One New Year's Eve, Frederic Ozanam was telling his wife Amélie about a poor family who had known better days, but...
Anecdotes
Anecdotes of the Vincentian Family: The hive and the bee
"The Hive" is the name with which Don Santiago Masarnau — first president of the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul in...
Anecdotes of the Vincentian Family: Frederic Ozanam and beer
Frederic always had pretty poor health. At age 7, he fell ill with typhus. For fifteen days, he was plunged into a...
Anecdotes of the Vincentian Family: The Original Service of Frederic to the Poor
At first, the original members of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul were organized so that each one was in charge of a family to help. Frederic Ozanam was entrusted with a family of a mother, who worked ceaselessly, with five children, and a father who, as she told...
Anecdotes of the Vincentian Family: The Virgin of the Miraculous Medal and Our Lady of Lourdes
The Virgin appeared to Sister Catherine Laboure three times; the first time in 1830. Almost no one knew who the seer was until the death of Sister Catherine: only her confessor knew, who was collecting testimony. The Miraculous Medal was originally called the "Medal...
Anecdotes of the Vincentian Family: Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal and the flag of the European Union
In 1949, a design competition for a common flag was convened in Strasbourg. Many sketches, 101 in total, were presented, and Arsene Heitz's design, a little-known local painter, was the winner. In 1989, Heitz, already an elderly person, revealed that his design was...
Anecdotes of the Vincentian Family: Comparison Between the Lives of Vincent de Paul and Frederic Ozanam
Despite the distance of two centuries between them, there are — in the biographies of Vincent de Paul and Frederic Ozanam— some curious points of coincidence [...]. Although both were born far from Paris (Ozanam in Italy), they were inhabitants of that city most of...
A Kind Teacher, but also Fair and Severe #AnecdotesVF
Yet with all his kindness, his students had not found Frederic Ozanam an easy-going master. On the contrary, he was, as a Professor, exceptionally severe. As an examiner he gave no quarter. He so mistrusted his natural tendency to indulgence that conscientiousness...
Finding a place for the Eternal Rest of Frederic #AnecdotesVF
Before leaving for Italy in July 1852, Frédéric and Amélie visited the Church of the Carmelites in Paris. They sat near the chapel then called of the "Guardian Angels." Amélie already knew that her husband was ill: he was diagnosed, along with his lung problem, with a...
Frederic Ozanam and Spain #AnecdotesVF
Frederic wanted to do the Camino de Santiago. One day, feeling in good health, he embarked with his wife and younger brother to Fuenterrabía, Irún and San Sebastián (Spain). It was October 22, 1852. Though the trip to Spain made him very tired, his desire to see Spain...
Almsgiving that Humiliates or Honors #AnecdotesVF
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...
Ozanam and Law: A Depressing Justice #AnecdotesVF
Ozanam studied Law by his father. He did not like law studies but, to please his father, he received his doctorate. What he really liked were Letters. Federic practiced Law in Lyon for a short period of time. He wrote in one of his letters: In this profession, your...
