Saint Vincent de Paul Society! at Saint Louis the King

“Saint Vincent de Paul (1581-1660), a French priest, was the founder of the Congregation of the Mission, called the Vincentians or the Order of the Lazarists. Vincent was born near Pouy (now Saint-Vincent de Paul), in Gascony. He spent some 20 years as a parish priest and chaplain to an aristocratic family. He was also chaplain general of the galleys of France and tried to aid the galley slaves. In 1617 he founded the first Confraternity of Charity, working among the sick and poor near Lyon. With the support of the family whom he served as chaplain, Vincent founded the Congregation of the Mission to preach to the peasants on the family’s estates. He also founded with others several charitable organizations. His opposition to Jansenism is believed to have been responsible for its suppression. He was canonized in 1737 and was named patron of works of charity in 1855. Vincent’s feast day is September 27th.” (Encyclopedia Britiannica)

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul was founded in 1833 by Frederic Ozanam, a 20 year old student of Sorbonne University in Paris, France. The motto of the St. Vincent de Paul Society is “No act of charity is foreign”.

“The problem which divides the people of today is no longer a problem of political structures; it is to find which will win, the spirit of egoism or the spirit of sacrifice. Is society to be merely a huge exploitation for the profit of the strongest or a dedication of each person for the benefit of all, and especially to the protection of the weak?

“There are many people who have too much, and who want still more. There are many people who do not have enough, who have nothing, and who will take if they are not given.

“A struggle is starting between these two types of people. The struggle threatens to be a terrible one. On one side is the power of gold, on the other the power of despair.

“We must cast ourselves between the two opposing armies, if not to prevent, at least to deaden the shock. Our youth and our mediocrity make easier the role of mediators which our title of Christian commands us to hold”.

In answer to taunts to Catholics to practice what they preach, Frederic Ozanam and a group of fellow students started seeking out and visiting the poor of Paris in their homes, taking them food and clothing and offering them their friendship and their concern.

Starting with less than eight members in May, 1833, the conference membership soared to more than one hundred in 1834. It was Ozanam who believed that the original conferences must divide into more units in order to service better the needy. By 1835, the society had its own official rule and a new official name: The Society of Saint Vincent de Paul.

Similar groups began in Paris then to the rest of France and eventually spread throughout the Christian world with the purpose of visiting for the love of God, those in need. Currently the St. Vincent de Paul Society has approximately 900,000 members in 113 countries.

Throughout his life, Ozanam's simple hope was “to become better--to do a little good.” After the deaths of his father (1837) and his mother (1839), Frederic considered seriously a vocation as a priest. In 1840, he abandoned a legal career and became a professor of literature at Sorbonne University. Though he immediately linked his life of studies to his life of charity, he did not do so as a priest. Introduced to Marie-Josephine-Amelie Soulacroix by one of his mentors Pere Noirot, Ozanam married her in 1841. Together husband and wife devoted themselves to the task of reconciling married life to a life of good works. By 1852 the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul could boast 2000 conferences, 500 of which were not in France.

Sickly since birth, Ozanam’s health deteriorated in the years after 1847. While visiting Italy for health and inspiration in 1852, Ozanam was stricken and his family decided to return him to his home in France. But he never reached his destination, dying enroute in Marseilles on September 8, 1853 at the young age of forty.

At noon on Tuesday the 25th of June, 1996, in the stately setting of the Consistory Hall housed in the Vatican, Pope John Paul II signed the Decree recognizing the miracle obtained through Frederic Ozanam’s intercession, on 2 February, 1926. This miracle was in favour of Fernando Luiz Benedito Ottoni, a Brazilian child aged 18 months, suffering from malignant diphtheria, at Nova Friburgo, State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Fredric Ozanam was later beatified on August 22, 1997 in Paris, France by Pope John Paul II.

(from various sources, including the U.S. Council of the St. Vincent de Paul Society )

Such is the heroic foundation of the Saint Vincent de Paul Society at Saint Louis the King Catholic Church in Marquette, Michigan.

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