The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1910-01-29
a LOVER OF MEN.
What True Christian Accomplished
For His Fellows.

The French priest, Father Vim
cent, later canonized as Saint Vim
cent de Paul, has found a biOgrapher
in MOnsignOr BOugaud, who writes
interestingly and informingly Of
his beautiful life and particularly Of
his organization of the famous So
ciety, the Sisters of Charity. Great
was the service rendered by these
women and their revered leader to
the France Of the seventeenth CEN
tury, which was suffring from the
evils Of the civil war of the Fronde.
For fifteen years the country people
had been prosecuted by the hired
mercenaries who lived on the en-
emy they were invading. Harvests
were destroyed and villages burned.
until great famine, followed by
plague, swept over the land.
To meet this extraordinary dis
tress, Father Vincent, at the age of
sixty eight, set himself to work 1t
has been computed that he distribut-
ed In charity nearly five million dol
lars. but he gives the praise to the
givers.
20 ladies, does not the recital of
these things move you? Providence
has designed to make use Of some
ladies in Paris to succor the desc
lated provinces. No country possess
ses a precedent for it. No; it was a
heroism reserved to you."
Queens and princesses had sent
their jewels to his fund, and a paper
was founded. called the Magazine of
Charity, for Father Vincent realized
how strangely people initiate one an
other, and publicity won more re-
cruits to his cause.
He sent his Sisters of Charity by
twos and three to battlefields and
dangerous places. praising those who
died Sword in hand"
He insisted on four cardinal points,
as practical and as full Of common
sense as II they had been formulated
last year instead Of nearly three hun
dred years ago:
First, to rescue the starving. For
this he started cheap soup dinners.
AS usual, he workd his plans out to
the most minute details. One must
remember that these were the first
soup kitchens known to history.
The second point was to bury the
dead; for the towns, villages, high
ways and fields were strewn with de-
caying bodies, dangerous to health.
The third point was to buy up
and collect seed for the land, which
he ever thought was one Of the best
forms Of charity.
The fourth point was to attend to
the welfare Of souls It was no ordi-
nary ministratlon that was needed,
for during the wars all worship had
been interrupted. churches had been
plundered, and the young had been
exposed to great dangers. Neither
age nor sex. neither beauty nor holi-
ness had been respected by the ruff
fan mercenaries. Even the Sisters
OF Charity were not always secure in
the. midst Of these social disorders.
But Vincent encouraged them, say
ing nothing was more worthy than
their work.
20 Sisters" he said, show you
should humble yourselves. seeing
that God deigns to make use of you
for such great ends! Men go to war
to kill one another. and you, Sisters
go to repair the evils which they
have done; to visit the wounded. not
only In France, but even in Poland
All where can we find a PARALLEL"
This good priest died in 1850, at
four in the morning, the hour at
which for forty years he had risen
to pray.
In practical matters he had no
equal. He had genius for organi-
cation. His penetration was mar
velous. Nothing escaped him. When
new scheme was proposed to him,
he saw at glance its advantages
and disadvantages, its helps and its
htndrances. To penetration was
joined great courage. He confront
ed the long delays Of Rome and the
prejudices Of society. and compelled
the great ones Of the earth to recog-