Our 2017 Patron Saint-Saint Vincent de Paul

Each year the Barbacoa Brotherhood’s team captain either selects or appoints a member to select our Patron Saint. In this inaugural year of the Brotherhood, team captain Mike Church has selected Saint Vincent de Paul. Saint Vincent’s work for the poor is nothing short of astounding when you consider the sheer number of schools and clinics he established to serve the French poor. From one of his biographies we learn this:

Most remarkably, Vincent was by temperament a very irascible person—even his friends admitted it. He said that except for the grace of God he would have been “hard and repulsive, rough and cross.” But he became a tender and affectionate man, very sensitive to the needs of others.

Pope Leo XIII made him the patron of all charitable societies. Outstanding among these, of course, is the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, founded in 1833 by his admirer Blessed Frédéric Ozanam.

Church said: “I pray Saint Vincent de Paul will intercede for us in our 2017 efforts and bless us all with an increase in humility and charity, Saint Vincent, pray for us.”