ing
resolutions for their future lives.

The Mission Priests were to help in this work more by example than by
precept; they were to preach by humility and simplicity. "It is not by
knowledge that you will do them good," Vincent often repeated, "or by
the fine things you say, for they are more learned than you--they have
read or heard it all before. It is by what they see of your lives that
you will help them; if you yourselves are striving for perfection, God
will use you to lead these gentlemen in the right way."

The blessing of God seemed, indeed, to rest upon the ordination
retreats; nearly all who made them carried away something of Vincent's
noble ideal of the priestly life. Many to whom they had been the
turning point of a lifetime, felt the need of further help and
instruction from the man who had awakened all that was noblest in
their natures.

To meet this necessity Vincent inaugurated a kind of guild for young
priests who desire to live worthy of their vocation. Weekly gatherings
were held at St. Lazare under the name of "Tuesday Conferences," where
difficulties were discussed, debates held and counsels given. It was
not easy to belong to the "Conferences." Members were pledged to offer
their lives completely to God and to renounce all self-interest.
Nevertheless, they increased rapidly in number, and the Conferences
were attended by all the most influential priests in Paris.

But Vincent's zeal was boundless, and one good work grew out of
another. The retreats for ordination candidates having been so
successful, he conceived the idea of giving retreats on the same lines
for the laity. The work thrived beyond all expectation. All were
admitted without exception: noblemen and beggars, young men and old,
the learned and the ignorant, priests and laymen. St. Lazare at such
times, Vincent once said, was like Noah's ark: every kind of creature
was to be found in it.

The only difficulty was the expense entailed, for many of the
retreatants could pay nothing toward their board and lodging, and
Vincent would refuse nobody. Here, as in so many other cases, it was
the Congregation of the Ladies of Charity, founded by Vincent in
Paris, that came nobly to his rescue. There was Madame de Maignelais,
sister of M. de Gondi, who, left a widow at the age of twenty, devoted
herself and her enormous fortune to alms and good works. There was the
Duchesse d'Aiguillon, niece of the great Richelieu; Madame de
Miramion, bea