“Third project, third failure.” This is how the biographer Jose Roman described the next stage of the young Vincent’s life.
In the previous reflection, when Vincent was in Rome, a certain Monsignor Montorio was so amused by Vincent’s talents, which he learned from the alchemist doctor during his Tunisian captivity, that he promised Vincent a “good benefice” soon. Again, it sparked interest and excitement in the young Vincent’s mind. He waited and waited, but the promise did not come, and Montorio did not contact him anymore until his death years later.
Frustrated in Rome, he tried his luck in Paris. It was here, in 1610, that he wrote his only known letter to his mother, which we quoted earlier in the series. There, he wrote about his setbacks and misfortunes. Now, we understand what those “disasters” were. But Paris looked like another chance for self-advancement for the optimistic Vincent.
“The prolonged sojourn which I necessarily make in this city [Paris] in order to regain my chance for advancement (which my disasters took from me) grieves me, because I cannot render you the services I owe you. But I have such trust in God’s grace that He will bless my efforts and will soon give me the means of an honorable retirement so that I may spend the rest of my days near you.”
But before these opportunities came, another setback arrived. Vincent was accused of theft in Paris.
The poor priest Vincent from the southern province lived in a small rented room on the Left Bank of the Seine at Faubourg de Saint-Germain, together with a lawyer from his rural town. This was long before Sartre, and the Parisian intellectuals made the Quartier Latin famous in the 20th century.
One day, Vincent was sick, so he remained in the room while his companion, the judge, went to work. He asked the pharmacy to send its boy assistant with medicines. While looking for a glass in a cupboard, the boy found the judge’s money and stole it. Upon his return, the judge saw that the money was gone. Right away, he accused Vincent of stealing it. He shouted at the top of his voice and threw Vincent out of the house.
He shamed Vincent in public and made him the subject of a “monition.” A monition was an announcement made in churches, carrying an official denunciation from secular authorities. It was read in parishes during Mass for three consecutive Sundays. It ordered people to inform authorities of whatever they knew about the person, under pain of excommunication.
Vincent’s response to the accusation signaled an initial change of heart in the young priest: “God knows the truth,” he said in docile resignation. He kept quiet about it for the rest of his life. Then, six years later, the culprit himself came forward to confess that he was the one who stole the money.
The man who stole the money was later arrested in Bordeaux for another crime. He asked the judge — the accuser — to visit him in prison and told him the story. The judge who had evicted Vincent from the boarding house wrote to Vincent to ask for pardon, telling him that, if he wished, he could go to Paris and beg for his forgiveness on his knees. It was not necessary, Vincent replied. He gave him the pardon he asked for.
In his old age, Vincent told this story in the third person to his community, not directly referring to himself. He also shared with his confreres what he had learned from the event:
“If we are not guilty of the fault of which we are accused, remember that we have many other failings for which we should be ashamed. We should not attempt to justify ourselves, much less feel angry or resentful toward our accuser.”
In Paris, he had just written to his mother about an “honorable retirement” soon, and then he was accused of theft. His project for advancement failed again.
God’s hand must have been leading Vincent somewhere else. Yet these failures and disasters did not discourage him because “present misfortune,” he believed, “presupposes good luck in the future.”
Father Daniel Franklin Pilario, C.M., is the President of Adamson University in Manila. He is a theologian, professor, and pastor of an urban poor community on the outskirts of the Philippine capital. He is also the Vincentian Chair for Social Justice at St. John’s University in New York.
