VINCENT FERRER, St (1355-1419), a great Spanish Dominican preacher, was born of respectable parentage at Valencia on 23d January 1355. In February 1374 he took the Dominican habit, and after spending some years in teaching, and in completing his theological studies, he was licensed to preach. He graduated as doctor of theology at Lerida in 1374, and his sermons in the cathedral of Valencia from 1385 onwards soon became famous. Cardinal Peter de Luna took him with him to Paris in 1391; and on his own election to the pontificate as antipope Benedict XIII. made Ferrer his confessor and master of the sacred palace. Finding, however, the ecclesiastical atmosphere of Avignon an uncongenial one, he in 1397 resumed his work as a preacher, and Spain, France, Italy, Germany, and Great Britain and Ireland were successively visited by him; and in every case numerous conversions were the result of his eloquence, which is described as having been singularly powerful and moving. In 1412 he was delegated by his native city to take part in the election of a successor to the vacant crown of Aragon; and in 1416 he received a special invitation to attend the council of Constance, which, however, he does not appear to have accepted. He died at Vannes on 5th April 1419, and was canonized by Calixtus III. in 1455, his festival (duplex) being observed on 5th April.