VINCENT DE PAUL, St (1576-1660), founder of the “Congregation of Priests of the Mission,” usually known as Lazarites (q.v .), was born on 24th April 1576 at Pouy near Dax (Landes), where his father owned a small farm. It was originally intended to train him for the ordinary pastoral life of the peasants of the Landes, but he soon showed other aptitudes, and after passing through the school at Dax he studied at Toulouse, and was ordained to the priesthood in 1600. Some time afterwards, while on board a felucca off Marseilles, he had the misfortune to be captured by Barbary pirates, who took him to Tunis and sold him as a slave. His third master, who happened to be a renegade Italian, he succeeded in converting, and both managed to make their escape, landing at Aigues-Mortes near Marseilles in June 1607. After short stays at Avignon and Rome, Vincent found his way to Paris, where he became favourably known to Monsieur (afterwards cardinal) de Bérulle, who was then engaged in founding the congregation of the French Oratory. At Bérulle’s instance he became curate of Clichy near Paris (1611); but this charge he soon exchanged for the post of tutor to the count of Joigny at Folleville, in the diocese of Amiens, where he first developed the idea of those “missions” with which his name is associated. In 1617 he accepted the curacy of Châtillon-lès-Dombes (or sur-Chalaronne), and it was here that he received from the countess of Joigny the means by which he was enabled to found his first “confrérie.” The subsequent history of the priests of the mission will be found in the article Lazarites. Among the works of benevolence with which his name is more immediately and personally associated are the establishment of a hospital for galley slaves at Marseilles, the ...