Saint Vincent de Paul visits his successor, then falls into a deep sleep

PARIS, September 25, 1660 AD — Saint Vincent de Paul can no longer walk or even stand. This morning he had himself carried to the infirmary of Saint-Lazare in Paris to see Father René Alméras, the priest he has chosen to lead his Congregation after his death. Father Alméras does not know he has been chosen. At about noon St. Vincent fell asleep in his chair, and he slept longer than in any of his earlier attacks of drowsiness.

The Church dates St. Vincent’s birth to April 1581 AD, which makes him seventy-nine. He founded the Congregation of the Mission, priests pledged to work for the salvation of the poor country people, and it now has about five hundred members. Its head, the Superior-General, also governs the Sisters of Charity. St. Vincent has already named his successor. He wrote down the name, sealed it in a box and gave the box to Father Berthe, to be opened only after his death.

St. Vincent’s body had been failing all year. On January 11 he wrote: “I can no longer go downstairs, on account of my limbs, which are worse than ever.” In February two people close to him received the last sacraments on the same day: Father Antoine Portail, his companion of thirty-five years, and Saint Louise de Marillac, who led the Sisters of Charity. St. Vincent could not go to either of them. Father Portail died soon afterwards, and St. Louise died on March 15.

By July St. Vincent’s legs kept him awake at night and would not carry him by day, or even hold him up. In a letter on July 14 he described the trouble with his legs and added: “Beyond that I am very well.” On August 15, the feast of the Assumption, he could not walk even on his crutches. Two brothers carried him to the chapel. That month his mind began to fail for the first time. Worn out by weakness and by nights without rest, he started falling asleep during the day, sometimes in the middle of his work. He always apologised.

In these last weeks St. Vincent also wrote to say goodbye to two men who had helped him. The first was Philippe-Emmanuel de Gondi, who had commanded the king’s galleys and had employed St. Vincent for twelve years as tutor in his household. In 1625 AD Gondi and his wife signed the deed that founded the Congregation. Gondi, a widower, had since become a priest of the Oratory. St. Vincent asked his forgiveness “for any displeasure I may have given you by my want of manners” and promised him: “Be assured, my lord, as long as God leaves me the power to pray, I shall employ it in this world and in the next for you and yours.”

The second letter went to Gondi’s third son, St. Vincent’s former pupil, who is now the Cardinal de Retz and Archbishop of Paris. St. Vincent wrote to the cardinal: “In consequence of my age and infirmities, I am inclined to think that this is the last time I shall have the honour of addressing your Eminence.” He asked the cardinal’s pardon for any offence and commended to him “this little Congregation of the Mission, which you have helped not only to establish, but also supported and favoured.”

On August 27 St. Vincent called the Sisters of Charity together, and Sister Marguerite Chétif became their Mother-General. Years before, during an illness of St. Louise, St. Vincent had asked her who should take her place, and she had named Sister Marguerite.

Then St. Vincent turned to his own succession. Father Alméras was seriously ill at the house of the Oratorian priests in Tours, and St. Vincent could not leave Saint-Lazare to go to him. Instead St. Vincent wrote to him again and again, begging him to come back to Paris. “The little Company is greatly distressed at your absence, and it would console me more than anything to see you return,” St. Vincent wrote to him.

Father Alméras gathered what strength he had and set out. He went first to Richelieu and then to Paris, and reached Saint-Lazare yesterday, September 24. He was so exhausted that he was carried straight to the infirmary before he could greet St. Vincent.

This morning St. Vincent had himself carried to the infirmary, and the two old friends had their last long talk. St. Vincent said nothing to let Father Alméras know that he had named him to succeed him as Superior-General.

Afterwards St. Vincent was carried back to his room. At about noon, sitting in his chair, he fell into a deep sleep, and it lasted longer than any attack before it. The people with him in the room thought his last hour had come.

St. Vincent woke. One of those with him asked what he made of the sleep, and St. Vincent smiled and said: “It is the brother who has come beforehand, while we are waiting for the sister.”