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Keeping a secret · PARIS, September 25, 1660 AD

The secret name in the sealed box

Saint Vincent de Paul, seventy-nine and unable to stand, had himself carried to the priest he had secretly chosen to lead after him.

Edition of

Saint Vincent de Paul
An old bald priest in a black soutane and skullcap sleeps upright in a wooden armchair in a bare grey room, his bandaged feet on a low stool, with crutches against the wall, a narrow bed behind him, and two men in black cassocks watching from an open doorway.
St. Vincent de Paul asleep in his chair in his room at Saint-Lazare, in Paris, on September 25, 1660 AD.
About this picture

AI-generated image, in the manner of French oil painting of the middle of the seventeenth century, from the paper's reference portrait based on Portrait de saint Vincent de Paul (1581-1660) (Anonymous, after a model by Simon Francois de Tours, circa 1660, Musee Carnavalet - Histoire de Paris) View source artwork.

PARIS, September 25, 1660 AD — Saint Vincent de Paul wrote down a name and sealed it in a box. He gave the box to one of his priests, to be opened only after his death. It was the name of the man who would lead his Congregation when he was gone.

St. Vincent had started the Congregation of the Mission. It was a group of priests whose work was to help poor country people to be saved. By now it had about five hundred members. Its head, called the Superior-General, also governed the Sisters of Charity.

The Church dates St. Vincent’s birth to April 1581 AD, so he was seventy-nine. His body had been failing all year.

In February two people close to him were given the last sacraments on the same day. One was his companion of thirty-five years. The other was Saint Louise de Marillac, who led the Sisters of Charity. St. Vincent couldn’t go to either of them. Both died soon afterwards.

By the summer St. Vincent’s legs wouldn’t hold him up. On August 15 he couldn’t walk even on his crutches, and two brothers carried him to the chapel. His legs kept him awake at night, and he was very weak. That month he began falling asleep during the day, sometimes right in the middle of his work. Each time, he said he was sorry.

Then St. Vincent turned to the man he had chosen to lead his priests after him. Father René Alméras was seriously ill at a house of priests in Tours. St. Vincent couldn’t leave Saint-Lazare, the house in Paris where he lived, to go to him. So he wrote to Father Alméras again and again, begging him to come back to Paris. In one letter St. Vincent wrote to him: “The little Company is greatly distressed at your absence, and it would console me more than anything to see you return.”

Father Alméras gathered what strength he had and set out, first to Richelieu and then to Paris. He reached Saint-Lazare on September 24. He was so worn out that he was carried straight to the infirmary. He didn’t even get to say hello to St. Vincent first.

The next morning St. Vincent, who could no longer walk or even stand, had himself carried to the infirmary. The two old friends had a long talk, their last.

The name in the sealed box was Father Alméras’s. St. Vincent said nothing to let his friend know.

Asleep in the chair at noon

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

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

About this story

Catholic Saints News tells the lives of the saints as news from their own time and place. This story was written with AI from the historical record, and we read and approved it before it ran.

The Saints' words. This newspaper will never make a saint say something the historical record does not preserve.

Junior Report. Written for readers ten to twelve, from the same sources and under the same rules as the rest of the paper. The words are shorter, hard terms are explained, and the question at the end is for the reader to think over.

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Image. AI-generated image, in the manner of French oil painting of the middle of the seventeenth century, from the paper's reference portrait based on Portrait de saint Vincent de Paul (1581-1660) (Anonymous, after a model by Simon Francois de Tours, circa 1660, Musee Carnavalet - Histoire de Paris) — see the original.

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Sources for this story

Listed by paragraph.

  1. Paragraph 1
    • attested Mgr Émile Bougaud, trans. Joseph Brady C.M., History of St. Vincent de Paul, Founder of the Congregation of the Mission and of the Sisters of Charity, Volume 2, HIS DEATH, p. 163 ¶5
  2. Paragraph 2
  3. Paragraph 3
  4. Paragraph 4
    • attested Mgr Émile Bougaud, trans. Joseph Brady C.M., History of St. Vincent de Paul, Founder of the Congregation of the Mission and of the Sisters of Charity, Volume 1, SAINT VINCENT IS ESTABLISHED IN THE COLLEGE DES, p. 105 ¶5
    • attested Mgr Émile Bougaud, trans. Joseph Brady C.M., History of St. Vincent de Paul, Founder of the Congregation of the Mission and of the Sisters of Charity, Volume 2, HIS DEATH, p. 153 ¶1
    • attested F. A. Forbes, Life of St. Vincent de Paul, Chapter 11 ¶7
    • attested Mgr Émile Bougaud, trans. Joseph Brady C.M., History of St. Vincent de Paul, Founder of the Congregation of the Mission and of the Sisters of Charity, Volume 2, HIS DEATH, p. 153 ¶3
    • attested Mgr Émile Bougaud, trans. Joseph Brady C.M., History of St. Vincent de Paul, Founder of the Congregation of the Mission and of the Sisters of Charity, Volume 2, HIS DEATH, p. 153 ¶7
  5. Paragraph 5
  6. Paragraph 6
    • attested Mgr Émile Bougaud, trans. Joseph Brady C.M., History of St. Vincent de Paul, Founder of the Congregation of the Mission and of the Sisters of Charity, Volume 2, p. 163
    • attested Mgr Émile Bougaud, trans. Joseph Brady C.M., History of St. Vincent de Paul, Founder of the Congregation of the Mission and of the Sisters of Charity, Volume 2, DEATH OF SAINT VINCENT DE PAUL, p. 1658 ¶3
  7. Paragraph 7
    • attested Mgr Émile Bougaud, trans. Joseph Brady C.M., History of St. Vincent de Paul, Founder of the Congregation of the Mission and of the Sisters of Charity, Volume 2, HIS DEATH, p. 163 ¶5
  8. Paragraph 8
    • attested Mgr Émile Bougaud, trans. Joseph Brady C.M., History of St. Vincent de Paul, Founder of the Congregation of the Mission and of the Sisters of Charity, Volume 2, HIS DEATH, p. 163 ¶5
  9. Paragraph 9
    • attested Mgr Émile Bougaud, trans. Joseph Brady C.M., History of St. Vincent de Paul, Founder of the Congregation of the Mission and of the Sisters of Charity, Volume 2
  10. Paragraph 10
  11. Paragraph 11

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