Journal Article
1 December 2024
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Journal Article
1 December 2024
Ways of Knowing: Laywomen in Early Vincentian Practices of Reform
Alison Forrestal examines the role of laywomen of various social classes in early Vincentian service. Although the concept of a lay vocation had not been formulated in the seventeenth century, the service that laywomen, whether married or single, provided to society rendered their state valuable and holy in its own right. This was an important facet of the Catholic Reformation. Early Vincentian efforts were innovative for the time, allowing women to organize and perform the administrative work for their own service. Women also gave religious instruction to the poor, which was unusual, and their own spirituality and devotional activities were encouraged as a means of sustaining their endeavors. Forrestal offers the female members of the Lamoignon family as a case study in how laywomen saw themselves as called by God to participate in various forms of charity. Although much of the development of the lay vocation came after their time, Forrestal explains that these women “absorbed and applied newly emerged spiritual and pastoral emphases on discernment, choice, and inclusivity. In doing so, they were drawing the Catholic church a step closer to accepting what they were first imagining and then bringing into being.”Current Issue
Journal Article1 December 2025
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Journal Article1 December 2025
“The work is never finished…” A Tribute to John Earl Rybolt, C.M.
Distinguished scholar of the life and work of Elizabeth Ann Seton and longtime member of the VSI Board, Sr. Betty Ann McNeil, D.C., provides a thoughtful and heartfelt tribute dedicated to the accomplished career, scholarship, and immense contributions made to Vincentian studies made by the Rev. John E. Rybolt, C.M.Journal Article1 December 2025
A Note on Saint Vincent’s Armchair: Toward Resolving a Mystery?
An armchair said to have been used by Vincent de Paul may shed some light on his early career. The chair has rods in its arms to support a board between them to serve as a desk. It was donated to the Berceau in 2010 by a family from Buzet-sur-Tarn, accompanied by a note that says that Vincent used this chair during summers from about 1598 until 1604 while he tutored the sons of local nobility and other students in the area. We still don’t know when or why he came there, the level of his instruction, how long he stayed there, or what he taught. However, this article makes some educated guesses to answer these questions. John Rybolt believes it’s likely that Vincent was a tutor of basic reading, writing, and arithmetic, rather than a teacher. Rybolt draws on what we can learn from Vincent’s biographers and is able to make some connections to what teaching or tutoring he might have done while pursuing his university studies in Toulouse.Journal Article1 December 2025
Vincent de Paul and the Reform of the Clergy
Vincent de Paul was an important reformer of the French Church, which faced several problems with its clergy. Liturgical practices were not standardized, and some priests lived corrupt lives. Because they received stipends for masses, they often celebrated them for that reason rather than out of piety. They tried to acquire several benefices (church offices) and dioceses at the same time to profit from them all, although this was against canon law, and these were sometimes essentially sold or hoarded by noble families. Church titles and their accompanying incomes were also auctioned off by monasteries, and these, too, were purchased by nobles. Worse, priests were “drunken and lewd,” without vocation. To combat all this, Vincent founded the Congregation to be models of priestly life, and he held the Tuesday Conferences, weekly periods of learning and reflection for clergy. He also held retreats for them, and the Congregation founded and directed seminaries to better train priests. Finally, he served on the kingdom’s Council of Conscience, helping to ensure legitimate appointments of bishops and abbots and working to combat Jansenism, which “exalt[ed] the omnipotence of God at the expense of human freedom.”Journal Article1 December 2025
The Civic Oath at Saint-Lazare, 1790
This study presents the French text, English translation, historical context, and a brief analysis of the speech given at Saint-Lazare on the civic oath-taking in support of the 1790 revolutionary government in France, which every adult citizen had to do publicly. At Saint-Lazare, a group of Vincentians and their neighbors assembled in the motherhouse’s chapel for the oath. This very rare and virtually unknown document is in Richardson Library’s special collections at DePaul University in Chicago. Oath-taking was a way of replacing royal legal authority before assemblies of citizens had been formed. By the time of this oath on 7 February 1790, Saint-Lazare had already been sacked out of the belief that it held grain supplies and ammunition. As one of the few remaining usable spaces there, the chapel may have held about 250 people consisting of three groups: the local Vincentian community, the soldiers stationed adjoining the Saint-Lazare property, and some local (male) citizens. The fifteen-minute speech was given by René-Pierre Devaudichon, the president of the local district. An image gallery of the pages of the original document follows the French text.Journal Article1 December 2025
Three Additional Texts from Felix De Andreis
Three texts add to our knowledge of the work of Felix De Andreis (1778–1820), the founding superior of the Congregation of the Mission in the United States. These have recently come to light. Two are originals, and the third is a copy. They are given in the original languages and in English, with introduction and commentary. The first is an “Indian grammar” with the Lord’s Prayer and catechism by Felix De Andreis, written circa 1817. According to David J. Costa, a scholar in Native American linguistics, it “provide[s] us with the only source of data that is clearly transitional between old Illinois and early Miami, but also because it contains data from some Ojibwean dialect that does not match any known present-day dialect.” The second discovery is an 1819 catechism written in English by Felix De Andreis as lessons for atheists for use of priests working in the United States. The third discovery is a single French sentence from a letter from De Andreis that attests to the difficulties of living on the American frontier.Journal Article1 December 2025
Coming to the American Vincentian Mission in 1818: The Second Journey
Three letters from Francesco Cellini, a Vincentian novice, and his confrere, Filippo Borgna, a Vincentian student with vows, are given or summarized here. In 1818, Cellini and Borgna made an eighty-eight-day voyage from Livorno, Italy, to the United States. Cellini wrote an account to a friend in Rome, and Borgna largely copied this in his letter, perhaps to ensure that one of their texts would survive the trip back to Italy. These are the only known detailed records of the Vincentians’ second journey to the US and reinforce records kept by Felix De Andreis and Joseph Rosati, who came two years before. These accounts all detail storms at sea and observe the US’s religious liberty and pluralism. The Cellini letters discuss the beauty of American landscapes and nature. John Rybolt adds, “Cellini’s emphasis on the saints as protectors and the devil as the source of the problems during their journey is unique to his account. Borgna’s letter adds valuable information on their travel arrangements after arriving in the New World. Additionally, the accounts of the first and second voyages clearly depict the challenges of reaching the new American mission on its western frontier.” Biographical information about both Vincentians is provided.Journal Article1 December 2025
Louis William Valentine Dubourg: His First Years as Bishop of Louisiana
Louis William Valentine Dubourg, a priest of the Society of Saint Sulpice, invited the Vincentians to establish a seminary for his diocese of Louisiana. Part of his fundraising efforts to support these and other works was this booklet, The Notice sur l’état actuel de la Mission de la Louisiane (Notice Concerning the Current State of the Mission of Louisiana). Printed in 1820, it circulated widely in Europe and was corrected, updated, and reprinted twice in 1822. Transcriptions given here illuminate differences between the editions. The booklet’s author is anonymous but is probably Charles de la Croix, the bishop’s secretary. The text, a narrative interspersed with passages from Dubourg’s letters, describes the bishop’s journey to Louisiana, the condition of his diocese, and the new mission’s construction. Other themes include North America’s evangelization and civilization, particularly of Indigenous peoples, illustrated with a woefully incorrect account of a Seneca chief’s acceptance of Christianity. The corruption of civilization is also explored. Another theme is that Protestants are good and could be successfully converted more easily in the United States than anywhere else. Finally, the author explains “the perceived importance of St. Louis as a center of commerce and Catholicism.”Journal Article1 December 2025
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1 April 2010
Poverty in New Orleans: Before and After Katrina
This article explores poverty in New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina and the factors which contributed to poor persons being the most affected by the storm. Both the causes and results of poverty are investigated to see how they can be alleviated as New Orleans recovers from Katrina. The Tulane/Canal neighborhood is used as a case study for this. Faculty, staff, and students from the School of Public Service and the Chaddick Institute of Metropolitan Development at DePaul University were sent there to assist with recovery efforts in accordance with the Vincentian mission. Their work is described and its effectiveness is assessed. The demographics of New Orleans and the US definition of poverty are also discussed.Journal Article
1 April 2010
Saint Vincent de Paul's Response to Poverty of Spirit
Yvonne Pratt-Johnson defines poverty of spirit as “the wretched condition of those whose pride and souls have been devastated by their material circumstances or living conditions.” Even people who are not materially poor can feel impoverished in spirit. She discusses her personal and professional Vincentian response to this problem, which is to help restore dignity to those who may have lost it. In her service to the elderly, she concentrates on being the kind of listener that Vincent de Paul was. As a teacher of English to immigrant parents, she treats her students as individuals and responds to them with respect and empathy. As a professor, Pratt-Johnson strives to instill the same values in her students, who are future teachers of English as a second language. She describes the various ways in which she makes them more sensitive to the immigrant experience and explains how Vincent de Paul influences and motivates her in this endeavor.Journal Article
20 September 2016
Mary’s House in Ephesus, Turkey: Interfaith Pilgrimage in the Age of Mass Tourism
The local Christian community had long held the Turkish site known today as Mary’s House (Meryem Ana Evi) to be the historical Mary’s last residence and final resting place. However, it was not until the Vincentians conducted an archeological study of the first century ruins in 1891 that it became known to the Church. Amelia Gallagher recounts the circumstances surrounding the “discovery” of Mary’s House. She traces the location’s trajectory from a Catholic shrine to one that is sacred to Catholics, other Christians, and Muslims, particularly for pilgrims seeking healing from the springs there. She explains differences in Christian and Muslim perspectives of and practices at Mary’s House. The site is unique in Turkey because it is largely free of regulations created by the Ministry of Religious Affairs to govern other Islamic religious places. Gallagher also explores the meaning that Mary’s House has as a tourist destination.Journal Article
1 April 1993
"What About the Poor?" Nineteenth-Century Paris and the Revival of Vincentian Charity
During the Industrial Revolution, poor persons constituted up to half the population of Paris. They were considered to be criminal, and their poverty was seen as a punishment for this. The Church believed the traditional social order was divinely ordained. The rich were to be charitable and the poor were to be resigned to their status; these conditions were necessary for the salvation of both groups. In the Church’s eyes, the rich and the poor each contributed to the gap between them, and they could only be reconciled by returning to Christian values and the traditional social hierarchy. It was the Church’s responsibility to guide this reconciliation. The Congregation, the Daughters of Charity, and the Ladies of Charity, which had been dissolved during the Revolution, were refounded under Jean-Baptiste Etienne in the nineteenth century. They tried to combat poverty worldwide. As the first group of sisters to be supported by the French government after the Revolution, the Daughters of Charity served as the basis for the new Vincentian mission. The Ladies of Charity’s work, which was under the Daughters’ direction, is discussed. The article also describes Etienne’s view of the world and of the Vincentian mission in detail.Journal Article
1 October 1996
Segregated Catholicism: The Origins of Saint Katharine's Parish, New Orleans
The complicated history of the establishment of Saint Katharine’s, a black parish in New Orleans, is recounted. For reasons explained in the article, the city’s Catholic churches were originally racially integrated. There were two groups of blacks in New Orleans: colored Creoles (the term they used for themselves) and African Americans. Colored Creoles were people of Afro-French descent and they were Catholic. African Americans were Protestant and worshipped in separate churches from whites. This was partly because of racism in the white community and partly because African Americans wanted to control their own religious affairs. Francis Janssens, the archbishop, wanted blacks to control their churches and he wanted to win African American converts. Moreover, he believed there were many defections among colored Creoles. He saw the solution to all of this in Saint Katharine’s establishment, though he stressed that black Catholics were free to choose between it and their home parishes. The colored Creoles opposed segregation for any reason and therefore opposed Saint Katharine’s. The negotiations for its establishment with the Vincentians and with Katharine Drexel, who provided funds, are described in detail. Saint Katharine’s was dedicated in 1895. With the advent of official segregation, it became a successful parish.Journal Article
1 October 1985