Feast Day : May 24

Vincent of Lérins was born into a noble family of Gaul (now France); he is believed by some to have been the brother of St. Lupus of Troyes. After serving as a soldier, he gave up the military life and entered a monastery on the island of Lérins (today Isle St. Honorat). He was ordained there and in about 434 wrote his bestknown work, the Commonitorium, under the pseudonym Peregrinus. The Commonitorium offered a guide to orthodox Christian teaching and included the famous Vincentian Canon, by which he sought to differentiate between true and false tradition: quad ubique, quad semper, quad ab omnibus credituni est (“what has been believed everywhere, always, and by all”). Vincent held that the ultimate source of Christian truth lay in the Holy Scriptures and that the authority of the Church was to be invoked to guarantee their correct interpretation. Ironically, he was a strong proponent of Semi-Pelagianism and opposed the Augustinian model of Grace. However, since he wrote before Semi-Pelagianism had been declared heretical by the Church, this is not now held against him. The date of Vincent’s death is not known, but it was certainly before 450 and probably around 445.