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The founders, from left to right: Jules Devaux, Paul Lamache, Emmanuel Bailly, Frédéric Ozanam, Rosalie Rendu, François Lallier, Auguste Le Taillandier, Felix Clavé. The Society of St. Vincent de Paul is a worldwide Christian community, founded in Paris in 1833, by a group of young Catholic lay people and an older person, who joined together to create the first Conference. The Society wishes to remember them all with gratitude, as they set an example of dedication to the poor and to the Church. One March night in 1833, a fellow student who was a non-Catholic, challenged Frédéric and friends. His question was “What are you doing for them (the poor), you and your fellow Catholics…? Show us your works!” Ozanam knew that faith must be translated into action and that, like the apostles, they needed to evangelize by the practice of charity. And so, on April 23, 1833, Frédéric and five other students met in the office of Mr. Bailly and the “Conference of Charity” was born. They asked Sister Rosalie Rendu, a Daughter of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul to teach them how to minister to the poor with love and respect, and she did so with much kindness. By 1834, the conference had more than 100 members. Taking Saint Vincent de Paul as an example to follow, and their group became known as the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul, placed under the protection of the Blessed Virgin. |