Like many of the older great buildings of the world St. Vincent Ferrer was never finished. There was to have been a 150-foot steeple, but money and construction problems (the Lexington Avenue subway runs underneath front of the church) prevented completion.
St. Vincent Ferrer (b. 1350 Valencia, Spain – d. Vannes, France 1419) was a Dominican friar. His father was an Englishman who had settled in Spain. He joined the Dominicans in 1367 and became a preacher and philosopher. Ferrer received his doctorate at Lleida, then the main university city of Catalonia. He converted Moslems and Jews (a rabbi convert became Bishop of Cartagena). He was best known for his lifelong preaching. Crowds followed him. His favorite subjects were the Last Judgment and Eternity.The Council of Constance in 1414 tried to end the 1409 schism that begat different claimants to the papal throne. The Avignonese Pope Pedro de Luna (called Benedict XIII) invited Ferrer to Avignon, where Ferrer advised, but failed to get Pedro de Luna to reconcile with the Roman Pope Urban VI. Later Ferrer persuaded Ferdinand, King of Aragon, to withdraw his allegiance to Pedro de Luna, thus ending the schism. Ferrer spent the end of his life (three years) in Normandy and Brittany, France. He was worn out from endless preaching. He had lived an austere life; the floor was his usual bed. When he died, a host of little white butterflies fluttered around his head. Joan of France, Duchess of Brittany and daughter of King Charles VI, washed Ferrer's corpse with her bare hands. Ferrer is the patron saint of builders because of his fame for 'building up' and strengthening the Church.
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