“Frédéric Ozanam loved everyone who was deprived. From his youth, he became aware that it was not enough to speak about charity and the mission of the Church in the world: rather what was needed was an effective commitment of Christians in the service of the poor. He had the same intuition as St. Vincent: “Let us love God, my brothers, let us love God, but let it be through the work of our hands, let it be by the sweat of our brow” (St Vincent de Paul, XI, 40). In order to show this concretely, at age 20, with a group of friends, he created the Conferences of St. Vincent de Paul which aimed at helping the very poor, in a spirit of service and sharing. These Conferences rapidly spread beyond France to all the European countries and to the world. I myself as a student before the Second World War was a member of one of them.”
– Pope St. John Paul II, from his homily at the beatification of Blessed Frederic
When he founded the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, Frédéric was twenty years old. Little did he know he was then halfway through his life.
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