In 1610, we find Vincent de Paul living in the Rue de Seine in Paris,  and listed as one of several Chaplain-Almoners to Queen Marguérite de Valois, the first wife of Henry of Navarre.¹  There are several reasons why Vincent might have been able to secure such a position in Queen Marguérite's Court.  If he moved to the Rue de Seine before his employment as Chaplain-Almoner, he may have become acquainted with those who already worked in her household.. Another reason is that when he was in Rome not long before, he would probably have met Charles de Fresne, Marguérite's Secretary.  A third reason is that the then bishop of Aire (in the south of France) where  Vincent had grown up, had  also been one of Queen Marguerite's chaplains. A fourth reason is the possibility he was sent on a secret mission from Rome to King Henry IV, who was still on good terms with his first wife.  Whatever the case, it was from this location that Vincent began to visit the sick in hospitals, came to know  Pierre de Bérulle, and form his association with the de Gondi family. It was also here that Vincent is reputed to have taken on the doubts of faith of a theologian in Marguérite's Court, and made a vow to serve the poor in order to free himself from those doubts.

Views of the Square de Gabriel Pierné

The small angular park of the Square de Gabriel Pierné, bounded by Quai Malaquais, Rue de Seine and Rue Mazarine, and behind the Institut de France (the domed building in the picture above right) is the likely location of the house in which Vincent resided in the Rue de Seine.  It is somewhat ironic that one of the streets in the area is now the Rue Mazarine, given Vincent's 'strained' relationship with Cardinal Mazarin. The Bibliothèque Mazarine (Mazarin Library) is also housed in the Institut de France.

This probable location of Vincent's place of residence in the Rue de Seine can be reached by taking  the Paris Metro to Station Mabillon (Metro Line 10) , Station St-Germain-de-Pré (Metro Line  4)), or Station Odéon (Metro Lines 4,10).

1. Note: Henry of Navarre was brought up as a Huguenot.  His marriage to Marguérite de Valois (Catholic) in 1572, was.among other things, an attempt to bring Huguenots and Catholics together. It also provided the occasion for the so-called St Batholomew's Day Massacre, which took place over several days and nights (and spread outside Paris)  during the time Huguenots and Catholics were in Paris together for the marriage celebrations.   Henry later became Catholic (after several abjurations), and was known as Henry IV of France.  At his Mass of Coronation in 1594 he is reputed to have muttered: "Paris is worth a Mass".  In 1599, his marriage to Marguérite de Valois was annulled, and in 1600 he married  Marie de Medici who was to become  the mother of Louis XIII.  But in her mansion in the Rue de Seine, 'la Reine Marguérite' (or 'la Reine Margot' as Marguérite de Valois later became known),  remained a personnage of note and a thorn in many sides, including that of Queen Marie de Medici.  Marguérite's noisy parties (some authors refer to them as 'wild orgies') could be heard from across the river Seine in the Louvre Palace, and this did not endear her to the Court residing there. Pierre Coste, author, has described Marguérite as being  'as pious as she was worldly'.  But, Henry and Marguérite  stayed on good terms with each other, despite the annulment and Henry's first marriage, and Marguérite was a favourite of young Louis XIII, to the chagrin of Marie de Medici, his mother.