A bright child Perhaps no one else in history has done more to serve the poor than St Vincent de Paul. He is venerated by both the Catholic and Anglican communions. He was born in 1581, in the village of Pouy, to peasant farmers (despite the aristocratic-sounding name). From a young age he showed a talent for reading and writing. When he was 15 his father sold the family’s ox to pay for Vincent to attend seminary, where he spent two years, before going to the University of Toulouse. The college was riven by various factions to the extent that an official was murdered by two students. Vincent was ordained at 19. Enslaved in North Africa In 1605 he sailed from Marseilles and was captured by Barbary pirates, spending two years imprisoned in Tunis. He was then sold to a fisherman. His next owner was a physician, and Vincent learned much from him. After the physician died Vincent was sold to a former Franciscan who had become a Muslim. The man became remorseful and was persuaded to reconvert, escaping back to France with Vincent. From 1612 Vincent served the Gondi, an illustrious family from Paris, and it was the Countess de Gondi who persuaded her husband to endow the priest’s work for the poor. Freed to serve the poor In 1617 Vincent founded the Ladies of Charity, which ransomed 1,200 Christian slaves. Later he ran the Congregation of the Missions – priests devoted to poverty, chastity and obedience – and spent the rest of his 43 years working for the poor. He was canonised in 1737.