For forty years St. Vincent de Paul got up at four

PARIS, September 27, 1660 AD — Saint Vincent de Paul had not left his armchair for twenty-four hours. He was dying. All through the night the priests and brothers of his house sat with him and said prayers for him to repeat. They were the men who lived with him at Saint-Lazare in Paris.

St. Vincent founded the Congregation of the Mission. It was a group of priests pledged to teach poor people in the countryside and to train priests. With Saint Louise de Marillac he also founded the Sisters of Charity. They were young women from the countryside, trained to look after poor people who were sick.

His body had been failing all summer. For six weeks he could not walk even on crutches, so two of the brothers carried him to the chapel. He kept falling asleep during the day, and he said sorry every time. Sometimes he smiled and called sleep a brother who goes on ahead. Death, he said, was his sister, who follows.

By the end of August he held on to a cord tied to a beam in his room. The only words he said were: “Ah! my Saviour! my merciful Saviour!”

On Sunday morning the brothers carried him to the chapel. There he went to Mass and received Communion for the last time. Back in his room he fell asleep in his chair. The brother looking after him thought the sleep was too heavy and woke him. St. Vincent smiled, answered him and fell asleep again. A doctor woke him a second time, and St. Vincent smiled at him too. The doctor said nothing more could be done.

That evening Father Jean d’Horgny, one of his first companions, gave him the anointing of the dying. The brothers asked whether he forgave them all. St. Vincent said: “Every one.” Father d’Horgny told him he only had to strike his chest at the Confiteor, the prayer confessing sins. St. Vincent gathered his strength and said the whole prayer.

“Ready”

At about nine the older priests of the house came to say goodbye. Each one said a line from the Bible at his side. St. Vincent answered each of them: “Paratum” (ready). Then the older priests left, and the men with more strength stayed up with him through the night. They said short prayers aloud, and he repeated each one, like “Mother of God, remember me.”

Towards eleven he broke into a cold sweat, and no one could feel his pulse. The priests began the prayers for the dying. One of them said the name of Jesus, and St. Vincent repeated it. Then the sweat passed and his pulse came back.

At half past one Father d’Horgny named St. Vincent’s works one at a time, the Sisters of Charity among them. He asked St. Vincent to bless each one. To each, St. Vincent answered: “Yes.”

“I trust”

At two the cold sweat came back. One of the priests began the Creed in Latin: “Credo in Deum Patrem” (I believe in God the Father). St. Vincent answered “Credo” (I believe) and kissed the crucifix he held in his hands. They went through the whole Creed that way. Every time, he answered “Credo” and pressed the crucifix to his lips.

Then the priest went on to a prayer of hope, “Spero” (I hope). He came to the words “in te speravi, in Domino confido” (in you I have hoped; in the Lord I trust). St. Vincent murmured: “Confido” (I trust). He kissed the crucifix once more.

A little before four his face flushed a deep red. He moved his lips to answer the prayers, but he could not close them to form the words.

Then it was four o’clock. For forty years, that was the hour St. Vincent had got up every morning to pray. A quarter of an hour later he died, without a struggle. He was still in his armchair. The priests of his house were saying matins.

His body was laid out in the church of Saint-Lazare. Then people came: princes, bishops and the great ladies of Paris. The Sisters of Charity wept beside him. The poor of Paris pushed past one another to kiss his hands and his feet.