Will you be in the Chicago area this Tuesday? Join DePaul University on the Feast of St. Vincent de Paul for a Vincentian Bicentennial Memorial Dedication. An ice cream social will take place on the Arts & Letters Plaza at 5:00 pm on Tuesday, September 27. It will be held at the DePaul University Arts and Letters Hall, 2315 N. Kenmore, Chicago, IL. Details of the event from DePaul’s President, Rev. Dennis H. Holtschneider, C.M.:

Dear Members of the DePaul Community,

The new Vincentian Bicentennial Monument, installed outside Arts and Letters Hall on DePaul University’s Lincoln Park Campus. The clock celebrates the 200th anniversary of the arrival of the Vincentian Fathers and Brothers to the United States. It also honors the members of the Congregation of the Mission who have served at DePaul Academy from 1898 to 1968, and at St. Vincent’s College and DePaul University since 1898. (DePaul University/Jamie Moncrief)

Since 1870, successive generations of Vincentian priests and brothers have worked here at DePaul

University, as well as St. Vincent’s Church and the former DePaul Academy. They have been our friends, our colleagues and an inspiration for all of our work. They have done it all these years without pay, living simply in community housing, with a quiet, practical faith, because they believe so strongly in the education of the poor and the Church’s broader work for a better society.

On this 200th anniversary of the first Vincentians arriving in the United States, the university will honor these men who are still working among us, and remember those who came before. I invite you to join me at the Vincentian Bicentennial Memorial Dedication on Tuesday, Sept. 27. The memorial, located on the plaza in front of Arts & Letters Hall on the Lincoln Park Campus, honors the individual priests and brothers who have served DePaul since 1898 and those who served at DePaul Academy from 1898 to 1968.

The dedication coincides with the university’s celebration of St. Vincent’s Feast Day. An ice cream social will immediately follow the blessing of the memorial, and all members of the DePaul community are invited to attend.

The installation of the Vincentian Bicentennial Memorial provides our community an opportunity to show gratitude to the priests and brothers who built DePaul and continue to sustain St. Vincent de Paul’s mission here to this day. I look forward to celebrating their service and this important milestone in our university’s Vincentian heritage with you.

Sincerely,

Rev. Dennis H. Holtschneider, C.M.
President