Few saints have carried humility so far as Saint Vincent did. According to a virtuous ecclesiastic, there never was on this earth any ambitious man who was so frantic in seeking esteem, elevation and glory as Saint Vincent was ardent in seeking abjection, contempt and everything imaginable most likely to confuse and humble him.
To appreciate the faithfulness of this portrait it is enough to remind ourselves that Saint Vincent always regarded himself as unfit to labour for the things of God. He looked upon the honours rendered him as so many wounds with which God strikes His enemies. Also, far from justifying himself when he was accused, he at once put himself on the side of his accusers. He even cleverly made himself out to be guilty when in reality he was absolutely innocent. He was more rigorous in condemning his slightest faults than others are in condemning their most serious disorders.
The Son of God, although He was always "the Splendour of the Glory of His Father, and the Image of His Substance," willed nevertheless to be regarded as the "disgrace of men and the outcast of the people." Such were the sentiments, however hard to nature, which Saint Vincent conceived and maintained within himself, and (what is truly an astounding fact) in face of all the good he did and the praise he received he never lost sight of them. On arriving, in Paris he called himself only "Vincent" (his baptismal name), without adding "de Paul," for fear of being looked upon as a person of quality. At Court, where birth is generally preferred to merit, he published that he was the son of a poor peasant.
To these facts, which are sufficient to make him known, let us add that Saint Vincent preferred ordinary merit to striking merit; that his invariable rule was never to make himself known except on the weakest side; as also, between two thoughts, always to choose the more ordinary one and the one least likely to exalt him. Hence, said Cardinal de La Rouchefoucauld, "it is not difficult to recognize that to find true humility exemplified on this earth we should seek it in Saint Vincent de Paul."
In fact, no occasion of humbling himself ever presented itself but he received it with delight, or, rather, went in search of it if it did not come to him spontaneously. One day, when he was accompanying an ecclesiastic to the door of Saint Lazare, a poor woman, thinking she would give her request a better chance, said to him: "Your Grace, give me an alms!"
"Oh, my poor woman," he answered, "you little know me, for I am only the son of a poor villager." Another time, with the same intention, a woman told him that she had been a servant to Madame his mother. "You are mistaken, my good woman," he answered, "my mother never had a servant, having been one herself; she was the wife, and I the son, of a peasant."
His birth was not his only resource in order to lay himself open to contempt; as regards mind and heart he concealed his gifts so well that he gave quite a wrong impression of himself. He wrote to the Superioress of a Visitation Convent in Warsaw: "For over thirty years I have had the honour of serving your Houses in Paris, but alas! I am none the better for that; I, who ought to have made great progress in virtue at the sight of these incomparably holy souls I beg you very humbly to help me to ask God's pardon for the bad use I have made of all His Graces."
He made answer to some person who had earnestly begged his prayers: "I will offer them to God, since you ask me, but I need the help of good souls more than anybody else in the world on account of the great miseries which overwhelm my soul, and which make me regard the opinion people have of me as a punishment for my hypocrisy, which causes me to pass for what I really am not. Alas! I am incapable of any good, and only capable of all evil."
One of his priests had written to tell him that the Superior sent by him to one of his Houses was somewhat wanting in the good manners requisite for the post he occupied. Saint Vincent first made a great eulogy of this Superior, whose solid virtue was worth far more than the refined politeness of many others; and then he did not let the occasion pass of criticizing himself: "And I! What am I made of? And how is it that I have been put up with until now in my employment? I am the most rustic, the most ridiculous and most stupid; when amongst people of quality I cannot exchange half a dozen words without showing that I have neither mind nor judgment; and, what is worse, I possess no virtue approaching that of the Superior in question."
Saint Vincent spoke of his Congregation as a body, in the same way as he spoke of himself. All Communities appeared to him holy and worthy of respect; according to him, his own was the only one not worthy to be named. A Missioner, having published of his own accord a pamphlet on "The Institute, its progress, and its works," sent it to Saint Vincent. Saint Vincent groaned over it. He wrote to him: "There has been a short History of our Institute printed somewhere by you. I feel such grief about it that I cannot find words to express it to you, because it is so opposed to humility to publish forth what we are, and what we are doing. If there is any good in us, and in our way of living, it comes from God, and it is for Him to make it manifest, if He judges it expedient. But as for us, who are poor ignorant men, and sinners, we must hide ourselves as useless for any good, and as unworthy of consideration. For this reason, sir, God has given me the grace to remain firm up to now in never consenting to let anything be printed which might make the Company known and esteemed, although I have been greatly pressed to do so, especially on account of some stories brought from Madagascar, from Barbary, and from the Hebrides. Still less would I have permitted the printing of anything regarding the essence and the spirit, the birth and the progress, the functions, and the end of our Institute. But since there is no longer any remedy, we will leave it there. I only beg you in future not to do anything regarding the Company without warning me beforehand."
If charity had permitted him, Saint Vincent would have congratulated anyone who would disparage the Congregation rather than those who would seek to honour it. A magistrate, who was deceived by false reports, said one day at a public meeting that the priests of Saint Lazare were giving very few Missions, and as a fact at that particular time they were giving many. The Saint was content to justify himself by act, and would not demand any explanations or apologies.
He went perhaps even further when some influential people, in order to revenge themselves for the refusal of a Bishopric, invented such a specious calumny against him that it reached the ears of the Queen. This wise Princess asked him, smiling, if he knew that such a thing was being said about him. At the risk of being thought guilty, the Servant of God contented himself with answering that he was a great sinner. Her Majesty having represented to him that he ought to justify himself, he said: "Many other things of that kind were said against Our Lord, and He did not justify Himself. I am happy to be treated like the Son of God: humiliations are the greatest graces which the Lord can grant to men. Praises should make us lament, since it is written: 'Woe to you when men shall praise you.'
Certainly he took care to inspire his priests with the love of all virtues, but it was of humility above all he strove to enhance the importance. "Truly, if each one of us will make a study of himself, he will find that it is very just, and very reasonable, to despise oneself; for if, on the one hand, we seriously consider the corruption of our nature, the lightness of our mind, the darkness of our understanding, the unruliness of our will, and the impurity of our affections; and if, on the other hand, we weigh carefully in the balance of holiness our various works and productions, we shall find that all are most worthy of contempt." He added that "in the holiest deed of a preacher of the Gospel one is sure to find something to cover him with confusion; he will find that for the most part he either behaved badly in the way he performed them, or often enough in the intention; and in fact, if he does not wish to flatter himself, he will recognize himself as the worst of men."
To these motives, which he put forward on many occasions, the Man of God added others also, drawn from the example of great men, ancient and modern. Thus Saint Paul published through the whole world that he had had the misfortune to blaspheme God and to persecute the Church, Saint Augustine made known to all the secret sins of his youth. Saint Vincent added that those whom God spared from such shameful falls were not therefore less humble. "Thus," he said again, "Saint Francis de Sales talked of the world like a man who despises all its vanities. Cardinal de Berulle was accustomed to say that it was a great advantage to remain in a humble condition. The most abject conditions," he continued, "are the safest; there is some sort of malignant influence about elevated states. For that reason the Saints always avoided dignities, and Our Lord, speaking of Himself, says that He had come into this world to serve, and not to be served." Saint Vincent said, conformably to the teachings of Jesus Christ, that "he who exalted himself shall be humbled; that the life of the Son of God was one continual humiliation; that He loved it until the end; and that, after His Death, He willed to be represented in His Church as a criminal, fastened to a cross, to teach all generations that the vice opposed to humility is one of the greatest evils that could be conceived, that it greatly aggravates our sins and, by insinuating its poison into the best and holiest actions, it renders them evil."
He found a clear proof of the latter truth in the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican in the Gospel. "Yes," he continued, "even should we be rascals, if we had recourse to humility it would put us on the right path, whilst, on the contrary, though we might be like angels, if nevertheless we are devoid of humility, our virtue would be without foundation and could not stand. Let us therefore bear this truth in mind, Gentlemen, and let each one of us engrave it deeply in his heart: that whatever virtue he thinks he possesses, if he has not humility, he is nothing hut a proud Pharisee and an abominable Missioner." "O Lord Jesus Christ, infuse into our minds those divine lights which made Thee prefer contumely to praise; enkindle in our hearts those holy affections which burnt and consumed Thee, and which made Thee seek the Glory of Thy Heavenly Father in Thy very shame! Grant by Thy Grace that we may begin at once to reject all that does not conduce to Thy Honour, and to our own contempt. . . . Grant that we may renounce once and for all the applause of deluded or deceitful men, and all vain imaginations about successes in our work!"
Practice - Satan, because of his pride, was driven out of Heaven, and condemned to the eternal pains of hell. O my God, help me to be humble, even so far as to suffer willingly all injuries and fill the offices that are lowest in the eyes of the world, in order to please God and render myself worthy of His Mery.
- text taken from Virtue and Christian Refinement According to the Spirit of Saint Vincent de Paul, by Saint John Bosco