Anecdotes of the Vincentian Family: Frederic Ozanam and beer

by | Aug 26, 2023 | Formation

Frederic always had pretty poor health. At age 7, he fell ill with typhus. For fifteen days, he was plunged into a deep sleep. The fifteenth day — as it is said in his biography by Mrg. Baunard — he awoke and asked for beer!

Ozanam heard from his parents that they attributed his healing to a miracle of Saint Francis Regis [Jesuit priest, not to be confused with St. Francis Régis Clet, the Vincentian] to whom they incessantly prayed and who was venerated in the Church of St. Polycarp in Lyon.

ozanam-y-cerveza

We do not know if Frederic, now grown, continued drinking beer (probably not, because he confessed to his cousin Auguste Materne — in a letter dated June 5, 1830 — that from that childhood episode, he “has not liked beer ever since”); we do know, from his letters, that at the end of the conferences at Bailly’s place, it was common to have a glass of wine.

Author: Juan Manuel Gómez,
SSVP president.

Excerpted from Frederic Ozanam letter to Auguste Materne, June 5, 1830:

At seven I fell seriously ill. Everyone came to think that I was healed miraculously of the disease. There was no lack of care. My good parents did not leave the head of my bed at any time, for a fortnight. I must have been delirious when I came to ask for beer (I have not liked it since). And the beer saved me and healed me.

Source: Correspondencia de Federico Ozanam, tomo I. Madrid: Editorial La Milagrosa & Somos Vicencianos, 2015.

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