A Time for Rest : (August 2005)

When St Vincent de Paul was thirty seven he was appointed parish priest in a little town in Burgundy called Chatillon-les-Dombes.

He enthusiastically launched a pastoral plan for the town, which included dialogue with the Huguenot population. Indeed his first lodgings were deliberately with a Huguenot family. His plan involved careful celebration of the liturgy and a programme of reform for the local clergy.

Religiously the town was transformed.

Then providence intervened and opened Vincent's eyes to what became for him an essential aspect of the ministry of the Church.

One Sunday before Mass a parishioner came to tell him of a family living outside the town and who were in desperate need.

Fr Perry Gildea - Vincentian Fathers

Cliftonville Road, Belfast 15

The whole family was ill and there was no one to help them. They had neither food nor medicine. St Vincent preached a very moving homily about this unfortunate family and his parishioners' hearts were touched.

Later in the day he went to see them for himself. To his great surprise on his way he met a great crowd of people and, as it was a hot summer's day, many were sitting by the roadside having a rest and something to drink.

Vincent aged 37

It was like a pilgrimage. When he arrived at the house he saw indeed the family had been in dire straits, but now there was a great pile of provisions.

Commenting later he remarked how he saw "these poor people have suddenly far more food and supplies than they need. Some of it will go bad and then tomorrow they will be just as badly off. This charitable effort is very haphazard".

St Vincent had realised the need for the careful organisation of charitable endeavour.

Three days later St Vincent was forming the first of his associations of charity. For the remainder of his life he would continue to organise and structure the efficient administration of aid.

However, St Vincent's organisations were never soulless. He recognised in the poor the suffering face and tortured body of Christ himself. The person bringing help to the poor "will do everything with love, as though serving one's own child, or rather serving God who takes as done to himself the good that is done to the poor".

It was this essential spirituality which also motivated Frederic Ozanam and made him take St Vincent as the model and patron of his Society.

Fr Perry (October 2005)

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