San Vicente de Paúl

(24 April 1581 – 27 September 1660) was a French Roman Catholic priest who dedicated himself to serving the poor. He is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion.

He was canonized in 1737. He was renowned for his compassion, humility and generosity.Vincent was born in 1581 in the village of Pouy in Gascony, in the Province of Guyenne and Gascony, the Kingdom of French, to peasant farmers, father Jean and mother Bertrande de Moras de Paul. There was in the vicinity, a stream named the “Paul” and it is believed that this might have been the derivation of the family name. He wrote the name as one word – Depaul, possibly to avoid the inference that he was of noble birth, but none of his correspondents did so. He had three brothers – Jean, Bernard and Gayon, and two sisters – Marie and Marie-Claudine. He was the third child. At an early age, he showed a talent for reading and writing but during his childhood, his work was as a herder of his family’s livestock. At 15, his father sent him to seminary, managing to pay for it by selling the family’s oxen.