The poor are your masters, he told his followers, and you are their servants. Such a statement in the France of Louis XIV was revolutionary. If you hear the poor calling you, mortify yourselves and leave God for God, he advised sisters who asked what to do when the doorbell rang during community prayer. A Sister may go to the sick ten times a day, and ten times a day she will find God there. Respect for every poor person was based not only on theology, but also on psychology.
Assistance can either uplift or degrade a person, depending on how it is given.
With great insight he said, The poor will forgive you for giving them bread, only because of your love. The poor were no less human than the aristocrats at Versailles, and their feelings were every bit as important. In this icon St. Vincent holds a black child in his arms, since poverty so often had dark skin in the twentieth century. Icons may contain anachronisms when there is a greater truth at stake. The Greek inscription reads, St. Vincent, the Light of Priests.