How old is the Society of St Vincent de Paul?
The Society was founded in 1833 by Frederic Ozanam while he was a student at the Sorbonne in Paris. Challenged to put their Christian beliefs into action, Frederic and some of his close friends joined with their mentor, Monsieur Bailly, and set about helping the poor and oppressed of Paris. Their objective was to undertake practical work among the poor, and Monsieur Bailly was elected the first President of their “Conference of Charity”. They firmly believed that in order to address the needs of the less fortunate, one must be prepared to visit them in their homes, see for oneself the conditions of their lives, and then go about helping them. The organization grew rapidly, and its members chose St. Vincent de Paul (1581-1660), the patron saint for Christian charities who devoted his life to helping the poor, the downtrodden and the underprivileged, as their patron and renamed it the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in 1835.
