Part of a Series on Vincentian Heritage Places

Collège Stanislas de Paris

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The Collège Stanislas de Paris is a private Catholic school in Paris. It has more than 3,000 students, from preschool to “classes préparatoires,” and is the largest private school in France. Stanislas is considered one of the most prestigious and elite French schools (middle school and high school). It was founded in 1804 by Father Claude Liautard.

At one point in his life, prior to 1844, Frederic Ozanam taught three classes to seniors there each week to enhance his meager salary until he received the Chair of Foreign Literature in 1844. In his first year at Stanislaus College, Ozanam was able to achieve what no one had accomplished before him; his students in his class of rhetoric did well in the general competitions, receiving several firsts. When Ozanam made the difficult decision to leave his post at Stanislaus because of the permanent appointment at the Sorbonne, his students were devastated, and one was charged with the task of writing to him on behalf of the group: “We cannot adequately express to you the surprise and grief with which we learned for the first time yesterday of the misfortune which has befallen us. Those who have been with you for a few months only, those who passed a year at your lectures and who looked forward to passing a second, those whom other courses have claimed after Rhetoric, have all equally been affected. I have been charged with the sad duty of communicating to you that general sense of grief… In any case, … we shall never forget the many acts of kindness which you have showered on us. Deign to accept our sincere gratitude, and pardon this indiscretion for the sake of the love and affection which is hereby conveyed to you by all the students of Stanislaus College.”

Source: Antoine Frédéric Ozanam by Raymond L. Sickinger, University of Notre Dame Press

Some students by the entrance of the Collège Stanislas (Paris) rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs, (around 1890, a few decades after Ozanam’s death)

All Vincentian Places in this Series

Red = Vincent de Paul, Blue = Frederic Ozanam

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