Quick Facts
- Born to a peasant family.
- A highly intelligent youth, Vincent spent four years with the Franciscan friars at Acqs getting an education.
- Tutor to children of a gentlemen in Acqs.He began divinity studies in 1596 at the University of Toulouse.
- Ordained at age 20.
- Taken captive by Turkish pirates to Tunis, and sold into slavery.
- Freed in 1607 when he converted one of his owners to Christianity.
- Returning to France, he served as parish priest near Paris where he started organizations to help the poor, nursed the sick, found jobs for the unemployed, etc.
- Chaplain at the court of Henry IV of France.
- With Louise de Marillac, founded the Congregation of the Daughters of Charity.
- Instituted the Congregation of Priests of the Mission (Lazarists).
- Worked always for the poor, the enslaved, the abandoned, the ignored, the pariahs.
