Saint Vincent Ferrer

Vincent Ferrer, OP (Valencian: Sant Vicent Ferrer [ˈsaɱ viˈsɛɱ feˈreɾ]; Spanish: San Vicente Ferrer; Italian: San Vincenzo Ferreri; German: Sankt Vinzenz Ferrer; Dutch: Sint-Vincent Ferrer; French: Saint Vincent Ferrier; 23 January 1350 – 5 April 1419) was a Valencian Dominican friar who gained acclaim as a preacher, missionary and logician. After supporting Antipope Benedict XIII during the Western Schism, Ferrer travelled to preach across Western Europe and the British Isles. His preaching has been credited in some sources as converting 25,000 Jews to Catholicism, other sources indicate that they involved supporting coercive means, such as the forcible conversion of synagogues into churches. He was canonized in 1455. Vincent was the fourth child of Guillem Ferrer, a notary from Palamós, and his wife, Constança Miquel, apparently from Valencia itself or Girona. Legends surround Vincent's birth. It was said that his father was told in a dream by a Dominican friar that his son would be famous throughout the world. His mother is said never to have experienced pain when she gave birth to him. He was named after Vincent Martyr, the patron saint of Valencia. He would fast on Wednesdays and Fridays and distribute alms to the poor. He began his classical studies at the age of eight, and his study of theology and philosophy at fourteen. Four years later, at the age of eighteen, Ferrer entered the Order of Preachers, commonly called the Dominican Order (in England also known as "Black Friars" because of the black cloak they wear over their white habits). As soon as he had entered the novitiate of the Order, though, he experienced temptations urging him to leave. Even his parents pleaded with him to do so and become a secular priest. He prayed and practiced penance to overcome these trials. Thus he succeeded in completing the year of probation and advancing to his profession.