Congregation of the Mission

Congregation of the Mission
(Vincentians)
who we are; our values, purpose, hopes, priorities

Who We Are
The Vincentians are a community of missioners
(missionary priests and brothers) sent to serve
the poor and marginalized throughout the world.

We work in collaboration with
other people of good will to
discover and help redress
situations of social injustice
that cause poverty, suffering
and need.

In Today’s World
Vincentians show that the
preferential option for the poor,
professed by the Church, is not
just a beautiful idea, but rather
a reality.

Providence
brought us about
to meet two
major needs in
the Church: evangelization (preaching the
gospel to the poor)

formation (helping the clergy
and others who serve the poor,
to acquire the knowledge and
virtues necessary for their
work)

Our Beginnings
In 1617 in France, a providential
event occurred. Our founder,
Saint Vincent de Paul, was a
parish priest in a village outside
of Paris, and was a tutor and
chaplain in the house of the
wealthy and powerful Gondi
family. One day he was called to
the bedside of a man gravely ill
who wished to relieve his
conscience which had been
torturing him for some time.

Our Beginnings
Later the man related his story to
Madame de Gondi, saying, "I would have
been damned had I not made a general
confession to Monsieur Vincent."

Madame de Gondi and her husband were
both devout persons. Deeply moved by
this statement, they asked Vincent to
conduct missions among these poor
people who had been deprived of the
consolations of religion for many years.

Our Beginnings
St. Vincent welcomed the opportunity
and on 25 January, in the church of the
village of Folleville, spoke on the need for
confession. So overwhelming was the
response that in order to hear the
confessions of all who came he had to
call in outside help.
This touching incident was responsible
for Vincent de Paul's dedication of his
entire life to "preaching the gospel to the
poor, especially the poor country people."

Our Beginnings
St. Vincent would undertake a series of
missions, preaching to the people to wake
up, deepen their faith, and come to a true
conversion in the conduct of their lives. In
order to give the missions permanence
and organization, St. Vincent, with the
ﬁnancial support of his patrons the
Gondis, organized a group of priests who
were to evangelize the Gondi estates
(1625). This group grew into the
Congregation of the Mission.

Our Beginnings
It can also be said that the Congregation
arose as a response to the deplorable
condition of the Church and clergy in early
17th century France.
France was still experiencing the effects of
the Protestant reform and the religious wars
which had followed it. The Council of Trent
(1545-1563) had attempted to counteract the
conditions in the church that had led to the
Reformation, but its decrees were not yet
widely known in France.

Our Beginnings
So, in order to help instruct the clergy,
St. Vincent began the Tuesday
Conferences (weekly gatherings of
priests who wished to confer on the
virtues and the functions of their state),
and held retreats for priests.

Out of these retreats came the
Vincentian-directed seminaries that
helped to raise the standards of the
French clergy.

Vision of St. Vincent
This new Community was to meet a major
need in the Church's task of evangelization.
Yet Vincent called it the "Little Company"
and demanded of his brothers that they be
humble about themselves. He stressed the
importance of day-to-day work and
dedication to ordinary, unromantic tasks. He
wanted his priests to be workers rather than
innovators. His attitude is summarized in his
oft quoted "let us love God, but let it be at
the expense of our arms and in the sweat of
our brow."

Important Issues
Facing the Congregation Today
• The initial and ongoing formation of our
members, especially in the young
provinces where there is a large number
of vocations
• The lack of vocations and the aging of
our confreres in the provinces of
Western Europe and the United States
• Formation of our formators
• Central uniformity/authority vs. adapting
to local circumstances in each province

Serving and advocating Spiritual advisors
for the poor, the hungry, to groups serving
prisoners, immigrants, the poor (St.
the excluded Vincent de Paul
Society, etc.)

Formation of
clergy and laity Seal of the Congregation of the Mission Parish work
“He has sent me to preach good news to the poor”

Popular missions,
shrines, pilgrimages,
Our Lady of the
Miraculous Medal Higher education

“At the end of every day I
thank God that I’ve been given
the special privilege of
showing people, especially PROFILES
young people, that by
accepting the grace that comes
with God’s love, their time in
this world will be happier and
much more meaningful.”
- Rev. Peter Goldbach, C.M.

“But the heart of all this is teaching,
and teaching is for me an experience of
conversion, transformation. I am
helping them transform themselves into
PROFILES
effective ministers. And what I try to do
is to bring to them my passion for the
Church, my passion for helping people
through the sacraments and through
other aspects of our Church's life.”
- Rev. Paul Golden, C.M.

“I felt that God had put me in this place
to better understand that example of
service and dedication to bringing the
good news to all people, especially those PROFILES
who are in poverty, those who are
struggling; being able to bring the good
news of God's love, of God's mercy, of
God's grace was something that I felt
compelled to do.”
- Rev. Jeremy Dixon, C.M.

Sources

The American Vincentians: A Popular History of
the Congregation of the Mission in the United
States 1815-1987 by John Rybolt, C.M. (available
online at via.library.depaul.edu)

facebook.com/VincentianVocations

Congregation of the Mission

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