History
Frederic Ozanam
Blessed Frédéric Ozanam, the founder of the St Vincent de Paul Society, was born April 23, 1813. He was one of fourteen children, but only five survived to adulthood.
Ozanam, in his writings, often mentions his parents as having a strong impact on his beliefs and ideals. Their influence really shaped the person he became. Fred’s father was a doctor who worked with the poor. It was written of Fred’s father “At least a third of his clients were free. With him the profession of medicine was a true work of charity. He didn’t just give his medical services free to the poor whom he visited, he also shared his heart with them”
Fred’s mum led a group of working women called “The Watchers” who ministered at the bedside of the sick and the poor. They were a bit like nurses, but they weren’t qualified. They’d just help in any way they could.
As Fred’s parents got older, they started to worry about each other climbing up the stairs of these rickety old apartment buildings to visit sick people. The buildings weren’t very stable – what if one of them were to fall? So both of his parents made the other promise that they wouldn’t go higher than the fourth storey of a building when they were going out to help the sick. This rule worked pretty well until a short time later when they accidentally ran into each other in the doorway of an attic on the topmost floor of a building! They got sprung bad! This stubborn commitment to the poor even when it means risking life and limb is a characteristic Frederic inherited from his parents.
University
When he was eighteen, Ozanam moved to Paris to study Law at Sorbonne University. Frédéric was a gifted student who excelled in his studies, but he didn’t always have an easy time at Uni. France was going through a time of massive social upheaval. The great French Revolution that we hear described in Les Miserables had occurred just a little over forty years beforehand and France was due to have another revolution within Ozanam’s lifetime. On top of this, many changes were taking place within French society because of the industrial revolution. The Sorbonne University was alive with new ideas and ideals.
During this time, the church was viewed by many at the university as outdated, oppressive and irrelevant: the enemy of social progress. It was seen as being a part of the aristocratic ruling class they were so passionately against. Professors would give long lectures on the many evils of the Catholic Church and most of the students would strongly agree . Those students at the university who were Catholic kept quiet for fear of being persecuted. But keeping quiet just wasn’t Frederic’s style.
When Frederic first started at Uni, he stayed at boarding house where the other boarders often had a go at him for being a Catholic. It really bothered Frederic that the ideals which had driven his parents to live lives of service to the poor were being treated as something sinister and hateful. It also bothered him that nobody was saying anything in defence of Christianity. Frederic decided it was time to take action.
Frederic gathered together some friends who shared his views and set up a discussion forum at Uni which he called a ‘Conference of History’. This group was open to everyone, Catholic and non-Catholic alike, and its aim was to challenge and debate some of the popular anti-church notions that were getting so much air time at Sorbonne. Ozanam wanted the chance to argue the case for Catholicism, to win people by persuasion. The Conference of History provided a voice of opposition to mainstream ideas. Now, when the professors preached their anti-Catholic sermons, they would be challenged in writing. On one occasion, Frederic had written a response to a particular lecture which was read out at the beginning of the class. The students broke out in applause and the lecturer was forced to all but retract his statement. Frederic had given Catholic students a voice at last.
The Challenge
At one of the Conference of History meetings, Ozanam was challenged by a fellow student who belonged to a school of thought that was very anti-Church. This student criticised the Conference for being hypocritical “Show us your works!” he said, “You praise the Church to us as the benefactor of humanity. This was true once, but what are you doing for the people today? What do you provide for them?” These words really ate away at Ozanam. He realised it wasn’t enough just to have these grand debates and to get up on his soapbox and talk about why Christians are such good people. It had to be his actions, not his words, that communicated this. So when one of the guys in his group said “Fred, what do we do?” he answered resolutely “Let us do as Christ did – let us go to the poor” And so begins the Conference of Charity.
Conference of Charity
The Conference of Charity was unique. At the time, there was no Catholic organization that existed for lay people to help the poor - all charitable works were done by priests and brothers and nuns. The Conference of History had been about discussion and debate. It was all talk. The Conference of Charity was about action. Frederic no longer wanted to tell people what Catholicism is all about: he wanted to show them. Having said this, the Conference of Charity (and St Vinnies, as it’s known today) was not so much about a way of doing as a way of being. Ozanam wasn’t so much on about changing the world or transforming the face of Paris, but changing and transforming himself through living out his faith. Frederic later named the Conference “The St Vincent de Paul Society” after the famous French saint of the poor.
Emmanuel Bailly
The first conference had seven members and they were all in their early twenties except for one. This man’s name was Joseph Emmanuel Bailly and he was in his forties. In many ways Bailly acted as a mentor and spiritual director for the group. He was constantly encouraging their idealism, their big dreams, while also providing stability and support. Bailly introduced Frederic to Rosalie Rendu, an amazing woman who had a very strong influence on Frederic’s attitudes and perspectives on the work of the Society.
Vincentians often think of Bailly and Sr Rosalie as the Dad and the Mum of the first conference. They nurtured and nourished the group, and most of the time, they really just hung about in the background, but giving guidance and support when needed. They both acted as strong mentors to Frederic.
Rosalie Rendu
Blessed Rosalie Rendu was a member of the Sisters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul and has been described as the Mother Teresa of 19th Century France. She gave Frederic two important pieces of advice which, in many ways, form the backbone of the Society. The first piece of advice she gave Frederic was “Be kind and love – for love is your first gift to the poor. They’ll appreciate your kindness and your love more than all else you can bring them”
Up until now, Frédéric and his friends had been doing the sort of charitable works where they got some firewood to a poor old man who lived alone in a garret. They’d pretty much just dump the wood and say ‘um…there you go –seeya!’ After talking with Sr Rosalie, they realised that the man’s real need was company and this changed the way they approached their ministry. There became a much stronger focus on the quality of their relationships, not just the quantity of their handouts.
This focus continues today. You ask any Vannie – they’re the guys who go out on the Soup Van – and she’ll tell you: what they do isn’t about getting food to people or curing Melbourne’s poverty for a night. …it’s about providing conversation and companionship to people who are isolated, who might not have had one person look them in the face all day. The food’s just the excuse for that.
The second piece of wisdom Rosalie passed on to Frederic was “When you meet the poor, you meet Christ”. There’s this big idea in Australia (and all over the place) that some poor are battlers, they’re worthy and deserving of our help, while others are bludgers, unworthy, and they don’t deserve our help at all. This idea isn’t new, it’s been around for ages. And it was definitely around during Ozanam’s time. But the St Vincent de Paul Society has never bought into it. For St Vinnies, there is no such thing as deserving and undeserving poor. All poor are deserving. Because when you meet the poor, you meet Christ.
Ozanam in Love
Frédéric married Amelie Soulacroix on the 23rd of June in 1841 and they had a daughter, Marie, in 1845. Frédéric was such a romantic that he sent his wife flowers on the 23rd of each month for the rest of his life. Ozanam worked hard to balance his commitments to the poor with the demands of his personal professional life. He became a Professor of the Sorbonne University at thirty-one years of age – he was the youngest person ever to achieve this honour.
Social Activism
Ozanam was not only concerned with charity, but also justice. During his lifetime, Frederic Ozanam spoke out against the social conditions that were making people poor and argued about the need for a basic wage, reduced working hours, laws to protect children and a pension to provide for the elderly – the sort of rights we take for granted.
The St Vincent de Paul Society has always been not just about providing charity for the poor and marginalised, but also about questioning the structures that create this poverty by asking “why are these people poor” “how did they become poor?” and “who benefits while these people remain poor?”
When Frédéric was about thirty-five, he established a newspaper called ‘The New Era’ which called for justice for the working classes, democracy and social reform.
Death and Legacy
Now it’s around about this time that Frédéric started to get sick. Although he already had fairly fragile health for most of his early life, when he was thirty-three, things started to get much worse when he fell seriously ill and nearly died. From then on, Ozanam was bed-ridden for a lot of the time, fighting off pleurisy (a type of lung disease).
When he got sick, the doctor would order Frederic to go to somewhere warm and by the sea, like Italy, and spend some time getting better. Now Fred did go to places like Italy for a break, but he spent the time he was supposed to be spending getting better to found new St Vinnies Conferences! And so, the Society spread…
Ozanam died in Marseilles, September 8, 1853, from pleurisy. He was forty years old. When he was pretty much on his deathbed, told the story of a friend who spoke with him when the first conference was just getting off the ground. This friend said “What can you hope to accomplish? You are eight poor young men, and it is with such resources that you undertake to relieve the misery of a city like Paris!” You’ve got no chance!” Frederic took great delight in the idea that over the past twenty years those eight members had grown to two thousand in the city of Paris alone.
In 1855, two years after Ozanam’s death, there were 1537 St Vinnies conferences in 29 countries. Today there are almost 50,000 conferences in over 130 countries worldwide. The idealism and actions of one twenty-year-old student over time has changed the lives of countless individuals all over the world.
Bibliography
El-Hage, L. (1999) A Man for our Times: The Story of Blessed Frederic Ozanam. Melbourne: John Garratt Publishing.
Society of St Vincent de Paul, NSW (2003) Reflections on the Life of Blessed Frederic Ozanam. Petersham, NSW: Society of St Vincent de Paul. (This source was “Quoted and used with permission from the St Mary’s Press publication Praying with Frederic Ozanam by Ronald Ramson, CM”)
Smith, Rohan “Blessed Frederic Ozanam Talk” (notes from school talk, unpublished)
The Society of St Vincent de Paul (1991) Manual of the Society of St Vincent de Paul in Australia. Darlinghurst, NSW: The Society of St Vincent de Paul, National Council of Australia.
Video: No Time Like Now: The Life and Times of Frederic Ozanam. – Commissioned by the NSW/ACT State Council of the Society of St Vincent de Paul. A Dynan Production
Accompanying booklet: No Time Like Now: The Life and Times of Frederic Ozanam – compiled by Pat Dalton from Ozanam in his Correspondence (The Right Reverend Monsignor Baunard, 1925)