Anecdotes

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...

"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...

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...

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...

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...