Benedict and Vincent

from the Anchoress:

A summary of the stories not covered by the MSM about Benedict's visit to Germany.

she also links to these two articles by Spengler: LINK LINK

she also links to a summary of StVincent De Paul's life which I won't link to. Why? Because it was superficial...it even ignored his time as a galley slave. so read THIS instead
or this at Wikipedia:

Only in the Late Middle Ages did slaves begin to be increasingly employed as rowers. It also become the custom among the Mediterranean powers to sentence condemned criminals to row in the war-galleys of the state (initially only in time of war). Traces of this practice appear in France as early as 1532, but the first legislative enactment comes in the Ordonnance d'Orléans of 1561. In 1564 Charles IX of France forbade the sentencing of prisoners to the galleys for fewer than ten years. A brand of the letters GAL identified the condemned galley-slaves.

Naval forces from both Christian and Muslim countries often turned prisoners of war into galley-slaves. Thus, at the battle of Lepanto in 1571, 12,000 Christian galley slaves were freed from the Ottoman Turks.

In 1622, Saint Vincent de Paul, as a former slave himself (in Tunis), became chaplain to the galleys, and ministered to the galley slaves.

and the classic film Monsieur Vincent is on youtube HERE.