History of St. Vincent de Paul

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul traces its origins to Paris in 1833, where six university students-spurred by the challenges of their classmates-began to meet the needs of the city's suffering poor.

The students walked the streets of Paris, engaging in person-to-person ministry to the poor, confident that Christ would be revealed through their loving acts. Inspired by our founder Frederic Ozanam and patron St. Vincent de Paul, the tiny group today is an international organization with members in 135 countries, helping others through neighborhood ministry.

The Cincinnati District Council has been working personally with Greater Cincinnati and Hamilton County neighbors for more than 140 years. Whether offering food to a single mom, comfort to those who are alone or warm coats to children during the cold winter months, our more than 800 volunteers live their faith in service to others.

We work personally with those in need, regardless of race or creed, to offer spiritual, emotional and material assistance. Personalized care via home visits to those in need has been the hallmark of our service. Our ability to reach the ‘dispersed poor’ in neighborhoods throughout Cincinnati is unparalleled.

For more information on the Society and how you can be part of it, please e-mail us at info@svdpcincinnati.org or call (513) 562-8841.

St. Vincent de Paul

Though the St. Vincent de Paul Society was founded more than a century and a half after the death of St. Vincent himself, the founders of the Society that would eventually bear his name knew of his exceptional life of charity.

Vincent was born in 1580 in France, the third of six children. Ordained at the age of twenty, his first ten years of priesthood were spent ministering to the wealthy, not the poor. He served as a chaplain to the family of Queen Margaret of Valois and later to the illustrious Gondi family, serving as a tutor in one of the wealthiest homes in Paris. Eventually, he became aware of the great needs of the poor, both spiritually and materially, and began ministering to convicts in Paris. After his experience ministering to prisoners, he decided to dedicate the remainder of his ministry to the poor.

Vincent wrote, "It is not enough for me to love God, if my neighbor does not also love God." He realized that faith is not only personal - faith requires a response to others. Seeing the love of Christ as the motivation for serving the poor, Vincent founded a group called the "Handmaids of the Poor" to visit the poor in their own homes. Relying on his contacts among the wealthy, he also initiated fund drives to establish orphanages, hospitals, homes for the mentally ill, and even raised money to rescue Christian slaves from lives of bondage.

Vincent's love for others caused him to found the Congregation of the Mission (today known as the Vincentians), a men's religious order created to minister primarily to poor country people who were in need of the sacraments and religious instruction. With the help of Louise de Marillac, Vincent also helped found the Daughters of Charity, a religious order for women devoted to aiding the poor.

Vincent died September 27, 1660, at the age of eighty. He was canonized a saint in 1773 and proclaimed the patron saint of charity. The Church celebrates his feast day on September 27 each year.

Blessed Frédéric Ozanam

Frédéric Ozanam, the founder of the St. Vincent de Paul Society, was born in 1813, one of fourteen children. Raised in Lyons, France, Frédéric was a member of a devout Catholic family. His father was a physician who gave his services freely to the poor. Encouraged by his father to study law, Frédéric attended the University of Paris. It was there that he became shocked by the unbelief of his professors and peers, many of whom were hostile to the Church and religion.

One day as Frédéric and his peers were discussing the problems of the day, a young man challenged him: "Don't talk about what the Church has done for the poor in the past - show us what it is doing for the poor now!" Frédéric quickly voiced his response to the challenge: "Let us go to the poor" and that very night he and several other students began their mission of charity by carrying a load of coal and wood to a family living in a Paris tenement house. Out of this group, the St. Vincent de Paul Society was formed in 1833.

Frédéric was known for his intellectual gifts as well as his love for the poor. He earned a double doctorate, first in law and then in letters. He was a professor both at the University of Lyons and then the prestigious University of Paris, lecturing on medieval literature and history. His lectures and writing contributed to increased respect for the Church within the intellectual world of his day.

A husband and father, Frédéric married Amélie Soulacroix in 1841. Four years later, their daughter Marie was born. Frédéric died in 1853 at the age of forty. He was named a "blessed" by the Church - a step toward canonization as a saint - in 1997 by Pope John Paul II.