Memoir

Memoir

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Memoir, by Fr. Vincent de Paul
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Title: Memoir
Author: Fr. Vincent de Paul
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one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on January 20,
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Edition: 10
Language: English

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MEMOIR
OF
FATHER VINCENT DE PAUL,
RELIGIOUS OF LA TRAPPE:
TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL FRENCH
BY
A. M. POPE,
WITH A PREFACE
BY
THE RIGHT REVEREND DR. CAMERON,
BISHOP OF ARICHAT.

PREFACE.
The reply of Maximilian to the wealthy courtier who tendered him a
goodly purse of gold for a title of nobility, was worthy of that emperor:
"I can enrich thee," he said, "but only thy own virtue can enoble thee"
All true grandeur, excellence, and dignity, are the offspring of virtue.
Even the most renowned oracles of paganism proclaim this, and the
very persecutors of holiness are often constrained to pay homage to
their victim. No wonder, then, that whenever we are privileged to find
one of those rare mortals, whom virtue has unmistakably marked as her
own, we lovingly attach an exceptional importance to everything
connected with his history. Such assuredly was he whose "account of
what befel" him during his first ten years in America, is now for the
first time published in English. A brief sketch of the religious Order to
which he belonged, of the life he led, and of the Monastery he founded,

may give added interest to his own simple and edifying narrative.
What Scripture terms "the world," and so emphatically denounces as
such, is the poisonous source of the mother-evils described by St. John
as "the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes,
and the pride of life." Flight from the contamination of this threefold
inordinate love of pleasures, riches and honors, being essential to
salvation, is most easily, most surely and most meritoriously achieved
by those who, in answer to a Divine call, consecrate and give
themselves wholly to God, by the practice of the evangelical counsels
of chastity, poverty and obedience. Those who embrace this angelic
profession form the choice portion of the fold of Christ. They rank as
His spouses, and, by the holy ambition of their virgin love, console
Him for the craven defections or the cold indifference of so many
Christians.
All Christians animated by the spirit of Jesus are religious, just as they
are holy, and kings and priests (I Peter 2,9). Such is the unity of the
marvellous body of Christ, the Church, whose soul is infinite love, that
her every member shares, in some sense and measure, all her sublime
prerogatives. But as God willed that in His family some goods should
be common to all, so He likewise decreed that other goods should be
reserved to comparatively few, and through these chosen and privileged
ones benefit the rest. Hence, as besides this elementary royalty and
priesthood conferred by baptism, there are, according to the express
order of God superior and official royalties and priesthoods, in like
manner besides the fundamental religion, which is the vital breath of
every soul in a state of grace, there is a religion more eminent, more
definite, more perfect. Thus as there is here below a sacerdotal and
royal state, so likewise is there a religious state which is confined to
those only who bind themselves by vows to a monastic life. It is
evident, therefore, that when Catholics use the expression "religious
Order," or term a monk or nun "a religious," they are perfectly justified
in doing so, the cavillings of Dr. Trench to the contrary
notwithstanding.
Each religious order is characterized by the special