also
took a fourth vow, a vow of service to the poor. This vow was
not more important than the other vows of poverty, chastity, and
obedience, but rather the profession of the three vows enabled them
to faithfully fulfill their obligations of service to the poor.
The
fact that these women found this vocation attractive is evidenced
by the number of women who freely decided to leave their families
and put aside their own plans to establish a family and enthusiastically
joined Louise. At the same time a number of women left this group
when they began to fully understand the demands and the sacrifices
of this vocation.
That
some women left the group did not impede their rapid growth in just
a few years. Today, the initial group of four women has become
the largest canonical group of women in the Church, numbering more
than twenty-six thousand and working on every continent. All
of them were taught and continue to be taught that to serve the
poor is to go to God (this was said by one of the first Daughters) and that to
be a Daughter of Charity is to do the same as Jesus did when he was
on earth, that is, to dedicate themselves to the spiritual
and physical liberation of the poor (a phrase that was repeated thousands
of times by Vincent and Louise). Two months before she died
at the age of seventy, Louise spoke to the Daughters and said that
humble and constant service to the poor is the essence
of a truly holy individual.
The fourth group of Vincentian volunteers:
the Ladies of Charity
One
year after the foundation of the Daughters of Charity, Vincent de
Paul founded another group of women to work with the poor, a group,
until recently, called the Ladies of Charity. Like the Confraternities
of Charity, their members were women who were either married, single
or widowed.
There
are many similarities between this group and the Confraternity of
Charity, especially when examining their basic spiritual inspiration — in
this regard they are identical. There are, however, important
differences. The women who belonged to the Confraternities
were women from the lower social classes while the women who became
members of the Ladies of Charity were from the middle or upper social
classes of society. Some of them belonged to the aristocracy
and some were the wives of government ministers, including the queen,
Anne of Austria.
There
were other important differences, including their way of working
for the liberation of people who were poor. The Confraternities
were parish based groups and cared for the sick people in the parish. The
Ladies of Charity were established as a type of mobile team, able
to move beyond parish and diocesan boundaries. They not only
worked in any part of France that needed their assistance but also
cared for those persons who were not provided for through the ordinary
ministry of the Confraternities: those who were hospitalized and
no longer living in their own homes, abandoned children, the galley
slaves, the war refugees and Christian salves in North Africa.
It
can be stated that as the Ladies of Charity cared for an ever widening
group of persons who were poor, and as the Daughters of Charity collaborated
with the Ladies of Charity in this work, Vincent discovered, little
by little, that his spiritual plan for a Christian life was effective
not only for the sick poor (as in the case of Chatillon), but effective
for all those who were poor.
These
women were also volunteers and experienced the normal highs and lows
in their ministry — at times they were discouraged by the demands
of the work. The group, however, has continued in existence
even in our own time and now numbers more than two hundred thousand
women working in many different parts of the world. Today,
they are no longer called Ladies of Charity, and the name Confraternity
of Charity has also been changed — both groups have been joined
together and are called the International Association of Charity. Their
members come from all the social classes of society and they continue
to dedicate themselves to the liberation of the poor in an ever-changing
world.
Vincent
spoke frequently to the Ladies and inspired them with his vision
of the Christian life and called them to follow Jesus Christ by working
for the spiritual and physical liberation of the poor. They
soon learned that caring for the poor was not just one more activity
among their many other obligations — caring for the poor was
a true vocation that ought to transform their lives. Vincent
spoke about this transforming aspect of their vocation when he said: Ladies, … [your
are] to be interiorly and continually devoted to working at your
spiritual advancement and to live as perfectly as you can, always
keeping the lamp within you lighted --- I mean a cordial, ardent,
and persevering desire to please and obey God… And since
the maxims of the world are not in harmony with that, and nothing
deprives us so much of the spirit of God than to live in a worldly
way in society, and since the closer we are to splendor, the more
unworthy we make ourselves of possessing Jesus Christ, then the Ladies
of Charity must distance themselves from this spirit of the world
as they would from air that is contaminated. They must declare
themselves to be on the side of God and of charity. I mean entirely,
for anyone who would wish to support in the slightest way the contrary
side would spoil everything because God cannot tolerate a divided
heart. He wants it whole and entire; yes, whole and entire. I
have the consolation of speaking to souls who belong entirely to
him, far removed from anything that can make them displeasing in
His eyes. In the past, among those who presented themselves
to become members of the Company, the choice was made of persons
who did not gamble, nor go to the theater, nor participate in other
dangerous pastimes, nor act vain by trying to pretend they were devout. We
must, then, believe that God sheds His grace only on those who separate
themselves from the high life… [and who dedicate their lives
to His service. Imitate the holy women of the Gospel]. They went
from one place to another to meet the needs, not only of the Church
workers, but of the faithful who were in distress… By
so doing, you will pass through the narrow gate that leads to life;
and, in the words of Saint Thomas, you will all be saved, because,
as he says, no one can be lost in the practice of charity.
While
we will not go into detail here about the work of the Ladies of Charity,
we will mention two facts that reveal the effectiveness of their
liberating work. The first fact, which is well known, involves
their work in the public hospitals which brought many people back
to the faith and led to the conversion of more than six hundred people,
many of whom were Muslims. The second fact involves the children:
in just ten years, the joint efforts of the Ladies of Charity and
the Daughters of Charity freed more than five hundred or six hundred
children from death and provided them with a Christian education
that allowed these young men and women to earn a decent living.
A glance in retrospect and a summary
Vincent
de Paul established four institutions for men and women volunteers
and these institutions have continued to exist up to the present
time. The Confraternity of Charity and the Ladies of Charity
have been joined together and are known today as the International
Association of Charity. The other two are known by their original
names: the Congregation of the Mission and the Daughters of Charity.
We
can classify all these groups as voluntary associations because in
their origin that is what they were. We have seen that the
individuals who wanted to join these groups, had no obligation to
so — their desire was rooted in their baptismal commitment. There
is no doubt that charity toward the poor is a demand of our faith
and baptism. There has been, however, and their will always
be, ways of following Jesus that do not hold this demand as an essential
element in their spirituality. But those persons who wished
to unite themselves to the work of Vincent de Paul were called to
renounce many things, and voluntarily commit themselves to a new
vision of the Christian life that Vincent held forth for them
The
vision that Vincent proposed, embraced people from every social class
and canonical category recognized by the Church as a legitimate style
of Christian life. He involved lay persons who were married,
single or widows; he also called forth priest who were incardinated in
a particular diocese and lay persons who wanted to live in community
with vows. Thus young country women (the first Daughters of
Charity were predominantly country women) left their families to
live in community and also took vows. At the same time these
women wished to remain as laywomen and had no desire to become religious. It
seems that Vincent never saw his spiritual vision, centered on the
following of Jesus Christ the evangelizer of the poor, as being compatible
with the traditional idea of religious life. For while religious
life was focused on the following of Jesus Christ, it was also centered
around the profession of the vows and not on work with the poor
In
the rule of Vincent’s first foundation, the Confraternity of
Charity at Chatillon, the fundamental elements are clearly stated. These
elements are referred to today as the Vincentian spirit and ought
to be present not only in Vincentian institutions but also in all
the members of said institution who feel themselves called to live
their Christian faith in this way and with this vision. Consequently
one is constituted a Vincentian volunteer when one freely responds
to this vision and tries to live it as a vocation, responding in
this way to the call of the Holy Spirit to live the Christian faith
in this particular way.
In
summary these are the fundamental elements:
1. The way to a life with God,
the way to Christian holiness, involves the following and the imitation
of Jesus Christ, the only way, through the help of the Holy Spirit,
to the Father. Every spirituality, including Vincentian spirituality,
depends on this fundamental element.
2. In the case of Vincentian volunteers,
the way to holiness is based on a vision of Jesus Christ as the evangelizer/liberator
of the poor. Jesus Christ and his love of the poor is presented
to the Vincentian volunteer as the model par excellence for
the Christian life.
3. Furthermore, Jesus Christ wanted
to identify himself with the poor (whatever you did for one of
these least brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me [Matthew
25:40]). To serve the poor and work on behalf of the poor is
to serve and work on behalf of the Lord himself. Therefore,
as stated clearly in the Rule of Chatillon, the Vincentian volunteer
is a servant of the poor,
and through baptism is also a servant of Jesus Christ.
4. The
work of liberating/evangelizing those who are poor is orientated
to the spiritual dimension of their life, that is, it is orientated
toward their relationship with God, but it also takes into consideration
their physical and material needs: food, clothing, housing, culture,
health, social relations etc. The poor are not simply spiritual
beings nor are they merely physical beings; they are both. The
liberation that Jesus Christ brings to the earth embraces the whole
being.
5. Fundamentally, the Vincentian
volunteer does not work with the poor as an individual. In
itself this might be highly recommended and something that every
Christian is expected to do. Individual works of charity, however,
are not enough to enable one to be called a Vincentian volunteer. The
work of the Vincentian volunteers in liberating/evangelizing the
poor are always done through some organized institution whose members
wish to establish and maintain among themselves bonds of solidarity
and mutual assistance.
Vincentian volunteers today
After
Vincent’s death in 1660, his vision continued to inspire not
only those institutions that he founded, but also greatly influenced
the creation of new institutions. His influence extended beyond
the Catholic Church. For example, in England there is a group
of Anglican pastors, who have been influenced by Vincent’s
spirituality and thus, under his patronage, have come together and
have dedicated themselves to serving the poor.
Within
the Catholic Church, the best-known Vincentian institution is the
Saint Vincent de Paul Society. Not only is it the best known
but it is also the largest group in the Church, numbering between
eight hundred thousand and one million members and organized in more
than thirty countries. Like the International Association of
Charity, the Vincent de Paul Society is composed entirely of lay
people, who in great part, though not exclusively so, are men. It
was founded one hundred seventy years ago in Paris by a small group
of university students. Frederick Ozanam was one of the original
founders and has been recently beatified by John Paul II.
Another
institution, more numerous than the Saint Vincent de Paul Society,
is the Association of the Miraculous Medal. No one is sure
how many persons consider themselves members of this group which
came into existence as a result of Marian apparitions to Catherine
Laboure, a Daughter of Charity in Paris. This group is known
for its Marian Devotion and at the present time is in the process
of strengthening is Vincentian identity — an identity which
has not always been clearly expressed in its formal documents.
The
same Marian apparitions gave birth to another group known as the
Children of Mary. In Spain, this group is referred to as the
Vincentian Marian Youth. While this group has a Marian orientation,
it is also explicitly Vincentian in character. This is seen
especially in the early activity of this group that was directed
to the social promotion of young workers, and urging these workers,
especially women, to participate actively in their labor unions. Today
the Association wishes to maintain and strengthen is double character:
Marian and Vincentian.
The
examples that we have given here are by no means an exhaustive list
of those institutions that claim to be inspired by Vincent de Paul. As
a result of a very careful investigation that was made by a Daughter
of Charity in the United States, we know that there are about two
hundred such institutions. Many of them are not well known
but they all claim to follow the spiritual vision of Vincent de Paul.
The
fact that the name of Vincent de Paul appears in the title of an
institution does not necessarily mean that all its members are part
of what we call the Vincentian Family. Whether or not the association
bears the name of Vincent de Paul is not really important. What
was necessary in Vincent’s time, and what is still necessary
today, is that the members desire to live their lives in the same
way as Vincent lived his — to imitate Jesus Christ in liberating
the poor people of the world. This principle was, and continues to
be today, the basic and essential element for all Vincentian institutions.
Part II
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