Felix Festus: St. Vincent Ferrer, Early Life

It's Tuesday in Passion week, and today in the liturgical calendar we celebrate a commemoration of a very special saint. St. Vincent Ferrer is one of the greatest and most underrated preachers of the late middle-ages (and also a big name in the circle of the Dominican order). I'll be trying to condense some of the early life of the saint, which isn't talked about as much as his life and preaching in general, but through this we can see the beginnings of this great hound of God, or "Domini Canus." the book I'm paraphrasing from will be linked at the end, it is by Fr. Stanislaus M. Hogan, O.P.

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Vincent Ferrer, the fourth child of William Ferrer and Constance Miguel, was born in Valencia, Spain in the year 1350. The Ferrers are English in lineage, and two of the previous Ferrers (Ansias and Bernard) had taken part of the Valencian conquest in 1238. It is believed Vincent is descended from Ansias Ferrer, a Scottish lord, and his family is recorded as commoners, as opposed to the gentry.

Prior to the birth of Vincent, William had a dream; he seemed to be present at a sermon by a Dominican friar. Suddenly the friar paused to tell William he would have a son soon who should become a Dominican and whose fame should spread across the world. During her pregnancy Constance experienced gladness rather than the pain that she usually felt, and on one occasion while giving alms to a blind woman, she exclaimed: "it is an angel that you bear, and one day he will give me my sight." Great impressions this made, so much so that because of these incidents (and those like them), the council of the city held a meeting and the magistrates became sponsors.

At the ceremony of naming, there arose a difficulty regarding the name to be given, the priest chose to name of the saint whose feast was on the day, a martyr for whom the spaniards had special devotion: St. Vincent. It didn't take long for God to reveal that this child would be someone special. At the age of five he cured a fetid ulcer, eventually the young man putting an image above the door of his house after the saint was canonised.

St. Vincent Ferrer is described as a very handsome man who has devotion to Our Lady (frequently assisting at sermons of her), saluting her each hour by invoking her name and claiming her protection. He is described as someone who kept themselves pure by prayer and fasting, and recited the Office of Our Lady and the Office of the Passion each day. He kept a strict fast on Wednesdays and Fridays (he learned this from his parents and kept it throughout his life) and he loved the poor. It is said that his parents gave him leave to give a third of his inheritance to the poor, he distributed it all in four days. He was intelligent and wise in judgement, starting his classical studies at age eight, and began studying philosophy and theology at fourteen.

He felt a call though, one like Francis to "leave all things" and akin to St. Francis of Assisi, to be "naked to follow the naked Christ." He followed these summons and entered the Dominican priory of Valencia. He received the habit in his eighteenth year. He wished to follow St. Dominic and held himself to rigid mortifications and penance, which caused the forces of hell to target him especially. The devil appeared in the form of a venerable hermit who said to moderate his penances, but St. Vincent had recourse to prayer, and the great tempter fled. He was later tempted to despair, to take joy of life at the sacrifice of virginal purity and finally, had to endure the tears of his mother begging him to leave religious life and become a secular priest. He resisted, but his heart was heavy.

He was strengthened to fight against flesh and blood by Our Lady who consoled him with words audible to the human ear, and finally he became a vassal of Christ by his perpetual vows on the 6th of February 1368, the feast of St. Dorothea.

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I wish I could talk more about this saint, but quite fortunately there is so much that I cannot fit even a substantial amount into a single post. The book I have taken this information of is linked below:

St. Vincent Ferrer, O.P. by Fr. Stanislaus M. Hogan, O.P.

I hope this has piqued your interest into this great preacher, and I hope you will find time today to read more about him!

Felix Festus,
~ CC