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St. Vincent De Paul & The SVP Society
By Melinda Heathcote
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…he spent his life preaching missions
to and providing relief to the poor …
St Vincent de Paul
St. Vincent de Paul was born to a poor peasant family in the French village of Pouy on 24 April 1581.He was ordained in 1600 and remained in Toulose for a time. In 1605, while on a ship travelling from Marseilles to Narbonne, he was captured, brought to Tunis and sold as a slave. Two years later he and his master managed to escape, and both returned to France.
In 1617, two events changed his life. After hearing the confession of a dying man he resolved to preach the Good News of Christ’s promised redemption, and later that year after appealing for help for a poor sick family he saw many local people bringing them aid. From that point forward he spent his life preaching missions to and providing relief to the poor. He even established hospitals for them. This work became his passion. He later extended his concern and ministry to convicts.
The need to evangelise and assist these souls was so great and the demands beyond his own ability to meet that he founded the Ladies of Charity, a lay institute of woman, to help, as well as a religious institute of priests - the Congregation of Priests of the Mission, commonly referred to now as the Vincentians Many other Vincentian organisations followed.
St Vincent died in 1660 and was canonised in 1737.
The Start of the SVP Society
The Society of St. Vincent de Paul began in Paris in 1833 when a young law student at the Sorbonne, Frédéric Ozanam, was challenged during a debate to demonstrate what he and his fellow Catholic students were personally doing to help the poor in Paris. Ozanam's reaction was immediate. Within weeks, Ozanam, at 20 years of age, and six of his peers formed the first "Conference of Charity." Under the conference, this group of seven men financed their works of charity out of their own pockets and from contributions of friends. They visited the poor in their homes, providing them with needed aid and assistance.
At the prompting of Monsieur Emmanuel Bailly and Sister Rosalie Rendu, superior of a convent of the Daughters of Charity, Ozanam soon placed the conference under the patronage of St. Vincent de Paul who had spent his life in 16th century France serving the poor. Within a few years, the original group of seven grew to 600, spreading to 15 other cities and towns in France, numbering more than 2,000 members.
Vinnie Camps regular, 11-year-old Ed Allen (pictured right with his friend) says: “I love going to camp – it’s my favourite holiday.
The Vincentians remain with us today with 800,000 members and 1,500,000 volunteers in 150 countries. In addition to his order of Vincentian priests, St. Vincent cofounded the Daughters of Charity along with St. Louise de Marillac. There are more than 18,000 Daughters today serving the needs of the poor in 94 countries. St. Vincent is sometimes referred to as "The Apostle of Charity" and "The Father of the Poor".
SVP Today
Here is the description from the UK SVP Society:
“The St Vincent de Paul Society (England & Wales) is part of an international Christian voluntary network dedicated to tackling poverty in all its forms by providing practical assistance to people in need. Our 10,000 members, motivated by their faith, visit vulnerable or isolated people across England and Wales and offer them friendship and practical support. The essence of our work is person-to-person contact and spending time with people is our greatest gift.”
Some of the activities of the SVP are: •Community Shops •Furniture Stores & Deposits •SVP Centres – giving confidential services and support. •Supported Accommodation – crisis premises for homeless people. •Approved Premises – for high risk offenders. •Vinnie Camps – holidays for young people •Soup Runs – hot food and companionship for the homeless •Food banks – SVP members assist with food banks around the country.
A St Vincents class in Bradford
Arundel’s Involvement
Canon David has expressed the need for us to set up a branch of the St Vincent de Paul Society in our Arundel parish.
Once we have established a branch of the SVP in Arundel, we would need to identify those in need and how we could help them. There may be many people suffering in our own locality, who would benefit from this. To quote Pope Francis: “This is a danger: we shut ourselves up in the parish, with our friends, within the movement, with the likeminded… but do you know what happens? When the Church becomes closed, she becomes an ailing Church, she falls ill! That is a danger. . . a Church closed in on herself is the same, a sick Church.”
We hope, once lockdown is over, to have a speaker come to Arundel and give us the benefit of their experience of working with the SVP. Although we are a small town, we have parishioners from a wide area, and hopefully we can set up an active and outgoing branch here, in the near future. Further developments will be published in the Parish Newsletter.
