Saint Vincent Ferrer

Saint Vincent Ferrer was a Dominican from Valencia and one of the most famous preachers of the late Middle Ages. For twenty years he traveled through western Europe, calling people to penance and working for the unity of a Church torn apart by the Great Western Schism. The Church commemorates him on April 5.

He was born in Valencia in 1350, the son of a notary. In 1367 he entered the Dominicans in his native city. He was educated in Barcelona, Lérida, and Toulouse, obtained the title of master of theology, and taught it at the cathedral school of Valencia. He wrote a treatise on the spiritual life in which he teaches that whoever wants to help others by his words must first live what he teaches.

His life fell at a time when two, and later three, popes laid claim to the See of Peter. Vincent was convinced of the legitimacy of the popes of Avignon. He had the trust of Cardinal Pedro de Luna. When the cardinal was elected pope in Avignon in 1394 and took the name Benedict XIII, he called Vincent to his court and made him his confessor. Benedict XIII is regarded today as an antipope. Vincent urged him to seek an agreement for the good of the Church.

In 1398 he fell gravely ill. According to tradition, Christ then appeared to him with Saint Dominic and Saint Francis, healed him, and sent him to preach penance. In November 1399 Vincent left Avignon and remained an itinerant preacher for the rest of his life. He traveled through Provence, Savoy, Lombardy, Switzerland, Flanders, Spain, and France. He spoke in public squares, because the churches could not hold his listeners. He spoke of conversion and the second coming of the Lord, and wherever he went he reconciled those who were at odds.

In 1412 he was one of the judges who at Caspe settled the dispute over the succession to the throne of Aragon and averted the threat of civil war. Despite his pleas, Benedict XIII would not step down, although this would have opened the way to the election of a single pope. In January 1416, at Perpignan, Vincent therefore announced publicly that the king of Aragon was withdrawing his obedience from Benedict. For the sake of the Church’s unity he parted with the man to whom he had been faithful for many years. The schism ended the following year at the Council of Constance with the election of Martin V.

He spent his last years in France, mainly in Brittany, and went on preaching. He died in Vannes on April 5, 1419. He was buried in the cathedral there, where his relics are venerated to this day.

The dukes of Brittany, the kings of Castile and Aragon, and the Dominican Order worked for Vincent’s canonization. Pope Callistus III, who had known Vincent during his lifetime, declared him a saint on June 29, 1455, in Saint Peter’s Basilica. The pope died, however, before the bull was issued, and so it was published in 1458 by his successor, Pius II. In the prayer of the Mass the Church remembers Saint Vincent as a herald of the Gospel who announced the coming of Christ the Judge.