“The Hive” is the name with which Don Santiago Masarnau — first president of the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul in Spain — baptized the headquarters of the National Council, for their hard work and gentleness.

Mr. Santiago Masarnau (1805-1882), first president of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in Spain.

This name reminds me of a publication that Frederic collaborated, in Lyon: l’Abeille française, “The French Bee.” This publication was co-founded by the Abbe Noirot, Ozanam’s prominent teacher, by which he gave voice to his former students. The first article Ozanam wrote, at aged 16 —19 years before slavery was abolished in the French colonies, was titled “The African slave trade“: “How sad and deplorable is the condition of these unfortunate victims of European barbarity!; it always be cause for outrage and tears for the true philosopher and the true Christian, the horrible cruelty of these men who call themselves civilized and that, in the name of a holy religion, visit foreign lands as bandits and raptors to remove the child to his mother, the father to his children.”

Author: Juan Manuel Gómez,
SSVP president.

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