April 5th. St. Vincent Ferrer.

Born in Valencia in Spain (his father was English) in 1350, he joined the Dominican Order and was a noted preacher. He brought many to repentance, and was also responsible – though this is naturally a controversial area – for converting many Jews to Christianity, one Rabbi becoming Bishop of Cartagena. He tried to mediate without success in the Papal Schism (when one Papal claimant resided in Rome and another in Avignon, and for a time after 1409 there was a third, Spanish, claimant: the Schism was only resolved at the Council of Constance in 1414). He then left on a great preaching mission, to France, Spain and Italy, attracting huge crowds with his vivid pictures of the Last Judgement and Eternity. Some of those converted by him joined the Grande Chartreuse, mother house of the Carthusian Order near Grenoble, where his brother was prior. He died at Vannes in 1419, still at the height of his mission, and was canonised in 1458.