St. Vincent Ferrer

Feast Day: May 5 (historically April 5)

Saint Vincent was born at Valencia, Spain in 1350 and entered the Order at the age of seventeen.

He embraced a strict spiritual life and was later to write of it in his treatise On the Spiritual Life. For a time he assisted Peter de Luna, the cardinal legate, and John I, King of Aragon, in reconciling both civil and ecclesiastical disputes. All the while he preached, first at Avignon and then in France and Italy. In 1399 he gave himself totally to itinerant preaching.

During the great Western Schism he worked tirelessly for the peace and unity of the Church. At first he supported an antipope, Benedict XIII, but later tried in vain to obtain his abdication. He was a charismatic preacher who travelled throughout western Europe carrying out his preaching mission.

He died at Vannes, France, On April 5, 1419. In 2001 his feast day was moved to May 5th in the Dominican calendar.