BIG C CATHOLICS

Memorial - September 27th St. Vincent de Paul is a saint whose name is familiar even to those who do not profess the Catholic faith. This is due in large part to the organization that was begun in his name 173 years after his death. The St. Vincent de Paul Society, founded by Blessed Frederic Ozanam in 1833, took its inspiration from the life of the man whom Pope Leo XIII named patron of all charitable organizations. Many parishes continue to carry out charitable works under his spiritual patronage. Vincent was the third child born to a poor family in Gascony, France, in 1580. At the time of his birth, the Church was in the midst of the Counter-Reformation, the period of intense internal reform following the upheaval of the Protestant Reformation. Although he would later be regarded as "the conscience of France," the young Vincent, who was ordained in 1600, was more concerned at first with living a comfortable life than doing the work that God had intended for him.

Saint Louise de Marillac served God in numerous ways as a wife, mother, nurse, teacher, mystic, social worker, mentor and foundress. Her veneration of the Eucharist led to profound insights into the Incarnation as found in the Blessed Sacrament that bestows grace and perdures still among us. The following twelve quotes from St. Louise de Marillac speak of God’s goodness, mercy and justice. God never showed greater love for his creatures than when he resolved to become man. *** Be diligent in serving the poor. Love the poor, honor them as you would Christ himself. *** We only hope that God will show us his mercy and restore to us what was taken away by his justice. *** With all my heart, I wish you the joy and interior consolation of a soul that is lovingly submissive to the most holy will of God. *** Our good God has his time and moments for everything. Do not believe that things will always be as they are now. *** O eternal light, lift up my blindness! O perf

Paris in the early 1600’s was not the pleasant tourist attraction that it is today, and no one would become more conscious of this than Louise de Marillac. Disease and famine were common occurrences, wiping out nearly fourteen percent of the population; torture was often used against those accused of crimes, claiming many lives very cruelly and unnecessarily, and children by the hundreds were often abandoned at birth. It was this world that Louise would eventually enter as a Daughter of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, but she would not do so quite as soon as she had originally wanted. Though inspired to join a religious community at the age of 16, it was not until she was 33 that the one God intended her to work with would enter her life. Born into wealth near Meux, France, in 1591, she suffered the first in a series of tragedies when her mother died while she was still a young child. Her father followed her mother in death when Louise was just 15. Although her education at the h