Biography of Saint Vincent Ferrer
San Vicente Ferrer is the patron saint of the Valencian Community (Spain). But devotion to it is widespread in most of the places he visited during his pilgrimage. His elevation to the altars in the middle of the fifteenth century infused great vitality into the remembrance of his deeds and fame. The survey carried out by Rome in different parts of Europe to develop the process of canonization made innumerable references flourish, later converted into traditions, which together with the historical documents on the contingencies of his biography, preserved in the local archives, sowed the medieval kingdoms of deep devotion.
Numerous chapels, hermitages and altars in all corners of the West recall apocryphal or historical anecdotes with popular festivals, due in large part to the trail of miracles and objects linked to his person, endorsed by relics, which he left behind on his journey through apostolate and preaching.
Biographical traits of San Vicente Ferrer
When San Vicente Ferrer saw the light in Valencia (Spain) in January 1350, he had just suffered, along with the rest of Europe, a terrible epidemic that we know as the “Black Death”. The situation in the city is easy to imagine thanks to the story of the chroniclers of the time who point out that more than 300 people died every day. In what was then called the Crown of Aragon, Christians, Jews and Muslims lived together, with the richness of their creeds, and the struggles for social protagonism, marginalizing the impoverished popular sectors.
Early years of Saint Vincent Ferrer
Pedro Ranzano, the first biographer of San Vicente Ferrer, will try to show that his protagonist and hero was an authentic Dominican friar and therefore the prototypical model of their founder, the Spanish Saint Domingo de Guzmán (h. 1173 1221) will already be present both in the story of his birth and his childhood.
The truth is that he belonged to a well-to-do family since his father was a notary, which, in addition to providing him with prestigious baptismal godparents chosen from among the nobility and renowned citizens, made it possible for him to enjoy the benefit of Santa Ana in the Parish of St Thomas. This also made him start Latin studies in one of the existing Schools in the city at the time. Although, according to popular tradition, he also entertained himself with the games of children and young people, but without forgetting his acts of mercy. One day he knocked on the doors of the neighboring Royal Convent of Preachers, the Dominicans. At the beginning of February 1367 he took his habit, renouncing the indicated ecclesiastical benefice of Santa Ana.
His intellectual qualities stood out, and from 1368 to 1375 we can see how his superiors sent him as a student to Barcelona, or as a professor of Logic in Lérida, in that city there was the General Study of the Crown and of Natural Sciences in Barcelona, prolonging his specialization studies in Toulouse (now France).
From this period of studies stand out his love for the Bible and his knowledge of Hebrew, the imprint of the doctrine of his brother of the Order Saint Thomas Aquinas (h. 1224 1274) and the strength of his philosophical training reflected in his two philosophical treatises written at the age of 22 and in which, from the postulates of the Thomist Aristotelian philosophy, he responds to some affirmations of the prevailing late medieval nominalism.
Today we partly know his teachers, but much less what mark they left on him. It is necessary to point out his providential meeting with the also Dominican Tomás Carnicer in Lleida, which made him more fond of spiritual things. Vicente Ferrer was already a strong personality who radiated sympathy and attraction, although his subsequent life as a student in Barcelona was covered in miraculous overtones, such as when he prophesied the imminent arrival of ships loaded with wheat at a time of extreme need for the city.
Saint Vincent Ferrer in the Western Schism
Vicente Ferrer lived this Schism with intensity, it meant the greatest sacrifices of his life and even the illness itself. But let’s get to the facts. In January 1377, one of the greatest desires of many sectors of that Christianity was fulfilled: the return of the Popes to Rome. At first glance it seemed that the stay in Avignon, begun in 1309, was coming to an end. But it wasn’t going to be quite like that. In March 1378, when Gregory XI died and in the conclave of the following April 8, the Italian Archbishop of Bari was elected, who took the name of Urban VI. Tumults, pressure…, led to talk of lack of freedom in the election. The flight of the French cardinals, together with the absence of one of the electors, and the joining of the cause by the Spanish Cardinal Pedro de Luna, led to the fact that on August 9 a group of electors proclaimed the election null and void and that on August 20 September of the same year, Clement VII was elected. Christianity was divided into two sectors, more or less broad, according to their kings, canonists and universities: that of the Avignon obedience and that of the Roman.
What party was the Crown of Aragon going to take with Pedro IV the Ceremonious at the head? There is talk of the “indifference” of the king, but his son Prince John adhered from the beginning to Clement VII. Vicente Ferrer had met in Barcelona with Pedro de Luna and he delegated him to intervene in Valencia, where Perfecto Malatesta, Urban VI’s Legacy, was already present. Vicente Ferrer, already in his hometown, was elected Prior of his Convent. His activities in favor of the Avignon obedience were such that the city authorities wrote to Pedro IV denouncing them. We do not know the monarch’s response. Yes, on the other hand, the letter that Prince Juan wrote to Olfo de Proxita begging him to intervene so that Vicente Ferrer would not be bothered in his clementist enterprise. The letter is dated January 1380.
They are the first disappointments in the Schism. Disappointments that will lead him to resign from the only position he had throughout the rest of his life in his Order of Friars Preachers. Breaking the attitude that many maintained of indifference, or adherence to the urban sector was an arduous task. And Vicente Ferrer undertook the undertaking, leaving us a Treatise on the Modern Schism, which must be dated to 1380, with which, with theological reasons and current Canon Law, he intends to convince that the legitimate Pope was the one from the Avignon line.
How Saint Vincent Ferrer came to itinerant preaching
In the life of San Vicente there are certain gaps that do not allow us to know it exactly, for example his interventions in the subsequent legation of Pedro de Luna in the various Crowns of the Iberian Peninsula. We also find him in Valencia: intervening as arbitrator in a sentence between the religious and the rest of the clergy, transcribed by his own father; preaching one of the Lents in the city and another in Segorbe; or also dedicated to teaching, since he was appointed professor of Theology in the Seu Valenciana (1385 1390).
Elected Pope Pedro de Luna, who took the name of Benedict XIII, in 1394, called him to his side and named him his confessor and theologian. But Master Vicente did not like the climate that was breathed in the Pontifical Curia of Avignon. Cardinal dignities and bishoprics are offered to him, which he rejects; he interiorly suffers the division of the Church; finally, he absents himself from the papal palace and lodges in the Dominican Convent of the city. To his inner suffering is added the illness and death that seemed to be approaching. In this serious illness, specifically on October 3, 1398, a supernatural vision is of paramount importance, since he will change the course of his life: he will dedicate himself from then on to itinerant preaching. He will often allude to that day and that change.
From this moment on, he dedicated himself fully to preaching as a legacy to Latere Christi, as Apostle of Christ, always traveling on foot, until his health allowed it, in much of Western Europe.
Vincent as a preacher will insist on renewal and interior conversion, on the reform of institutions and on the unity of the Church, remaining in favor of the Avignon Popes. Commenting on the biblical plagues of Egypt (Exodus 7,14 12,34), he will say: “The ninth is darkness: for three days there were men and women who did not see each other; and it meant the time of schism. Oh, what a strong darkness! The three days signify the three Popes that are now: Pope John, Pope Gregory and Pope Benedict; and each one has great doctors and holy people who have each one as really Pope and not They know which one is real.” From his intervention in the Compromise of Caspe in 1412, the frequent meetings with King Ferdinand, Pope Benedict XIII and, later, with the Emperor Sigismund, speak of this concern for the union of the Church. On January 6, 1416, Vicente Ferrer in Perpignan will read the document of the removal of obedience to the Pope of Avignon from the Crown of Aragon. The following year Martin V will be elected and will be recognized as the only Pope by all of Christendom.
Vicente never wanted to reveal the secret of his personal change in the face of the Schism, the key to his evolution that generated his estrangement from Benedict XIII. His gesture was recognized by many. He knew how to heroically fulfill his duty of conscience and his serenity and attitude reassured many.
The Vincentian writing that has had the most editions and influence over the centuries is his Treatise on Spiritual Life, possibly written around 1407 in response to questions asked by a novice who wanted to walk and progress in spirituality, embodying the ideal of spirituality. preaching lived according to the style and in the school of Santo Domingo de Guzmán. In it, Vicente not only shows the knowledge of the most prestigious spiritual authors at that time, but also reveals his experience as an observant Dominican. It is structured by ideas such as a permanent reference to Santo Domingo, the imitation of the elders in the Order to shape their Life with them, the appreciation of poverty and austerity, highlighting obedience and love of study combined with prayer. . All this at the service of a single mission: to be useful to others.
San Vicente Ferrer in the commitment of Caspe
This is a fact of capital importance for the Hispanic society of the moment. We can closely follow the events thanks to a diary of the events described in minute detail in a codex from the Segorbe cathedral archive that belonged to Bonifacio Ferrer, his brother, also a compromiser like him for the city of Valencia.
On May 31, 1410, Martin the Human, until then King of the Crown of Aragon, had died without issue. After many meetings by the Catalan, Valencian and Aragonese legations (representatives of the three Kingdoms of the Crown) at the beginning of 1412 the election of the nine compromisarios for the designation of the new King was refused. The moral weight and the trajectory of our friar offered no doubt.
The aspirations of the Duke of Calabria and…