Welcome to our daily rosary meditation. Let's begin in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Let's call to mind all those we've promised to pray for.

Today, September 27th, we celebrate the feast of St. Vincent de Paul and his life is a striking

example of trust in divine Providence. He lived from 1576 to 1660. He was ordained in 1600, but didn't finish his studies until late in 1604,

and when he graduated, he was saddled with a large student loan.

Nothing changes.

In 1605 good news came that a family friend had died and left him some money to pay his debt.

But to retrieve it he had to travel by ship to and from Marseille through the

Mediterranean and as he was returning with the money in hand

their ship was overtaken by Muslim pirates and Vincent was captured and taken to

Tunis as a slave.

I wonder, Theresa, if that was enough reason to defer his loan.

At Tunes, he was auctioned off. His first owner was a fisherman, but Vincent was always seasick, so he was sold. His next master, an alchemist, an inventor who soon died and Vincent was sold again.

This owner happened to be a former Franciscan priest from Nice, France, who himself had been captured and made a slave.

But he converted to Islam to gain his freedom and moved to the mountains and was living with his three wives.

The second wife, a Muslim by birth, was captivated by the peace she experienced around Vincent, so she visited

him often as he worked in the fields, especially when she heard him singing the Salve Regina.

She asked him many questions about his faith,

and through a good conversation,

she became convinced Jesus was God,

and Catholicism was the true religion.

She admonished her husband for renouncing Christianity,

...