Vincent's Name Day

27th September

Vincent, the name has a description or meaning which is from the Latin, 'conquering'

Vincent has a Name day of 27th September, please check our history page to find out how this was derived

This description represents the Male usage of the name.

There is also an alternative celebration date of 24th May for this Name day and represents different religious interpretations or different festival days for Saints

St Vincent is a patron saint of the following:

Symbols are often associated with Saints, it often helped in the middle ages when people were unable to read thus Vincent has the following symbols associated

Historically Famous Vincents

The enemy of St Vincent de Paul was not so much a theological heresy as a materialistic streak, so it is a remarkable thing that he has become synonymous, in France at least, with the care and service of the poor. Born in 1580, of very poor parents, Vincent seemed to be a 'career priest' in the corrupt atmosphere of aristocratic France. What changed his heart may have peen his experience of living and working with people who lived in great luxury side by side with others in extreme poverty. Or it may have been the influence of Fr Berulle and Madame de Gondi who were working in Paris. Whatever caused him to do it, Vincent founded an Order dedicated to helping the most destitute in society, and encouraged St Louise de Marillac to begin a similar order for women, the Sisters of Charity. He even took the place of a galley-slave for some months, ruining his own health, in order to restore the slave to his family. Throughout his life, he managed to continue his friendship with the rich and influential, even the French Queen, Anne of Austria. He encouraged them to use their position to help the poor, while giving himself unreservedly to the most helpless in society.

Both of the St Vincents who are still well known lived up to their name. The first, St Vincent of Lerins, was a great theologian who retired to the tiny island off Cannes and yet whose work on the Trinity shaped the Church's self-understanding even to this day. He was one of the great writers who conquered the Arian heresy - contemporary with St Athanasius - and, indeed, many people believe that he wrote what we call the 'Athanasian' creed. He also gave a usefully elastic definition of what is catholic truth: that is, that it must always have been held to be true, 'always, everywhere, and by all the faithful'. This definition is still used in ecclesiastical arguments today.