Author
After some adventures, soon after Frédéric arrived to Paris at age 18, he ended staying at André Marie Ampère's home, a famous scientist, who lived on Rue Fosses-Saint Victor, 19. Frédéric stayed in the room of the son, Jean Jacques Ampère, who at the time was...
Frédéric thought that aid, almsgiving, is humiliating when only material needs are met, "causing shame, and doing what anyone does even with animals." He says it's humiliating because it can not be reciprocated, they are favors that the other has not the slightest...
The International Council General (CGI) of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul is in contact with our brothers and sisters in Israel and Palestine who are suffering from terrorism and devastation.
Frederic, while pursuing his studies of Law and Letters at the University of Paris, was almost always short of money. In several letters to his parents (not all, but many) he gives them account of his impoverished economy. He could have to buy a new pair of trousers...
Frederic did not need modern audiovisual media (now apparently essential) to learn languages. He, at age 17, already knew Latin, Greek, began studying Sanskrit and Hebrew — to be able to translate from the original sources —, and studied German and Italian. By the...
It was noticed by some of his friends that, after the general Communion at Notre Dame on Holy Thursday, Ozanam, instead of going straight home to his breakfast, disappeared in another direction. They watched him and found that he went first to the baker's and then to...
In times of Frédéric Ozanam, women were virtually absent from the university. That is why, having emerged the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul in the vicinity of the Parisian university, in its early days women did not participate in it. The first female Society of...
The service of the poor occupies such a prominent position in Ozanam's life that it becomes of interest to know how he performed it. It was essentially a service of love. His manner towards the poor was considerate and deferential as towards his equals. He invariably...
From the Conferences of History (a weekly meeting of young students at Mr. Bailly's), a group of six young people, under the protection of Emmanuel Bailly*, decides to take action to help the poor. At the end of one of their first meetings, the question of naming the...
One New Year's Eve, Frederic Ozanam was telling his wife Amélie about a poor family who had known better days, but were now reduced to such shifts that they had been compelled to pledge a handsome chest of drawers, the last remnant that remained to them of former...
