author
Father Vincent de Paul
1768–1853
A French Trappist monk and missionary, he wrote a vivid memoir drawn from years of hardship, travel, and religious work in North America. His story offers a firsthand glimpse of Catholic missionary life in the early 1800s.
1 Audiobook
Memoir of Father Vincent de Paul; religious of La Trappe
by Father Vincent de Paul
About the author
Born James Merle in Lyons, France, on October 29, 1768, he later became known as Father Vincent de Paul. He was ordained a priest in secret on April 7, 1798, during the turmoil of the French Revolution, and eventually entered the Trappist community at Val-Sainte in Switzerland.
He is best known for Memoir of Father Vincent de Paul; religious of La Trappe, a work that recounts his missionary experiences in North America. The memoir focuses especially on his years in America from 1812 to 1823 and reflects the hardships, persistence, and religious purpose that shaped his life.
The surviving record available here centers much more on his missionary career than on his later years, but it shows him as a determined religious figure whose writing preserves a rare personal account of Catholic frontier and mission life in the early nineteenth century.