Painting of St. Vincent de Paul, originally in the Vincentian Provincial House, now in Germantown, PA.
St. Vincent de Paul was frequently calumniated, but he never tried to justify himself.
One of the priests under his care said to him one day, when some person had spoken untruly of him: “Father, why do you not justify yourself, since you are so falsely accused?”
“My brother,” was his reply, “I will try to justify myself by my works, but never by my words.”
Painting of Anna of Austria, Queen of France, by Peter Paul Rubens.
Another day, when he was speaking to the Queen, she told him that he had been accused to her of a certain fault of which she knew that he could not be guilty. The Saint, without the least sign of disappointment, said: “Madam, I know I am a great sinner.”
“But you are innocent of this sin; why, then, do you not endeavor to justify yourself?”
St. Vincent answered: “Jesus Christ was calumniated more than I have been, yet He did not try to justify Himself, neither will I.”
Rev. D. Chisholm, The Catechism in Examples (London: R & T Washbourne, Ltd., 1919), 169.
Short Stories on Honor, Chivalry, and the World of Nobility—no. 349
