Rev. Fr. Andrew Pradel O.P. - St. Vincent Ferrer: Angel of the Judgment (with Supplemental Reading: A Brief Life of Christ) [Illustrated]

St. Vincent Ferrer
The Angel of the Judgment
1350-1419

Having at the request of the Very Reverend Father Provincial read the work entitled St. Vincent Ferrer, of the Order of Friar Preachers: His Life, Spiritual Teaching, and Practical Devotion, we have found nothing therein but what is conducive to the edification of the faithful.

Fr. J. M. Monsabr, Ord. Praed.
Fr. T. Bourard, Ord. Praed., L.S.T.

Having seen the above approbation, we sanction the publication of the work entitled St. Vincent Ferrer, etc.

Fr. A. N. Saudreau, Ord. Praed.
Provincial of the French Province

Imprimatur: A. de Pous
Vicar General, Toulouse
October 9, 1863

Nihil Obstat: Fr. Raymond Palmer, Ord. Praed.
Censor Deputatus

Imprimatur: Henry Edward
Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster

Published by R. Washbourne, London, in 1875 as St. Vincent Ferrer, of the Order of Friar Preachers: His Life, Spiritual Teaching, and Practical Devotion. The first of these three parts (his Life) was retypeset with minor editing of language and republished in 2000 by TAN Books and Publishers, Inc., with the addition of pictures.

Copyright 2000 by TAN Books and Publishers, Inc.

ISBN: 978-0-89555-686-8

Library of Congress Control No.: 00-134505

Printed and bound in the United States of America.

TAN Books
Charlotte, North Carolina
2000

To his
Brethren and Sisters in St. Dominic,
Spread through England, Ireland and America,
This work rendered into English
Is affectionately dedicated by
The Translator.

St. Peters Priory, Hinckley
Feast of St. Dominic
August 4, 1875

St. Vincent Ferrer as portrayed by an artist.

FROM THE SAINTS BIRTH TO HIS RELIGIOUS PROFESSION.
13501368.

A DESCRIPTION of the marvelous influence exercised by St. Vincent Ferrer on his age is not the principal design of the work which we offer to the public. In an admirable biography of this great man, the Abb Bayle has traced out the most salient points in his character. Therefore, to reproduce in the following pages the picture which he has drawn would be foreign to our purpose. Our intention, then, is rather to initiate the pious public, and especially the Dominican family, into the intimate life and heroic virtues of the man of God, in order that they may imitate him, according to the degree of perfection to which each soul is divinely called. It would, indeed, be a strange illusion to imagine that there was much more to be admired than imitated in this remarkable life. We can, on the contrary, mold ourselves in many ways on this model, especially when it has reference to interior dispositions.

Father Teoli, a religious of our Order who lived in the last century and who wrote the most complete and accurate life of our Saint, has furnished us with the basis of our work. Following the example of this praiseworthy writer, we have not hesitated to relate certain traits well calculated to lead us to admire the stupendous and supreme power of working miracles which God sometimes accords to His Saints. It should be well borne in mind that the facts which we reveal rest on documents worthy of belief and respect, and that we address ourselves to pious readers. But this class admits the divine marvels the more readily in proportion as they who compose it are less carnal and more pure. We moreover willingly repeat, with Father Teoli, that in the facts here recorded, as well as in the title of Blessed which we have applied to certain personages whose veneration has not yet received the formal sanction of the Holy See, our intention is not to speak as though we had authority in the Church; we merely propose them with the guarantees of a purely human authority.

May our publication be serviceable to you, dear reader! Should it produce any good in you, be pleased, in return, to remember us in your prayers to the Saint whom we shall have venerated together. And you will crown this charity which we hope for from you if you will join to it a particular intention in favor of some pious persons who have afforded us useful and friendly help in the accomplishment of this work.

I N the middle of the fourteenth century, there dwelt at Valencia, in Spain, a pious couple who were not less distinguished by birth than by the virtues which adorned their lives. These were William Ferrer, a descendant of an ancient Catalonian family, and Constance Miguel, the daughter of a naval officer and kinswoman of the Bishop of Valencia. They had already been blessed with two children when a third was born to them on the 23rd of January, in the year 1350.

History affirms that certain remarkable signs preceded the birth of this child of benediction. One night while the father slept, he dreamed that he entered the church of the Dominicans at Valencia when one of that Order was preaching to the multitude from the pulpit and that the preacher, turning toward him, addressed him in these words: I felicitate you, William. In a few days you will have a son who will become a prodigy of learning and sanctity. He will be the object of your delight and the honor of your house. The world will resound with the fame of his wondrous deeds; he will fill Heaven with joy and Hell with terror. He will put on the habit which I wear, and will be received in the Church with universal joy as one of its first Apostles. Then it seemed to him that the people, who had attentively listened to what was said, thanked God with a loud voice for the marvelous news and offered him their felicitations likewise. Delighted at these consoling predictions, he joined his thanksgiving to that of the multitude. When he awoke, he related to his spouse all that had transpired in the course of his dream, and they resolved to confer with their kinsman, the Bishop. To Williams account of what had occurred, Constance added two things equally singular which she had herself experienced. The first was the fact that from the commencement of her pregnancy, she had felt none of the pains which usually accompany that state; and the second, that she frequently fancied she had heard the child, who was near its birth, give utterance to cries that resembled the barking of a little doga circumstance much resembling the vision of Blessed Jane of Aza, the mother of St. Dominic.

The prelate clearly understood the meaning of these mysterious signs and said to them: Rejoice in the Lord; the child which you are about to bring

As if to confirm the high opinion which was conceived of this child, God was pleased to work, while it was still in the maternal womb, and by its mediation, a remarkable prodigy. Constance went one day to visit a blind woman on whom she was accustomed to bestow a monthly alms, and having given it to her as usual, she added, My daughter, pray to God that the child which I bear may arrive safely. The blind woman bent her head to the mothers bosom and said, May God bestow that favor on you! At the same instant her material blindness left her, and being suddenly illuminated in her soul with prophetic light, she exclaimed, Madam, it is an angel you have, and it is he who has cured me of my affliction. The child, like another John the Baptist, applauded the words of the poor woman by leaping in the womb; the mother herself gave testimony of it.