A DARWEN man’s journey to find God has been turned into a book. 'Walking to Rome' tells the life story of Vincent Purcell, 57, of Richmond Terrace, and describes how he turned his life around from the brink of alcoholism, homelessness, a broken marriage and brushes with the law.
The book tells how Vincent, who is now a Church of England priest, moved to Blackburn from Roscrea in North Tipperary with his Irish Roman Catholic family.
But his life fell apart in the late 1970s after he met and married a gypsy girl after only eight days.
The marriage crumbled after three years, according to Vincent, when he lost his job in textiles.
He began drinking heavily, and his wife left him, taking their young daughter.
The book tells how he spent all his remaining money on alcohol and lived in derelict houses until his family took him back into their house.
It then describes how in 1981, aged 28, Vincent was in “self-destruct mode”, stealing from houses, and attempting to take his own life with drug overdoses and gassing.
He said he even thought about murdering his estranged wife’s new boyfriend, getting as close as standing outside the house with a knife.
Vincent said: “One night I cried out to God and prayed because I’d been brought up Roman Catholic. I suddenly saw a light come towards me and then fade.
“Then I had a profound thought that I needed to walk to Rome to find God.”
Vincent set off on foot with only £28 and walked across England, sleeping in public toilets and abandoned vans.
In the book he says he bought a one-way ticket to Holland at Hull ferry port, helped by a donation from a stranger.
With three pence left and two Mars Bars, he arrived in Holland a desperate man.
But on his eigth day of sleeping rough, he was stopped by a passing motorist who said he was “compelled by God” to help Vincent.
The man took him for a meal, clothed him, and introduced him to his church, where Vincent said he “became a changed man”.
He said: “I asked Jesus to come into my life and at that moment, all my problems disappeared.
“I had a vision of Jesus alive at the right of God.”
A Dutch chuch missionary arranged for Vincent to fly home, and he began working for churches in the Blackburn area.
In 1987, he became a licenced priest, and now takes sermons at St Barnabas Church in Watery Lane.
He has also recently been appointed by Dean Christopher Armstrong, of Blackburn Cathedral, to work as a co-ordinator for the asylum and refugee community, a job he shares with his wife Pauline, who he met at a church in Great Harwood.
It was Pauline who received an email from an American publishing company on an unrelated matter, and replied with details of Vincent's story, which he began writing down in April 2009.
The book is available to buy in W H Smiths, Waterstones and on book websites.
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