Pelos caminhos de Deus e dos pobres. Itinerário espiritual de São Vicente de Paulo

Na celebração dos 350 anos do dies natalis de São Vicente de Paulo, fundador da Associação Internacional de Caridades, da Congregação da Missão e da Companhia das Filhas da Caridade, bem como inspirador de centenas de outras comunidades, associações e movimentos comprometidos com o serviço e a evangelização dos pobres, a REB se une às alegrias da Família Vicentina, presente e atuante no mundo inteiro, particularmente no Brasil. No artigo que segue, o autor se propõe apresentar as linhas mestras da experiência espiritual de São Vicente, evidenciando o modo concreto como este homem de Deus e dos pobres seguiu Jesus Cristo no âmago dos acontecimentos, em meio aos desafios do contexto sócio-religioso em que viveu e atuou.Abstract: In the celebration of the 350 years of the dies natalis of Saint Vincent de Paul, founder of the International Association of Charities, of the Congregation of the Mission and of the Company of the Daughters of Charity, as well as the inspirer of hundreds of other communities, associations and movements committed to the service and evangelization of the poor, REB shares the happiness of the Vincentine Family, present and active throughout the world, in particular in Brazil. In the article that follows, the Author proposed to present the main lines of St. Vincent’s spiritual experience, showing the concrete way in which this man of God and of the poor followed Jesus Christ to the heart of the events, amidst the challenges of the socio-religious context in which he lived and acted.

Founding a Congregation of Missionaries

Chapter 4 investigates the foundation and early development of the Congregation of the Mission, a congregation of secular missionaries dedicated to evangelizing the rural poor (their mission) through the completion of formal missions in their parishes. Soon to be known as the Lazarists, the Congregation was endowed by patrons Philippe-Emmanuel and Marguerite de Gondi in 1625. The chapter explains how, in charting its course thereafter, de Paul was forced to confront pressing questions about the character, functioning, and durability of his new mission institute. It analyses his answers to these through a composite investigation of the three milestones of the Congregation’s early formation process: its initial foundation in 1625, the issuance of papal approval in 1633, and the controversial acquisition of the priory of Saint-Lazare in Paris in 1632.

Vincent de Paul, the Lazarist Mission, and French Catholic Reform

This book offers a major reassessment of the thought and activities of the most famous figure of the seventeenth-century French Catholic Reformation, Vincent de Paul. Confronting traditional explanations for de Paul’s prominence in the dévot reform movement that emerged in the wake of the Wars of Religion, it explores how he turned a personal vocation to evangelize the rural poor of France into a congregation of secular missionaries, known as the Congregation of the Mission or the Lazarists, with three interrelated strands of pastoral responsibility: the delivery of missions, the formation and training of clergy, and the promotion of confraternal charity. It demonstrates that the structure, ethos, and works that de Paul devised for the Congregation placed it at the heart of a significant enterprise of reform that involved a broad set of associates in efforts to transform the character of devotional belief and practice within the church. The book’s central questions concern de Paul’s efforts to create, characterize, and articulate a distinctive and influential vision for missionary life and work, both for himself and for the Lazarist Congregation, and it argues that his prominence and achievements depended on his remarkable ability to exploit the potential for association and collaboration within the dévot environment of seventeenth-century France in enterprising and systematic ways. It is the first study to assess de Paul’s activities against the backdrop of religious reform and Bourbon rule, and to reconstruct the combination of ideas, practices, resources, and relationships that determined his ability to pursue his ambitions.

The Lazarist Missionary

Along with its endowment and formal structure, a third essential constituent of the Congregation of the Mission was an ethos, necessary to cultivate a common and distinctive sense of purpose and practice. De Paul’s described the Congregation’s purpose precisely as the salvation of the souls of the rural poor and the pursuit of perfection amongst those who worked for this goal. Chapter 5 confirms that he exhibited remarkable consistency in the pronouncements that he made about the methods that the missionaries should adopt to achieve their goal and the values by which they should operate to do so. These methods and values formed the missionary ethos of the Lazarists, a kind of institutional code that expressed the true nature of their vocation in the church, and enabled them to assert their singular character as humble instruments of God’s charity.

Thirty Years of Street Preaching: Vincentian Motor Missions, 1934–1965

Known in the United States as the Vincentian Fathers, the Congregation of the Mission is a religious community founded during the early seventeenth century by the French priest Vincent de Paul for the purpose of revitalizing religious life in rural areas through the preaching of parish missions. Such missions began with a sermon on repentance that urged people to make a general confession of all their past sins. The priests continued with a protracted catechesis that lasted for several weeks to several months. In time, Vincent de Paul realized the futility of pumping new life into a parish only to leave it in the hands of an inept or lax pastor. So the Vincentians began establishing seminaries to educate and prepare good priests. Thus parish missions and the training of clergy became the two cardinal tasks of that community.

African Materials in Vincentian Archives

Of all the communities and religious orders in the Roman Catholic church that are involved in missionary activity, the Congregation of the Mission, while one of the more extensive, is undoubtedly the least known. Founded in 1625 by Saint Vincent de Paul (1581-1660), its original purpose was the giving of parish missions in the de-Christianized rural areas of France. The rural missions remained a special concern of Saint Vincent's community and it was in this sense that the term “mission” was originally used. Prior to the French Revolution the term missionary was used almost exclusively of members of Saint Vincent's group. In the mid-eighteenth century they also came to be known as Lazarists, a name derived from their motherhouse, the famous Saint-Lazare. Though this name has been used in other countries, the Congregation of the Mission has come to be known by different names in different localities: for instance, Vincentians in the English-speaking world, Padres Paúles in the Spanish-speaking world, and Saint Vincent's Fathers in Nigeria.Reacting against the excessive esprit de corps of numerous religious groups of his time, Vincent de Paul decreed that the work of his missionaries should be without fanfare or publicity. He even forbade some of them from writing histories of the community lest this should lead to corporate pride. It was an unfortunate precedent. This tendency, plus a general lack of historical consciousness, has caused the work of the Congregation of the Mission to be unpublicized and unknown, even by the members themselves.