Antoine Frédéric Ozanam, with a group of six friends, founded the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul, whom they chose as their patron under the influence of Sister Rosalie Rendu, Daughter of Charity, who accompanied them in their first visits to persons who are poor in their homes, which they had chosen as the purpose of the Conference of Charity. Today, the Society is part of the Vincentian Family. It currently has about 800,000 members in 153 countries on every continent.
| 1813, 23 April | Birth in Milan; the family then moved to Lyon |
| 1832 | Studies in Paris |
| 1833, 23 April | Foundation of the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul |
| 1836 | Doctorate in Law |
| 1839, 7 January | Doctorate in Literature with a dissertation on Dante |
| 1841, 23 June | Marriage to Marie Joséphine Amélie Soulacroix |
| 1844, 21 November | Professor of Literature at the Sorbonne |
| 1853, 8 September | Death in Marseilles |
| 1997, 22 August | Beatification by John Paul II in Paris |
| 9 September | Liturgical feast |
Antoine Frédéric Ozanam was born in Milan on 23 April 1813, third son of the marriage of Jean-Antoine-François Ozanam and Maria Nantas. Frédéric thanked the Lord for the gift of his deeply Christian parents.
This 19th century layman, a Christian in a secularized world, was a true prophet of his time in the Church which he “loved with great love and submission.” Frédéric completed his secondary studies in Lyon and his university studies in Paris. During his adolescence, he had great spiritual doubts, but he entrusted himself to the guidance of Father Noirot, a great philosopher, who helped him to overcome them. He then said, “I have promised God to dedicate my life to the service of the truth that fills me with peace.”
On 5 November 1831, a eighteen-year-old intellectual, Frédéric Ozanam, arrived in Paris from Lyon to continue his studies at the Sorbonne. He was discouraged, or rather horrified, by what he saw in the capital. He befriended André-Marie Ampère, also from Lyon, who opened his home to him. There he found support for his faith in a violently anti-Catholic Paris. He came into contact with Emmanuel Bailly, who as a young man wished to follow the spirit of Saint Vincent, which he knew well.
Ozanam and his friends intended to create, in addition to the history conferences, conferences devoted to charity in order to unite action to words and to affirm by their works the vitality of their faith. Bailly did not want to abandon these Catholic students to the anti-Catholicism of the university. When the crisis of 1830 ended, he formed discussion groups, known as conferences, among them the Conference of Literature and History, which would become the Conference of Charity and finally the Conference of St. Vincent de Paul.
In 1833 Ozanam, with a group of six friends, founded the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul, whom they chose as their patron. The oldest of them was Emmanuel Bailly, thirty-nine years old; Frédéric was just twenty years old. Only one member of the group was younger than he. In the beginning, they had no experience of service nor any relationships with those who lived in poverty. They needed a guide. This role was fulfilled by Emmanuel Bailly, president of the nascent conference, who was to be a kind of spiritual advisor, a wisdom figure. When they decided to go to meet those who are poor, Emmanuel Bailly sent them to a woman, a forty-year-old Daughter of Charity, Sister Rosalie Rendu, “Apostle of the Mouffetard neigborhood,” at the service of the disenfranchised of the Parisian neighborhood of Saint-Médard. She would accompany them in their first steps in visiting persons who are poor in their homes.
The conferences’ style is the home visit, the direct relationship with those who suffer. Today, the conferences have spread all over the world.
Frédéric, as a son, husband, father and friend, was gifted with a unique sensitivity. He made a deep impression on all who met him.
He was a witness of charity in his personal, family, professional and civic life. He expressed a burning desire: “I want to embrace the world in a network of charity.” He was a faithful defender of those who are poor.
He was Professor of Commercial Law at the University of Lyon, and later Professor of Foreign Literature at the Sorbonne.
For health reasons, he had to give up teaching, which he exercised as an apostolate. He devoted his last strength to scientific research and the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul.
After a long illness, he died at the age of forty in Marseilles on 8 September 1853, in an attitude of total dedication to God.
For more information www.ozanet.org.
