Ozanam studied Law by his father. He did not like law studies but, to please his father, he received his doctorate....
Anecdotes
Anecdotes of the Vincentian Family: A Kind Teacher, but also Fair and Severe
Yet with all his kindness, his students had not found Frederic Ozanam an easy-going master. On the contrary, he was,...
Anecdotes of the Vincentian Family: Ozanam and Money from Protestants
Frederic Ozanam was a staunch defender of the faith and the Catholic Church; but if some Protestants made him...
Anecdotes of the Vincentian Family: How did Frederic Ozanam Visit the Poor?
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...
Anecdotes of the Vincentian Family: Why the Conferences Are Called “Conferences”?
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...
Anecdotes of the Vincentian Family: The Chest of Drawers of the Poor Family
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...
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 Spain — baptized the headquarters of the National Council, for their hard work and gentleness. This name reminds me of a publication that Frederic...
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 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...
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...
