By Leon Bent –
Saint Vincent Pallotti’s feast day is celebrated on 22nd January. At the age of 16, he resolved to become a priest, and was ordained on May 16, 1818. Shortly thereafter, he earned a doctorate in theology. Pallotti is described as small of stature, slight of built, with big blue eyes and penetrating glance. Vincent had an intense devotion to the mystery of the Most Blessed Trinity, and to the Virgin Mary. His contemporaries, including the Pope, considered him a saint during his lifetime.
He was given an assistant professorship at the Sapienza University but resigned it soon after to devote himself to pastoral work. Pallotti worked selflessly looking after the poor in the urban areas of the city for most of his life. He organized schools for shoemakers, tailors, coachmen, carpenters, and gardeners, so that, they could better work at their trade, as well as evening classes for young farmers and unskilled workers.
On January 9, 1835, Pallotti founded the Union of Catholic Apostolate. He expressed his idea in the following words: “The Catholic Apostolate, that is, the universal apostolate, which is common to all classes of people, consists in doing all that one must, and can do, for the greater glory of God, for one’s own salvation and that of one’s neighbour.” On July 11, of the same year, Pope Gregory XVI gave his approval.
The Society was placed under the protection of Mary, Queen of Apostles. During the cholera plague in 1837, Pallotti constantly endangered his life in ministering to the stricken. In 1838, the Society was ordered to be dissolved, as it was seen as a duplication of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith. Pallotti appealed this decision to the Pope and the order of dissolution was withdrawn.
On October 28, 2003, the “Union of Catholic Apostolate” was declared an International Public Association of the Faithful, by a decree of the Pontifical Council for the Laity.
His followers are the Pallottines, still operating internationally. They follow his motto, “The love of Christ impels us.” Members of the Society of the Catholic Apostolate work as everyday missionaries to “renew faith and rekindle love.” They work to fulfill the mission of their founder in the modern world. The Pallottines have major houses in Britain, Germany, New York, Poland, India, Ireland and several other locations.
Nineteenth century Rome was not the uneventful place one may imagine. Rome of the 1800s saw Mazzini, Garibaldi, and their Masonic cohorts dare to assault the Vicar of Christ and send him into exile. It saw fickle mobs capable of murdering priests and desecrating Churches, and heard such slogans as “Death to the Jesuits!” and “Down with the Pope!” shouted in the streets.
Public life in Rome was becoming such that, everything was stained with this anti-ecclesiastical attitude. Of the institutions and customs open to particular infection from this disease, perhaps none was more susceptible, by nature, than the infamous Carnival. The Roman Carnival had long been a problem because of the excesses of the excited revelers. What should have been an innocent “farewell to meat” in anticipation of the rigors of Lent, had become the occasion for immoderate indulgence and profligacy.
In the midst of the Carnival of 1835 there walked a saint; sure, Vincent Pallotti was a miracle worker and had proven his divine election many times before, but this was ridiculous. Everyone else was making merry; however, he was trying to remain in the presence of God amidst impure festivity. Vincent Pallotti went into the place of iniquity to destroy sin and evil, and to remove the curse from God’s chosen people.
The life of this apostolic man is the story of an active apostle constantly engaged in missionary labours, but who was also a mystic, enjoying the ecstatic heights of contemplation and suffering the most frightening ‘spiritual deserts’ known as “dark nights of the soul.”
If Pallotti’s exemplary childhood sanctity seems exaggerated to the reader, s/he is asked to review the following facts: At age four, little Vincent’s mother witnessed him stray from her side to kneel in front of a statue of the Blessed Virgin where he prayed, “Dear Mother, make me a good boy!” In succeeding years, he became so reputed for his virtue that, he earned the name, “the Little Saint”. Children who played with Vincent found themselves instructed in the catechism and in praying the Rosary by their friend. He gave away his shoes, his clothing, his food, and even his bed to the poor, always doing so out of a spirit of Christian charity. With the bed gone, sleeping on the floor satisfied his youthful passion for asceticism, a passion which grew stronger, so that, at 15, he had acquired the habit of scourging himself to the point of drawing blood. “He was a saint from childhood!”
“How great is the dignity of the priesthood! What a dignity, what a dignity! To be a priest! What does that mean? O God, my God, I do not understand it! What does it mean to present the holy, bloodless sacrifice and to administer the Seven Sacraments!” These are the words of Vincent, written to St. Gaspar del Bufalo, the founder of the Society of the Precious Blood, with whom Vincent contracted a deep spiritual friendship.
To say that St. Vincent was “Marian” in his piety would be an understatement. Like all true children of the Church, he showed a tender devotion for our Lady, but more than that, he was consumed with love for the Mother of God. His favourite titles of our Blessed Lady were “Mother of Divine Love” and “Queen of Apostles.” He said of her, “I shall not rest until I, if this is possible, have achieved an infinitely tender love for my much beloved and much loving mother, Mary.”
The years 1834-35 are landmarks in the life of St. Vincent. It sometimes happens that God reserves the worst chastisements of his faithful servants for the eve of their greatest accomplishments. This fact is brought clearly in the life of the Apostle St. Paul, who preached Christian liberty most effectively when he himself was a prisoner.
Vincent Pallotti died in Rome, on the January 22nd, 1850. When Pallotti’s body was exhumed in 1906 and 1950, examiners found his body to be incorrupt, a sign of holiness in the tradition of the Roman Catholic Church. His body is enshrined in the church of San Salvatore in Onda, in Rome, where it can be seen.
He was canonized in 1963 by Pope John XXIII. On April 6, 1963, he was named Patron of the Pontifical Missionary Union of Clergy.
Leon Bent is an ex-Seminarian and studied the Liberal Arts and Humanities, and Philosophy, from St. Pius X College, Mumbai. He holds Masters Degree in English Literature and Aesthetics. He has published three Books and have 20 on the anvil. He has two extensively “Researched” Volumes to his name: Hail Full of Grace and Matrimony: The Thousand Faces of Love. He won The Examiner, Silver Pen Award, 2000 for writing on Social Issues, the clincher being a Researched Article on Gypsies in India, published in an issue of the (worldwide circulation) Vidyajyoti Journal of Theological Reflection, New Delhi. On April, 28, 2018, Leon received the Cardinal Ivan Dias Award for a research paper in Mariology.