Summary

Portrait medal of St. Vincent de Paul (1581-1660) by Jacques Edouard Gatteaux. One of the Galerie Metallique des Grand Hommes Francais series. Minted in Paris, 1821.

Obverse Description

Draped bust facing left; around, VINCENT DE PAUL.; below in smaller lettering the artist's name, E. GATTEAUX.

Reverse Description

Legend in nine lines: NE / A POY / PRES DAX /EN M.D.LXXVI. / MORT / EN M.DC.LX / GALERIE METALLIQUE / DES GRAND HOMMES FRANCAIS. / 1821.

Edge Description

Plain

Significance

Althought the medal gives the date 1576 for his birth, St. Vincent was born in 1581 at Pouy, in the Kingdom of France to a family of peasant farmers. He graduated in theology at Toulouse before being ordained in 1600 at the age of nineteen. Soon after he was taken captive by Barbary pirates, who took him to Tunis as a slave. After escaping in 1607, he returned to France and then went to Rome to continued his studies. Later, after his return to France he became the parish priest at Clichy. Through contacts he obtained endowment and support for a group to would work among poor tenant farmers and country people in general. In 1617 he founded the "Ladies of Charity" from a group of women within his parish. He organized these wealthy women of Paris to collect funds for missionary projects, found hospitals, support victims of war and to ransom 1,200 galley slaves from North Africa. He was Beatified on 13 August 1792 and Canonised on 16 June 1737.

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