The high point, or better, the hinge event of most programs at CIF (our Paris-based “Center of International Formation”) is the week-long trip to Vincent de Paul’s starting point. Berceau (meaning “cradle”) is the name now given to where Vincent was born to a simple, Gascon Catholic family far, far away from the action of Paris – or from anywhere of significance in those days.
The trip itself is worth the effort. This is beautiful land, France’s countryside. Rolling, green and fertile hills naturally irrigated by rivers and predictable rainfall, trees and hedges dividing one large farm from another. These are spectacular places to drive through and probably to live in, now that they are connected with the wider world through telephone, electric lines, fine asphalted roads… I’ve never seen anything like it.
Still, I find myself marveling how even today it’s a long way from Paris to rural, southwest France (Gascony). Certainly the City of Lights would have seemed inaccessible to most Gascon country folks back at the turn of the 17th century. Vincent, the third child in a large family, early on showed promise, remarkable ambition and drive. No doubt his dream for a good life for himself was inseparable from what he could eventually do for his family, who clearly encouraged him to move out so as to move up.
A stay at Berceau would be a rewarding experience for any member of the wide Vincentian Family; the center has been for centuries a popular site for pilgrimage, retreats, study, and rest. What one sees there is a modest (rebuilt) country house (the inside of which is shown in the photo above) and a multi-centuries old tree -- a kind of living memorial to those years and a tribute to this one young resident. These are only the beginning, however, of a wider assortment of plaques, stained-glass windows, and other touchstones one can discover in many villages in the area. Clearly, Gascony has always been proud of as well as inspired by this native son.
But our purpose was to walk where Vincent walked, to get a better sense of those early years. So we went and looked at places where Vincent studied (Dax, Toulouse…), to the fortress-town where he set his own part-time school (Buzet sur Tarn) earning needed income for his student expenses. The man certainly got around! It is over 30 kilometres from his quarters in Toulouse to Buzet, a commute that eventually forced him to move his little school and students to Toulouse. We celebrated mass where he was ordained subdeacon, deacon, then where he was ordained a priest (Chateau L’Eveque), and finally where he celebrated his first mass (Notre Dame de Grace).
But our purpose was to walk where Vincent walked, to get a better sense of those early years. So we went and looked at places where Vincent studied (Dax, Toulouse…), to the fortress-town where he set his own part-time school (Buzet sur Tarn) earning needed income for his student expenses. The man certainly got around! It is over 30 kilometres from his quarters in Toulouse to Buzet, a commute that eventually forced him to move his little school and students to Toulouse. We celebrated mass where he was ordained subdeacon, deacon, then where he was ordained a priest (Chateau L’Eveque), and finally where he celebrated his first mass (Notre Dame de Grace).
All due admiration aside, Vincent's early trajectory alone would have produced little more than one more successful, hard-driving churchman-businessman. Much was to happen to Vincent after these early years. His openness to recognizing God acting within those events and his subsequent choices would transform him to the extraordinary leader, organizational genius, and saint we celebrate today. Certainly to me, his story has now become as wonderfully fascinating as it is believable.
Dan Paul Borlik, CM
Paris, France
Dan Paul Borlik, CM
Paris, France
