Aside from popular missions, Vincent de Paul and his followers were also known for forming clergy and laypeople.
In the context of medieval France, Monsieur Vincent realized that the poor were neglected because the clergy were not well trained to care for them. Priests during his time did not even know how to properly recite the formula of absolution during confession. The missions in the parishes would not be sustainable if the Church did not dedicate its resources to forming its clergy. Because of Vincent’s love for the poor, he also dedicated himself to the formation of the clergy.
The seminary formation required by the Council of Trent was not yet fully implemented in France during the time of St. Vincent. This meant that candidates for the priesthood could study theology at the university without going through seminary formation. This resulted in priests who were insufficiently trained both morally and intellectually.
1. Retreats for Ordinands and Seminary Formation
The first step in addressing the problem was the “retreat for ordinands,” which St. Vincent organized at Collège des Bons-Enfants and Saint-Lazare. Ordinands — those preparing for ordination — underwent a 10-day retreat focused on the spiritual and pastoral formation of future priests, particularly prayer, recitation of the breviary, the sacrament of penance, liturgy, preaching, and catechetics. It is said that around 12,000 to 14,000 candidates attended these retreats during St. Vincent’s lifetime.
For St. Vincent, the next step was establishing seminaries. In his vision, seminary training needed to be situated within parish life so that seminarians and formators would have opportunities to engage in pastoral ministry among the people. Vincent also organized the formation of formators at Saint-Lazare.
Seminary formation during Vincent’s time aligned with the call of the Church at the Council of Trent to form well-instructed and holy priests who remained close to the lives of their people. Priests were expected to undergo holistic formation — human, spiritual, academic, pastoral, and missiological — so they could better serve the people.
Throughout history, the Vincentians became known for their work in seminaries across different continents, including in the present day.
2. Tuesday Conferences: Continuing Formation of Clergy and Laity
In his later years, Vincent de Paul began the Tuesday Conferences. Diocesan priests around Paris, many of them well-known personalities, gathered every Tuesday to discuss and share reflections on faith, spirituality, and pastoral practice. Many also joined popular missions and organized works for the poor. Vincent gathered these priests in a spirit of collaborative renewal and reflective learning.
Though the Tuesday Conferences were mainly for priests, Saint-Lazare also became a venue for retreats and formation sessions for laypeople who came to St. Vincent for guidance. These gatherings were among the earliest forms of what is now called the continuing formation of clergy and laity.
These twofold works of the Vincentians — evangelization of the poor and formation of clergy and laity — are deeply intertwined, such that one cannot exist without the other. Constitution No. 1 of the Congregation of the Mission states:
“The purpose of the Congregation of the Mission is to follow Christ evangelizing the poor. This purpose is achieved when, faithful to St. Vincent, the members individually and collectively: 1° make every effort to put on the spirit of Christ himself (CR I, 3) in order to acquire a holiness appropriate to their vocation (CR XII, 13); 2° work at evangelizing the poor, especially the more abandoned; 3° help the clergy and laity in their formation and lead them to a fuller participation in the evangelization of the poor.”
3. Philippine Experience of Seminary Formation
Vincent de Paul once said: “If love of God is the fire, zeal is its flame. If love is the sun, then zeal is its ray… Let us beg God to enkindle in our hearts a desire to serve him.”
Soon after their arrival in the Philippines on July 22, 1862, the Vincentians began working in the new vineyard to which they had been sent.
Eleven days after setting foot on the islands, four Vincentian priests and brothers zealously took over the administration of Seminario Conciliar de San Carlos in Manila. They instituted a new set of disciplinary rules, improved infrastructure, and taught Moral Theology, liturgy, and Gregorian chant, since most courses were then taken at the Faculty of Theology of the University of Santo Tomas. After little more than a month, Fr. Moral reported that the two Vincentian priests were already multitasking in several apostolates.
The bishops of Naga and Cebu heard about their work and requested their service in their dioceses. The Vincentians took over the Naga seminary in 1865 and Cebu in 1867. They began administering the seminary in Jaro in 1869 and Vigan in 1872. Within 10 years of their arrival, the missionaries of St. Vincent were handling practically all diocesan seminaries in the country.
Their shortest stint was in the seminary of Vigan, lasting only four years from 1872 to 1876. Their longest service in the formation of local clergy was in the Cebu seminary from 1867 to 1998, or 131 years of service to a local Church.
The first Filipino bishop, Jorge Barlin (1850–1909), graduated from the Naga seminary. The next two Filipino bishops came from San Carlos Seminary in Cebu: Pablo Singzon (1851–1920) of Calbayog and Juan Gorordo (1862–1934) of Cebu.
In the following century, the Vincentians accepted other requests for seminary teaching and administration in Jagna, Bohol (1911–1922); San Felipe Neri in Manila (1913–1953); San Pablo (1914–1942); Lipa (1931–1944); Bacolod (1946–1959); Argao, Cebu (1946–1950); and Sorsogon (1956–1958).
4. “Colegio-Seminarios”: The Education of Laypeople
From the 1870s to the 1920s, the conciliar seminaries handled by the Paúles became “colegio-seminarios.” Upon the request of bishops, they admitted lay students into these seminaries, establishing a mixed-training structure. At the time, institutions of higher learning were mostly concentrated in Manila.
The Vincentians mainly took over seminaries in dioceses far from the center, including Cebu, Naga, Jaro, and Calbayog. Since many lay students from these provinces lacked the resources to pursue education in Manila, local bishops asked the Vincentians to open the seminaries to “day scholars,” or externos, as paying day students were then called. The colegio-seminarios responded to two urgent needs: providing formal education to lay students outside the metropolis and supporting the logistical needs of seminarians.
Despite Vatican and local hierarchical injunctions, the Vincentians continued the practice for around half a century. Historians often point to financial reasons for this persistence. Beyond economics, however, their decision may also have been motivated by an evangelical spirit: responding to the educational needs of laypeople in the provinces during a crucial period in Philippine history.
Beyond the hundreds of priests they formed, many prominent Christian lay leaders also received their early education from these colegio-seminarios outside Manila. Among them were Sergio Osmeña, Dionisio Jakosalem, Sotero Cabahug, Vicente and Filemon Sotto from San Carlos Seminary-College in Cebu; Jose Ma. Panganiban, Tomas Flordeliza, and Vicente de Vera from the Colegio-Seminario of Naga; and Graciano Lopez Jaena, Ramon Avanceña, and Quentin Salas, among many others.
At the time, Cebu, Naga, Jaro, and Calbayog were considered peripheral towns, yet the Vincentians were already dedicating much of their resources to empowering young people in these marginalized places.
From this creative response to the concrete needs on the ground emerged the Filipino Vincentians’ educational apostolate for laypeople, including what would eventually become Adamson University.
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.
