A Black Catholic Parish’s Feast Day – St. Vincent de Paul’s in My Home Town

September 27, 2021 0 By BLACKCATHOLIC

Happy Feast Day to the only surviving historically Black Catholic parish in my home diocese of Nashville, St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church! Today is the feast day of 17th century priest, St. Vincent de Paul, which the universal Church celebrates as a memorial, but for St. Vincent’s it’s a full-on solemnity.

Check out these photos from a visit I made there back in 2018 including a historical marker that tells of the history with a direct connection to St. Katherine Drexel, who ministered especially to African Americans from the late 1800s to the 1955 when she died.

Parish website to learn more about this historically Black Catholic parish: https://stvincentchurchfamily.com/

More on St. Vincent from his small saints bio my breviary:

“Saint Vincent de Paul was born in Gascony in 1581. After completing his studies, he was ordained a priest and went to Paris where he served in a parish. He found the congregation of the mission to supervise the formation of priest and to give support to the board. With the help of Saint Louise de Marillac, he also found in the congregation of the daughters of Charity. He died at Paris in 1660.”

According to Franciscan Media, St. Vincent “organized the rich women of Paris to collect funds for his missionary projects, founded several hospitals, collected relief funds for the victims of war, and ransomed over 1,200 galley slaves from North Africa.”