Vincent gave holy and prudent advice to all who consulted him. He never ate flesh-meat or wore linen garments. He reconciled contending parties and restored peace among nations that were at variance. He zealously laboured to restore to, and maintain in, union the seamless garment of the Church which at that time was rent by a direful schism. He shone in every virtue. He was simple and humble, and treated his revilers and persecutors with meekness and affection. Many were the signs and miracles which God wrought through him, in confirmation of the holiness of his life and preaching. He very frequently restored the sick to health by placing his hands upon them. He drove out the unclean spirits from the bodies of such as were possessed. He gave hearing to the deaf, speech to the dumb, sight to the blind. He cured lepers and raised the dead to life. At length, worn out by old age and bodily infirmities, after travelling through many countries of Europe and reaping an abundant harvest of souls, this untiring herald of the Gospel terminated his preaching and life at Van in Brittany, in 1419. He was canonised by Pope Calixtus III.
Dom Prosper Guéranger:
Today, again, it is Catholic Spain that offers one of her sons to the Church that she may present him to the Christian world as a model and a patron. Vincent Ferrer, or, as he was called, the Angel of the Judgement, comes to us proclaiming the near approach of the Judge of the living and the dead. During his lifetime he traversed almost every country of Europe preaching this terrible truth, and the people of those times went from his sermons striking their breasts, crying out to God to have mercy upon them — in a word, converted. In these our days the thought of that awful Day when Jesus Christ will appear in the clouds of Heaven and judge mankind has not the same effect upon Christians. They believe in the Last Judgement because it is an Article of Faith. But, we repeat, the thought produces little impression. After long years of a sinful life, a special grace touches the heart and we witness a conversion. There are thousands thus converted, but the majority of them continue to lead an easy, comfortable life, seldom thinking on Hell and still less seldom on the Judgement with which God is to bring Time to an end.
It was not thus in the Christian Ages. Neither is it so now with those whose conversion is solid. Love is stronger in them than fear, and yet the fear of God’s Judgment is ever living within them and gives stability to the new life they have begun. Those Christians who have heavy debts with Divine Justice because of the sins of their past lives, and who, notwithstanding, make the time of Lent a season for evincing their cowardice and tepidity, sorely, such Christians as these must very rarely ask themselves what will become of them on that Day when the Sign of the Son of Man will appear in the heavens and when Jesus, not as Saviour, but as Judge, will separate the goats from the sheep. One would suppose that they have received a revelation from God that, on the Day of Judgement, all will be well with them. Let us be more prudent. Let us stand on our guard against the illusions of a proud, self-satisfied indifference. Let us secure to ourselves, by sincere repentance, the well-founded hope that on the terrible Day which has made the very Saints tremble we will hear these words of the Divine Judge addressed to us: “Come, blessed of my Father, possess the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world!” (Matthew xxv. 34). Vincent Ferrer leaves the peaceful cell of his monastery that he may go and rouse men to the great truth they had forgotten — the Day of God’s inexorable justice. We have not heard his preachings, but, have we not the Gospel? Have we not the Church who, at the commencement of this Season of Penance, preached to us the terrible truth which Saint Vincent took as the subject of his instructions? Let us, therefore, prepare ourselves to appear before Him who will demand of us a strict account of those graces which He so profusely poured out upon us, and were the purchase of His Blood. Happy they that spend their Lents well, for they may hope for a favourable Judgement.
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How grand must have been your eloquence, Vincent, that could rouse men from their lethargy and give them to feel all the terrors of the awful Judgement. Our forefathers heard your preaching and returned to God, and were pardoned. We, too, were drowsy of spirit when, at the commencement of this holy Season, the Church awakened us to the work of our salvation by sprinkling our heads with ashes, and pronouncing over us the sentence of our God by which we are condemned to die. Yes, we are to die. We are to die soon, and a Judgement is to be held upon us, deciding our eternal lot, Then, at the moment fixed in the divine decrees, we will rise again in order that we may assist at the solemn and terrible Judgement. Our consciences will be laid open, our good and bad actions will be weighed, before the whole of mankind, after which the sentence already pronounced upon us in our particular Judgement will be made public. Sinners as we are, how will we be able to bear the eye of our Redeemer who will then be our inexorable Judge? How will we endure even the gaze of our fellow-creatures who will then behold every sin we have committed? But above all, which of the two sentences will be ours? Were the Judge to pronounce it at this very moment, would He place us among the Blessed of His Father, or among the Cursed? On His right, or on His left?
Our fathers were seized with fear when you, Vincent, put these questions to them. They did penance for their sins and, after receiving pardon from God their fears abated, and holy joy filled their souls. Angel of God’s Judgement! Pray for us that we may be moved to salutary fear. A few days hence and we will behold our Redeemer ascending the hill of Calvary with the heavy weight of His Cross upon him. We will hear Him thus speaking to the Daughters of Jerusalem: “Weep not over me, but weep for yourselves and for your children: for if in the green wood they do these things, what will be done in the dry?” (Luke xxiii. 28, 31). Help us, Vincent, to profit of these words of warning. Our sins have reduced us to the condition of dry dead branches that are good for nothing but to burn in the fire of divine vengeance. Help us by your intercession to be once more united to Him who will give us life. Your zeal for souls was extreme. Take ours under your care and procure for them the grace of perfect reconciliation with our offended Judge. Pray, too, for Spain, the country that gave you life and faith, your religious profession and your priesthood. The dangers that are now threatening her require all your zeal and love. Exercise them in her favour and be her faithful protector.Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:
At Thessalonica, St. Irene, virgin, who was imprisoned for having concealed the sacred books contrary to the edict of Diocletian, was pierced with an arrow and consumed by fire by order of the governor Dulcetius under whom her sisters Agape and Chionia had previously suffered.
On the island of Lesbos, the sufferings of five holy martyrs.
The same day, St. Zeno, martyr, who was flayed alive, besmeared with pitch and then cast into the fire.
In Africa, the holy martyrs, who, in the persecution of the Arian king Genseric, were murdered in the church on Easter Sunday. The lector, while singing Alleluia at the stand, was pierced through the throat with an arrow.
And in other places, many other holy martyrs, confessors and virgins.
Thanks be to God.
