In the seventeenth century St. Vincent de Paul was the instrument of a wonderful renewal of spirituality among the priests of France, a great and zealous apostle and a hero of charity. In turn he was parish priest, chief chaplain to the galley-slaves and missioner in the countryside; he was eager to relieve all forms of distress. His particular concern was to remedy the material and moral destitution of the peasant masses and for this purpose he founded the Congregation of Priests of the Mission (known as Vincentians). To aid poor foundlings, the sick and infirm, with the collaboration of St. Louise de Marillac, he founded the Congregation of the Daughters of Charity. St. Vincent de Paul was born at Dax; worn out by his labors, mortifications and old age, he died in Paris on September 23, 1660, at the age of seventy-nine. Leo XIII named him patron of all works of charity.