Stone & Incense Search
Start hereCurious, or no faithEvangelical, Pentecostal or ProtestantFrom another faithSomeone I love is CatholicBecoming CatholicI was Catholic once Today in the ChurchLibraryHard questionsVoices of the revivalTake the next stepAboutSources & methodSupport the site
The saints

St. Vincent Ferrer

A Dominican caught on the wrong side of a split Church, who then preached across Europe for twenty years.

Feast: 5 April · 1350 to 1419 · The Middle Ages · Valencia, Spain, and all of Western Europe

Read the story 1 min read
Painting of St. Vincent Ferrer in a Dominican habit, holding an open book and a flame.

Giovanni Bellini, 1465. Wikimedia Commons, Public domain.

Home / The saints / St. Vincent Ferrer

Valencia, Spain, the late 1300s

Vincent lived during the Great Western Schism, when two and then three men claimed to be pope.1

For years he loyally backed the claimant at Avignon.1

In time he urged that man to step down for the sake of unity.

Patron of builders1; reconciliation1

01St. Vincent Ferrer

Preacher to Europe

He walked through Spain, France, Italy and Switzerland preaching repentance, and crowds of thousands followed him.1

He helped end the schism and called people to reconciliation everywhere he went.1

Live it this week

Be the first to make peace

Vincent worked to heal a divided Church. Think of one relationship split by an argument. This week, be the first to reach out, without demanding they admit fault first.

Notes

How we know · 1 source for this page
  1. Franciscan Media, Saint of the Day: “Saint Vincent Ferrer”. franciscanmedia.org. franciscanmedia.org

The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) is in the public domain; we quote the New Advent edition. Texts of the Holy See are quoted briefly from vatican.va. Scripture: World English Bible, Catholic edition (public domain); Verse numbers are modern, with Douay-Rheims numbers in brackets where they differ. Photographs: Wikimedia Commons, credited under each image; full list on the photo credits page.

Lines in the narrator’s voice, without a note, are our reflection, not a historical claim. Stone & Incense restates Church teaching in plain words; our wording is not an official Church text. Report an errorCorrections.