Vincent Ferrer

Born at Valencia in 1350 and a Dominican at seventeen, he taught theology and then became confessor and counsellor to Benedict XIII, one of the rival popes the Great Schism had set side by side. A grave illness in 1398 decided him to leave everything for itinerant preaching: for twenty years he crossed Spain, southern France, Lombardy and Switzerland, announcing the end of time before crowds counted in thousands, followed by penitents who went with him from town to town. He played a decisive part in the Compromise of Caspe in 1412, which settled the succession of Aragon. Then in 1416 he publicly withdrew his obedience from Benedict XIII — his protector, his friend — because the schism would end no other way. He died at Vannes in 1419 and was buried there; Brittany has kept him as its own.