VINCENT FERRER

'Saint Vincent Ferrer', O.P. (in Valencian: 'Sant Vicent Ferrer') (January 23, 1350 – April 5, 1419) was a Valencian Dominican missionary and logician; born in Valencia, Kingdom of Valencia (modern day Autonomous Community of Valencia, Spain), as one of the sons of William Stewart Ferrer (sometimes spelled William Stuart Ferrer), an Anglo-Scottish nobleman descended from the English (de) Ferrer family and the Scottish Stewart (Stuart) family, and his Spanish wife, Constantia Miguel.
Ferrer was professed in the Order of Preachers at the age of 18, and after studying, became Master of Sacred Theology. He was commissioned to deliver lectures on philosophy. He was sent to Barcelona and received his doctorate at Lleida, the main university city of Catalonia at the time.
He was depressed because of the Great Schism and was very ill at the age of forty. He claimed that God healed him and instructed him to go out and convert many. For twenty-one years, he was said to have traveled to Aragon, Castile, Switzerland, France, Italy, England, Ireland, and Scotland, preaching the gospel and converting many. Ferrer is also said to be responsible for converting many Jews to Catholism, allegedly under duress or persecution. One of his converts, a former Rabbi, went on to become Bishop of Cartagena.
He is also well known in Spain for his intervention during the political discussion known as the Caspe Compromise, a debate by which the succession of the King of Aragon was solved giving the throne to a Castilian prince: this would later help the union of the crowns of Castile and Aragon, approximately corresponding to the territory of modern Spain.
One of his main achievements in Spain in 1391 is to have preached to the mobs whose riots led to the appropriation then transformation of a synagogue into a church, Santa María la Blanca^[1].
Saint Vincent died on April 5, 1419 at Vannes in Brittany and was buried in Vannes Cathedral. He was canonized by Calixtus III on June 3, 1455. His feast day is celebrated on April 5.
The Fraternity of Saint Vincent Ferrer, a Pontifical religious institute, is named after him.

Contents

External links

External links

★ Magnificat, Saint-Jovite, Québec, Canada biography

★ Catholic-forum.com saints

★ Catholic.org online saints

★ Catholic Encyclopedia entry

★ S.Vincenzo Ferreri Italy
'References'
1. La religion en Occident: Grandes ou petites vérités? Michel Despland