Newsnote: Rare Pre-Revolutionary Saint-Lazare shrine medal purchased

The Vincentiana Collection at the Archives and Special Collections Department of DePaul University’s John Richardson Library has recently purchased what we believe to be the only known extant medal of the original shrine of Vincent de Paul located before the French Revolution at old Saint-Lazare on the rue Saint-Denis. Even though the medal is in degraded condition from being buried in soil, the reverse clearly shows the pre-revolutionary chasse that housed the saint’s remains after his beatification in 1729. After the revolution, the Lazaristes at new Saint-Lazare on the rue de Sevres reproduced this medal but with the image of the new Oudiot chasse that was the center-piece of the new chapel which received Vincent’s remains in April of 1830.