SVP – What We Do Happy Anniversary St Vincent de Paul Society!

190 years ago Emmanuel Bailly, the editor of the Catholic Tribune held a meeting with Fre´de´ric Ozanam and some of his fellow students from the Sorbonne about reviving a student organisation which had been mothballed for three years during the revolutionary activities in Paris. This meeting was held on Fre´de´ric’s 20th birthday; he was already a well-established academic, writer and legal mind. What had been a debating and discussion group named the Conference of History would soon be reinvented to become a Conference of Charity with the aim of helping the impoverished people living in Parisian slums.

Under the patronage of St Vincent de Paul and inspired by the example of the Daughters of Charity, this Society adopted the title of the St Vincent de Paul Society and dedicated itself to help those afflicted beyond Paris, to build the Conference of Charity into a global network of Charity, and for the sanctification of its members. Emmanuel Bailly was the first President but it was Fre´de´ric who had the global vision.

This is our story and it is a wonderfully Christian one. A small band of passionate and perhaps gloriously nai¨ve individuals come together seeking wise guidance to organise themselves to take on the world. This is what we try to do today, this is what they did one hundred and ninety years ago.

There are so many strands of this story which deserve to be teased out, but I will offer you just six facets as they feel most pertinent today.

1. A more exciting telling of this story may be that Fre´de´ric and his colleagues suddenly turned away from hardnosed academia when their hearts were softened by the plight of the poor. However, rather than break away from their former lives they redoubled their efforts and turned their passions to their ministry.

2. It is fascinating to see a Conference of History become one of Charity. On our own 190th birthday it is hard not to become an historian yourself, certainly that early SVP group were well informed about their history, they embraced good ideas but they were also prepared to interrupt historic trends, to campaign for workers’ rights, to break the cycle of poverty, and to commit equally to charity and justice.

3. In our own time we should be challenged to be reflective practitioners, to immerse ourselves in what the past has to teach us, the best that we have to offer, but also to learn from unhealthy patterns which must be ceased at all costs. We are not however constrained by the past, the Conference of Charity gravitated to St Vincent de Paul’s example equally because of this great witness to the poor but also the incredible freedom and flexibility which it encouraged its participants to have.

4.These figures did not work alone, they often had the incredible support of family, friends and patrons. Devotion to Blessed Fre´de´ric Ozanam is virtually impossible if you don’t also understand the level of love and devotion he held for and received from Amelie his wife and sweetheart.

5. These fine gentlemen intentionally nurtured a deep and lasting belief in the Holy Spirit who they would often call Providence. It is this belief which gave them the