Thank You to Saint Vincent de Paul
A Supplica is a prayer of supplication composed according to a certain literary genre that remains popular in Italy to this day. The most famous of these prayers would be the Supplica to the Queen of the Holy Rosary of Pompei composed by Blessed Bartolo Longo. Nearly every parish or chapel in southern Italy has a Supplica to its patron saint recited by all the people in unison on the saint’s feast. On 19 July 2011 I was inspired to write a Supplica to Saint Vincent de Paul. I asked his intercession for my monastery, trusting that he would find us a suitable permanent home. He did. Thank you, Saint Vincent de Paul. Here, then, is the Supplica to Saint Vincent that I wrote and first prayed six years ago today.

O glorious Saint Vincent de Paul,
priest of Jesus Christ,
servant of the poor,
consoler of the sorrowful,
father of orphans,
providence of the homeless,
giver of alms to the destitute,
enlightened guide of souls,
compassionate visitor of

The saints befriend those whom God entrusts to them. Often the saints introduce themselves into one’s life by means of a reference in conversation, the gift of a book, or the random discovery of an image. One who has experienced the friendship of the saints in this valley of tears will always cherish it. The circle of heavenly friends is ever widening, ever expanding. There is, at every moment, a mysterious commerce between heaven and earth. No one is excluded from this commerce; it is willed by God and set in motion by His Eternal Love lest, at any moment, one be overwhelmed by too great a sorrow or crushed beneath too heavy a burden.

O glorious Saint Rita, thou who art familiar with suffering, powerful indeed are thy pleadings in the presence of Our Lord Jesus Christ, most cruelly scourged, crowned with thorns, nailed to the wood of the Cross, and pierced by the soldier’s lance! The Divine Bridegroom has given thee so wondrous a gift of intercession that countless souls have obtained, through thy prayers, favours that many would call