Stories inspire the imagination and instigate change. From an early age, I have loved reading about heroes from the past who dedicated their lives to caring for those around them in need. Whether it was reading about the Resistance during World War II, the Underground Railroad, or the first Suffragettes, the lives of these men and women from the past made me want to grow up to help those less privileged and protected than I.

Studying the Biblical mandate to care for “the quartet of the vulnerable,” (including the poor, widows, immigrant, and orphan) has convinced me that the contemporary American church needs to engage the social justice issues of our days with both an understanding of the Bible and grounding in history.^[1] The following series of blog posts will present the stories of past Christians and the justice movements into which they helped lead the church. It will identify best practices and modern application for the Evangelical church today in the hopes that the church will engage these examples of social engagement and embrace the deeply Biblical nature of their efforts.

Saint Vincent de Paul: Social Justice Motivated by the Love of God

             Ragged street children begged and homeless people filled the streets, while the toll of seemingly endless warfare, deadly pestilence, and famine plagued post-Reformation France. The wealthy carelessly ate cake and the French Church was corrupted from the inside; meanwhile, the majority of 16^th century peasants struggled to make ends meet and stay alive. It is in this starkly divided and very desperate context that St. Vincent de Paul’s life sheds light on the way social justice and church reform go hand-in-hand.

A key figure in the renewal of faith in France, transformation of Catholic lay and religious leaders, and ministry to the destitute, was Saint Vincent de Paul (1581—1660). He navigated these tumultuous times with a vocation that he expressed thus: “To inflame the hearts of men. It is not enough for me to love God if my neighbor does not love him as well.”[2] Initially, St. Vincent became a priest for its financial advantages, not because he felt called by God or cared about the poor.[3] However, actually becoming the priest of a poor rural parish just northwest of Paris in 1612 and a three or four-year period of subsequent soul-searching deeply impacted de Paul.[4] He became “[e]xperientially aware of his own radical poverty,” and “was open to receiving every person, without judgment or disdain.”[5] By 1617, a shift in Vincent de Paul’s vocabulary indicates he had a growing personal relationship with the Lord, because he began consistently using the name “Jesus” instead of referring to him as “Christ.”[6] Concurrently, he began the first Confraternity of Charity where he empowered women to organize themselves into an organization to aid the poor.

At the beginning, the women of the aristocracy “were entirely out of touch” with the beleaguered state of the poor, but as they discovered their misery and “the depths of its horror” their indifference lessened.[7] They gave enough money to care for abandoned children, began to visit prisoners, and cared for the sick in hospitals. When their enthusiasm waned, St. Vincent called on them to give up their jewels to keep funding the care of the orphans and they did.[8] But the reach of the Ladies of Charity could only go so far; young women who were “willing to serve the poor and devote themselves to God” extended St. Vincent de Paul’s plan for mobilizing social action.[9] Caring for poor people, and the victims of famine and war, the Company of the Daughters of Charity were to be like nuns “without habits, veils, or solemn vows,” having the perspective of religious life with the vocation of missionary servants.[10] The houses of the poor served as their monastery, the local church as their chapel, and the streets of the city became their cloister.[11] Saint Vincent organized feeding for thousands of beggars, nursing for the sick, housing for abandoned children, and aid for the thousands of families living in squalor.[12]

In addition to administering these social justice initiatives, he devoted a lot of energy to bringing spiritual reform to the French Catholic clergy. One critical way he did this was by organizing and leading Tuesday Conferences, which were weekly meetings of priests to challenge and support one another in their vocations. The Tuesday Conferences always began in prayer and then attendees discussed thoughts and convictions about what it meant to be a priest.[13] These interactions were “mutually encouraging,” and attendees left the meetings with “renewed zeal.”[14] Their focus was twofold: on the life of the Church and their own spiritual development and devotion as priests.[15] The Tuesday conferences soon became popular, so that priests were “anxious to belong,” but “only those of exemplary life” were admitted.[16] “The Society of the ‘Tuesdays’ spread quickly to the great cities of the kingdom,” contributing to the spiritual renewal and reform movement in France.[17] As numbers at the Tuesday Conferences continued to grow, twenty-two of this society eventually became bishops, indicating that reform was moving up in the ranks of the clergy.[18]

In reminding priests of the importance of their vocation, de Paul underscored the sacrosanct nature of the priesthood; he saw its renewal as key to the revitalization of Catholicism in France. He warned them that in the Old Testament God had rejected corrupted priests who had profaned the temple’s holy objects.[19] St. Vincent was invited to address a retreat of ordinands; due to this initial success, he soon became responsible for this retreat every year before the candidates’ ordination and eventually addressed between 13,000 and 14,000 ordinands.[20] St. Vincent de Paul’s personal spiritual renewal allowed him to lead other clergy to see their religious vocations in a spiritual light. He founded the Congregation of the Mission to “help poor people of the countryside” and “priests in their vocations” in 1625. According to one biographer, once Vincent was “in touch with his own radical poverty and with the unconditional mercy of God, he entered into the freedom of the disciples of Jesus and became completely available to the Holy Spirit.”[21] History’s account of St. Vincent de Paul’s life indicates that the Holy Spirit used him both for social justice ends as well as to bring spiritual renewal to the Catholic clergy and church in 17^th century France.

St. Vincent de Paul navigated relationships not only with the poor, but also with the wealthy and influential people of his day. Initially, he built a relationship with the de Gondi family, who were wealthy and noble Parisians. Through contacts from them and thanks to his likable personality, he developed a network of other wealthy people; he collaborated with affluent women and encouraged them to organize themselves to help the poor of their parishes, founding the first Confraternity of Charity, from which developed the Ladies of Charity.[22] He drew on his personal connections with wealthy people in order to fund his missions; when those sources were exhausted, he appealed to the highest authorities for financial backing. King Louis XIII entrusted him with distributing the substantial sum of 45,000 livres.[23] Yet “Vincent was not content with just collecting money; he organized payment and distribution as well,” always “insisting on the spirit of fairness which must govern the distribution of aid” as well as controlling and programing it well.[24] Furthermore, he made sure to circulate reports to his donors and make known to the public what his missionaries were doing to help war-torn people.[25] De Paul’s influence continued to grow over the course of his lifetime as his social network expanded and his connections with wealthy families and the court multiplied, making him an authority beyond the clerical world and into the salons of Paris and the court.[26] Not everyone was happy about St. Vincent’s success, however. When ladies of the court and maids of honor started visiting the poor and sick, dressing in “humble garments,” nobles complained that they might bring back something contagious, causing the queen come to their defense.[27] Throughout St. Vincent de Paul’s lifetime, he helped abandoned children, prisoners, refugees, invalids, and the poor, as his legacy as the patron saint of charitable societies reflects.[28]

St. Vincent responded to the misery of his day “determined to remedy it and finding an appropriate solution for every situation,” be it moral or physical.[29] Opening the doors of the Church to teaching the clergy to work with the laity, as well as valuing the contribution of women, St. Vincent de Paul paved the way for today’s social service institutions and charities.[30] Everything St. Vincent did was rooted in his faith: he believed that the invisible God “is alive and visible in our actions.”[31] With the missionary Christ as his model, he felt his call was to associate himself with Jesus in his redemptive mission.[32] Through this lens, he lived with disponibilité (or unrestricted readiness) to do the Lord’s will without his own preconditions.[33]

[1] Nicholas P. Wolterstorff, Journey Toward Justice: Personal Encounters in the Global South, (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2013), 77.

[2] Pujo, Bernard. Vincent de Paul: The Trailblazer, Translated by Gertrud Champe, (Notre Dame,

IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2003), 251.

[3] Ryan and Rybolt, Eds. Vincent de Paul and Louise de Marillac, 15, and Pujo, Vincent de Paul, 11.

[4] Ryan and Rybolt, Eds. Vincent de Paul and Louise de Marillac, 17.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Ibid., 19-20.

[7] Jean Calvet, Saint Vincent de Paul, Translated by Lancelot C. Sheppard, (New York: McKay, 1948), 156.

[8] Ibid., 161.

[9] André Dodin. Vincent de Paul and Charity: a Contemporary Portrait of his Life and Apostolic Spirit. Trans. Jean Marie Smith and Dennis Saunders. Eds. Hugh O’Donnell and Marjorie Hornstein, (New Rochelle, NY: New City Press, 1993), 33.

[10] Dodin. Vincent de Paul and Charity, 33.

[11] Ibid.

[12] Ibid., 43.

[13] Ryan and Rybolt, Eds. Vincent de Paul and Louise de Marillac, 25.

[14] Ibid.

[15] Calvert, Saint Vincent, 120.

[16] Ibid., 121.

[17] Ibid.

[18] Dodin. Vincent de Paul and Charity, 30.

[19] “Vous savez qu’anciennement Dieu rejeta les prêtres pollus qui avaient profané les choses saintes…. ” in André Dodin, Textes et Études Saint Vincent de Paul, (Paris: Aubier, 1947), 123.

[20] Ryan and Rybolt, Eds. Vincent de Paul and Louise de Marillac, 25.

[21] Ibid., 23.

[22] Ibid., 19.

[23] Ibid., 131.

[24] Ibid., 131-2.

[25] Ibid., 132, 134.

[26] Ibid., 142.

[27] Ibid., 123.

[28] Pujo, Vincent de Paul, 251 and http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=326 (accessed 26 March 2016).

[29] Pujo, Vincent de Paul, 251.

[30] Pujo, Vincent de Paul, 251.

[31] Ryan and Rybolt, Eds. Vincent de Paul and Louise de Marillac, 32.

[32] Ibid., 32.

[33] Ibid., 34.