niaiunr ? 
 
FREDERIC OZANAM 
 
FREDERIC OZANAM 
 
 AND THE ESTABLISHMENT 
 
 OF THE 
 
 SOCIETY OF ST. VINCENT DE PAUL 
 
 ARCHIBALD J. DUNN 
 
 F.R.HisT.S., F.G.S., ETC. 
 
 New York, Cincinnati, Chicago 
 BENZIGER BROTHERS 
 
 PRINTERS TO THE I PUBLISHERS OF 
 
 HOLY APOSTOLIC SEE BENZIGER'S MAGAZINE 
 
HISTORf I 
 
TO 
 
 HIS EMINENCE 
 FRANCIS, CARDINAL BOURNE 
 
 ARCHBISHOP OF WESTMINSTER AND PATRON OF THE SOCIETY OF 
 ST. VINCENT DE PAUL IN ENGLAND 
 
 THIS BOOK IS MOST RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED BY 
 
 THE AUTHOR 
 
 295717 
 
PREFACE 
 
 The life of Antoine Frederic Ozanam, as given in 
 the following pages, was written by me in 1877, and 
 published in that year. I derived the informa- 
 tion contained in it from my friend, George Jonas 
 Wigley, who was a favourite pupil of Ozanam's and 
 his constant correspondent until his death. 
 
 Thus, although I had not the advantage of having 
 known Ozanam personally, I always kept in touch 
 with him and his ideas through Wigley, and upon 
 these I have based my theory as to the scope of the 
 Society of St. Vincent de Paul as an international 
 agency to direct the future of emigrants to Catholic 
 centres. 
 
 I am indebted to the Catholic Times for permission 
 to publish their report of the Centenary Meeting at 
 Manchester, and to the editor of the Bulletin for 
 the report of that in Paris. 
 
 Vll 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. LIFE OF FREDERIC OZANAM - - - 2 
 
 II. THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE SOCIETY OF ST. VINCENT 
 
 DE PAUL IN ENGLAND - - - - 28 
 
 III. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SOCIETY OF ST. VINCENT 
 
 DE PAUL THROUGHOUT THE WORLD - '3^ 
 
 IV. THE FUTURE OF THE SOCIETY - - "52 
 V. THE CENTENARY CELEBRATIONS IN PARIS AND 
 
 MANCHESTER - - - - - 60 
 
 VI. OZANAM AND CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY - - I02 
 
 VII. CATHOLIC EMIGRATION - - - - no 
 
CHAPTER I 
 LIFE OF FREDERIC OZANAM 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 LIFE OF FREDERIC OZANAM 
 
 Catholic historians of future times, when they come 
 to pass in review the names of the men who have 
 most distinguished themselves in the battle of the 
 Church against Paganism in France, will single 
 out those of Montalembert, Lacordaire, Veuillot, 
 De Broglie, and De Falloux, as having taken the 
 most prominent places in the public eye. But they 
 will find no life more worthy of study or of admira- 
 tion, as an example of the good which can be done 
 by a simple layman in his sphere, than that of 
 Frederic Ozanam, the founder of the Society of 
 St. Vincent de Paul. The full measure of the good 
 which has been done to the Catholic cause, not only 
 in France, but throughout the world, by the unpre- 
 tentious working of that great Society, is known 
 only to God. But in France especially it has proved 
 the most powerful barrier to the spread of irreligion, 
 scepticism, and the class prejudices and suspicions 
 which were engendered by the Revolution. For 
 the principles of the Society are the promotion of 
 the love of God and our fellow-men, and its fruits 
 
 2 
 
Life of Frederic Ozanam 3 
 
 are an unostentatious philanthropy and a spirit of 
 concihation, which are in themselves the noblest 
 vindication of Christianity. 
 
 Frederic Ozanam was born at Milan on April 13, 
 1813. His father was a Frenchman of ancient 
 lineage, who had left Paris upon the proclamation 
 of the first Empire, in disgust at the treachery of 
 Napoleon ; he had served during the Italian cam- 
 paign in a hussar regiment, and had shared in the 
 glories of Lodi, Areola, Pavia, Rivoli, etc. Owing 
 to a sudden reverse of fortune, he had been com- 
 pelled to seek employment as a professor at Milan, 
 where he afterwards took his degrees as a doctor of 
 medicine. When Milan was ceded to the Austrians, 
 Dr. Ozanam returned with his family to Lyons, the 
 home of his wife's relations, and soon established a 
 good practice there. He was a man of true piety, 
 and devoted his life to works of charity among the 
 poor, whom he attended gratuitously and helped out 
 of his own small fortune, and in this he was ably 
 seconded by his wife. 
 
 His son, Frederic, was distinguished from his 
 earliest childhood by great sensitiveness and kind- 
 ness of heart, and by the earnest piety which had 
 been instilled into him by the example and precepts 
 of his saintly mother, which formed the solid founda- 
 tion for the achievements of his after-life and his 
 consolation in all his trials. At school he showed 
 an earnestness and intelligence which gave promise 
 
Frederic Ozanam 
 
 of a brilliant future. At seventeen years 'of age he 
 had gone through his curriculum of study with 
 great distinction. During his years of rhetoric and 
 philosophy he experienced the bitter trials of unrest, 
 and the temptations to scepticism which so often 
 afflict earnest and thinking minds in youth. These 
 temptations made a deep and lasting impression on 
 his mind, and he spoke in after-years of " the horror 
 of those doubts that eat into the heart, pursuing us 
 even at night to the pillow we have drenched with 
 our tears." After suffering for a long time, he felt 
 impelled to seek the only source of solace and relief 
 which can be found. 
 
 Miss Kathleen O'Meara, in the biography which she 
 published, tells us the story in the following words : 
 " One day, when the temptation was at its worst, 
 clutching him almost like a physical pain, a sudden 
 impulse drove him towards a church near which he 
 happened to be walking ; he quickened his steps, 
 entered, and, falling on his knees, prayed with all 
 his soul to be delivered from the trial, promising 
 that if God gave him light to see the truth, he would 
 for ever after devote himself to its defence." While 
 uttering this prayer, he felt that he was committing 
 himself to a distinct pledge which must colour his 
 whole life — that if his faith were restored to him, 
 his life must be concentrated to its service in no 
 ordinary way. 
 
 *' I vowed," he said, '* to consecrate my days to 
 
Life of Frederic Ozanam 
 
 the service of that truth which had given me 
 peace." 
 
 Dr. Ozanam designed Frederic for the law ; but, 
 upon the completion of his studies, dreaded so much 
 the risk to his faith and morals which would ensue 
 from sending him to Paris that he placed him as 
 clerk in an attorney's office in Lyons. Even at this 
 age Frederic had commenced to take a strong interest 
 in the philosophical discussions which had begun to 
 agitate society. He was deeply grieved to observe 
 the continuous spread of irreligion and scepticism. 
 He saw how readily the weak-minded and the half- 
 educated embraced the false theories of the philoso- 
 phers, and he longed to establish a countervailing 
 influence. He seems to have formed the idea thus 
 early of an association of young men, who should 
 be of mutual assistance and encouragement in 
 religious exercises and good works. This idea was 
 the germ from which the great Society of St. Vincent 
 de Paul was destined to spring in future years. 
 
 We find him writing {1831) to a friend : ** I felt 
 that I had need of something solid to take hold of — 
 something that I could take root in and cling to, 
 in order to resist the torrent of doubt, and then my 
 soul was filled with a great joy and a great consola- 
 tion ; for lo ! it discovered by the sheer force of 
 reason that this something was none other than 
 that Catholicism which was first taught me by my 
 mother, which was dear to my childhood, and so 
 
Frederic Ozanam 
 
 often fed my mind and heart with its beautiful 
 hopes — Catholicism, with all its grandeurs and all 
 its delights ! Shaken for a time with doubt, I felt 
 the invincible need to cling with all my might to 
 the pillar of the temple, were it even to crush me 
 in its fall ; and lo ! I find this same pillar supported 
 by science, luminous with the beams of wisdom, of 
 glory, and of beauty. I will take my stand by its 
 side, and there, stretching out my arm, I will point 
 to it as a beacon of deliverance to those who are 
 tossing on the sea of life. Happy shall I be if a 
 few friends come and rally round me. Then we 
 should unite our efforts, and create a work together ; 
 others would join us, and perchance the day would 
 come when all mankind would be gathered together 
 beneath the same protecting shade. The preliminary 
 labours have already opened out to me the vast 
 perspective which I have unfolded to you, and over 
 which my imagination soars, transported with joy. 
 But it is a small thing to contemplate the career I 
 have to run ; the thing is to start on the road, for 
 the hour is at hand. I dare say you will exclaim 
 at the audacity of this poor fellow, Ozanam. Just 
 as you like ! But w^hat is one to do ? When an 
 idea has taken hold of you, and possesses your 
 whole mind for two years, are you free to with- 
 stand it ? When a voice keeps continually crying 
 out to you — ' Do this ; / so will it ' — can you bid it 
 be silent ?" 
 
Life of Frederic Ozanam 
 
 His letters about this period are in every way 
 remarkable, especially when it is considered that 
 they are the production of a youth of eighteen. 
 They show him to have been possessed of a very 
 high order of intellectual power, and of singular 
 originality and force of character. Of such materials 
 are made the great men of every age, men who are 
 destined to leave their mark in history. 
 
 Dr. Ozanam considered that it was now time to 
 give his son the opportunity of continuing his legal 
 studies at Paris, as he had observed with satisfaction 
 that Frederic possessed an earnestness of mind 
 and a solidity of faith which would protect him 
 against the dangers of the capital. He was entered 
 as a student at the Ecole de Droit, and we find 
 him shortly after recording the bitterness of his 
 disappointment. He found himself thrown among 
 young men utterly destitute of religion, and with 
 no respect for its ordinances. At the boarding- 
 house where he lived he saw the same state of 
 things — an utter indifference to religious observ- 
 ances. He found himself the only one who 
 observed the Friday abstinence, and he was 
 ridiculed and laughed at for his strictness. But 
 he was not to be moved from his principles by such 
 examples. He isolated himself altogether from 
 society, and sought his recreation in his books. 
 
 The old dream in which he had indulged while in 
 Lyons, and which formed the scheme of his ambi- 
 
8 Frederic Ozanam 
 
 tion, now returned. He grieved over the universal 
 irreligion which he saw around him, and yearned to 
 discover some means of combating the evil. Writing 
 to a friend at this time, he said : " You know of old 
 my longing to surround myself with young men 
 feeling and thinking as I do ; I know that there are 
 many such, but they are scattered, and the task of 
 gathering defenders under our flag is proverbially a 
 difficult one." 
 
 In attending his lectures at the Sorbonne, he made 
 the acquaintance of a few young men, Catholics 
 like himself; the very differences which divided them 
 from their fellow-students banded them the more 
 firmly together, and formed the nucleus of a body 
 which was destined in future years to leaven the 
 infidelity of France. At this time the professors of 
 the Sorbonne were, without exception, Voltairean, 
 who lost no opportunity of casting ridicule upon 
 the doctrines of Christianity, and endeavouring to 
 oppose to them the latest discoveries in the then 
 imperfectly developed sciences of geology, etc. 
 Among these, the illustrious Professor Jouffroy, who 
 held the Chair of Philosophy in 1832, had striven in 
 his lectures to prove the impossibility of Revelation. 
 Ozanam was indignant at the unsoundness and the 
 one-sidedness of the arguments he adduced, and 
 drew up a protest, which he forwarded to the 
 Professor, who promised to reply to it. After the 
 lapse of a fortnight, the Professor lightly alluded to 
 
Life of Frederic Ozanam 
 
 the protest, and dismissed Ozanam's objections with 
 a few contemptuous remarks. 
 
 Ozanam thereupon summoned together all the 
 Catholics he could discover among the students, and 
 drew up a formal protest, which was signed by 
 fifteen names, and was read out publicly in the 
 lecture-room before the whole body of students. 
 " The Professor," Ozanam tells us, " hummed and 
 hawed, confounded himself in apologies, declared 
 that he nev^er intended to attack Christianity in 
 particular, which he held, on the contrary, in the 
 highest veneration, and promised for the future not 
 to wound the belief of any of his Catholic hearers." 
 
 A step so decisive and so bold as this could not 
 fail to attract public attention. Numbers of Catholic 
 young men now rallied around the little band, and 
 evening meetings were organized for the discussion 
 of subjects of common interest. By degrees these 
 meetings grew into a kind of debating society; a 
 large hall was hired by the generosity of a friend, 
 and students of all shades of religious belief were 
 invited to attend and to join in the debates. 
 Ozanam was the recognized leader of the Catholic 
 party, and even thus early distinguished himself by 
 a simple but persuasive eloquence, which afterwards 
 won him great renown as a Professor. A great many 
 distinguished men attended the discussions, and 
 among them Montalembert, Sainte-Beuve, Savigny, 
 Ampere, Alfred de Vigny, and Consid^rant. 
 
lo Frederic Ozanam 
 
 At this time the minds of men were in a ferment 
 on rehgious questions, and on all sides the anti- 
 Catholic party continued their attacks upon the 
 Church. And this spirit of opposition was mani- 
 fested so powerfully in the weekly discussions, that 
 Ozanam found it necessary to draw more closely 
 together the supporters of the Catholic cause. He 
 accordingly proposed that the members should meet 
 once a week at each others' houses, in order to con- 
 cert together, before the great meeting, their scheme 
 of action, and thus present to the enemy a more 
 united front. At the same time he suggested that 
 they might further utilize these private meetings by 
 the performance of some good works. 
 
 His friends were much impressed with the value 
 of the idea, and went off together to consult a 
 M. Bailly, in whose judgment they had much con- 
 fidence. 
 
 M. Bailly was the proprietor of a printing office, 
 an intelligent man, and a fervent Catholic. Several 
 young Catholic students boarded at his house, and 
 he loved to assemble them around him, and to listen 
 to their conversation upon subjects of historical and 
 religious interest. The good man at once fell into 
 their views, and offered them the use of his office in 
 which to hold their private meetings. 
 
 The first meeting was held in May, 1833, and was 
 presided over by M. Bailly himself. The objects of 
 the *' Conference," as it was then called, were at 
 
Life of Frederic Ozanam 1 1 
 
 once laid down as being the service of God in the 
 persons of the poor. " If you are in earnest," said 
 M. Bailly, ** about serving the poor as v^ell as your- 
 selves, you must not let it be a mere doling out of 
 alms, bringing each your pittance of money or 
 food ; you must make it a medium of moral assist- 
 ance ; you must give them the alms of good advice." 
 And this has been the keynote of the Society of 
 St. Vincent de Paul ever since. The members 
 show themselves to be in reality *' brothers " to the 
 poor w^hom they visit, and they are welcomed, not 
 for the relief which they bring, but far more for 
 their fraternal words of kindness, consolation, and 
 advice. 
 
 Thus was established by eight young men that great 
 Society which was destined to play so great a part 
 in the preservation of Catholic faith and principles 
 among the poor of France. Like the little grain of 
 mustard-seed, it has now grown into a gigantic tree, 
 whose branches extend in blessing over the whole 
 earth. 
 
 But the foundation of the Society of St. Vincent 
 de Paul is not the only claim which Frederic 
 Ozanam has upon the gratitude of his fellow- 
 countrymen. He saw with grief the rapid increase 
 in the spirit of scepticism and unbelief among all 
 classes of the French people. Every effort was 
 made by the Press then, as in our own time and 
 country, to throw discredit upon Catholics, and to 
 
12 Frederic Ozanam 
 
 represent them as ignorant and unenlightened, 
 blindly holding on to the doctrines of an effete 
 religion through ignorance of the discoveries of 
 modern science. He saw clearly that this evil could 
 be encountered by the clergy alone, v^ho v^ere the 
 natural guardians of the deposit of Faith entrusted 
 to their keeping. But the pulpits in the various 
 churches of Paris offered no adequate defence to 
 the strong tide of infidelity. Bossuet and F^nelon, 
 Massillon and Bourdaloue, had no successors to their 
 talents, and the art of pulpit oratory appeared to 
 have almost died out in France. 
 
 Ozanam felt that the great need of the day wsls 
 an eloquent and enlightened preacher, well versed 
 in the most recent scientific discoveries, orator 
 enough to attract large audiences of the educated 
 classes, and able to contest successfully the theses 
 of the opponents of Christianity, and to fight them 
 with the same weapons of science which they them- 
 selves used. 
 
 He set himself to work to discover such a 
 preacher, and in due time his search was rewarded 
 with success. A young cleric, named Henri 
 Lacordaire, had been invited to deliver a course of 
 sermons to the pupils in the College St. Stanislas. 
 Ozanam was much struck with the impassioned 
 eloquence of this young preacher, and with the 
 variety of the stores of learning upon which he 
 drew for the illustration of his subjects. " There is 
 
Life of Frederic Ozanam 13 
 
 the man we want to confound Jouffroy and his 
 school !" he exclaimed, after listening to one of 
 these sermons. 
 
 He consulted with his friends, and resolved to 
 submit his ideas to the Archbishop of Paris, 
 Monseigneur de Qu^len. The latter received him 
 with much kindness, and Ozanam unfolded his 
 views as to the necessity of meeting publicly the 
 attacks which were constantly being made by the 
 professors upon Christian truth. He ended by 
 hinting respectfully his opinion that the Abb6 
 Lacordaire would be a fitting man for the duty, on 
 account of his powerful eloquence and extensive 
 learning. He ended by pointing out that he had 
 already attracted to hear him in the little college 
 chapel some of the first names in France, such as 
 Chateaubriand, Lamartine, Sainte - Beuve, Victor 
 Hugo, and Berryer. The Archbishop agreed with 
 him as to the necessity of in some way meeting the 
 evil complained of, and promised to give the matter 
 his consideration. The result was not what 
 Ozanam had hoped for. The Archbishop probably 
 feared that the appointment of so young a priest 
 as the Abbe Lacordaire to so important a post as 
 official defender of the Catholic cause might give 
 rise to discontent among the older clergy. He there- 
 fore appointed seven of the best preachers of Paris 
 of the old school to deliver a course of sermons upon 
 Modern Philosophy. The course, however, did not 
 
14 Frederic Ozanam 
 
 have the effect of drawing an audience of the class 
 desired, and Ozanam, by no means daunted, drew 
 up an address to the Archbishop, which he got 
 signed by two hundred of the most prominent 
 CathoHcs of Paris, begging him to appoint Lacor- 
 daire to preach a course in Notre Dame. 
 
 It was long before the Archbishop yielded to so 
 novel and unprecedented a request, but at length 
 he did so, and the young Abbe Lacordaire com- 
 menced his series of conferences. It was a new 
 era in the CathoHc life in Paris. For, at the time 
 we are speaking of, the philosophical fallacies 
 of Voltaire and the modern scientists had made 
 such progress, and had been so widely propa- 
 gated by the French Press, that faith in Chris- 
 tianity had almost died out among the intellectual 
 classes. The churches were but thinly attended, 
 and that chiefly by women and children. Only a 
 very few old men were to be found who had the 
 courage to face the public ridicule which was directed 
 against those who were weak enough to believe, and 
 courageous enough to show outward tokens of their 
 Faith. To be a Catholic was in those days looked 
 upon in Paris as a mark of feebleness of intellect. 
 Travellers in France at the present day will still 
 recognize the existence of this feeling, notably in 
 Paris and the larger commercial cities. But a vast 
 and significant improvement soon took place. Large 
 numbers of men were to be seen attending Mass and 
 
Life of Frederic Ozanam 15 
 
 the other services of the Church. During Lent and 
 Easter Week the clergy, whose duties at such seasons 
 were formerly merely nominal, found their numbers 
 all too small to administer the Sacraments to their 
 crowds of communicants. On all hands we have 
 the strongest proof that France recovered rapidly 
 from the deathly paralysis which seemed to have 
 fallen upon her. 
 
 And this recovery may be plainly traced to the 
 spiritual ixifluence of the Conferences of the Abb6 
 Lacordaire and that of the work of Ozanam through 
 the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. 
 
 In 1837, Frederic Ozanam, having completed his 
 studies, took his degrees as a doctor of laws, and 
 began to practise as a barrister. Briefs came but 
 slowly to him, however, and he was obliged to eke 
 out his scanty income by reading law with some 
 pupils. The honest, outspoken manliness of his 
 character, while it had made him many enemies, 
 had also secured him the friendship of many dis- 
 tinguished men, even in the ranks of his opponents ; 
 among these, the eminent philosopher, M. Cousin, 
 and the foremost champion of Catholic privileges in 
 the House of Peers, the accomplished young Count 
 de Montalembert. 
 
 Through their influence a professorship of Com- 
 mercial Law was established at Lyons, and Ozanam 
 was appointed to the chair. The delicacy of this 
 act made a particularly strong impression on the 
 
1 6 Frederic Ozanam 
 
 young man, as his father had just died, and he felt 
 the necessity of being near to his mother, in order to 
 assist her in bearing the heavy sorrow which had 
 fallen upon them. 
 
 At Lyons Ozanam found that his friend, M. 
 Chaurand, who had been with him one of the 
 original members of the little conference in Paris, 
 had established many branches of the Society of 
 St. Vincent de Paul, and he gladly joined with him 
 in the work, always, however, insisting on taking a 
 subordinate position, and encouraging the brothers 
 by his practical example. It is a beautiful mark of 
 his perfect humility and unselfishness that at no 
 period of his life would he allow himself the title 
 of Founder of the Society. He always insisted that 
 it had grown up out of the good feeling of the members 
 on the one side, and the necessities of their brothers, 
 the poor, upon the other. 
 
 In 1839, ^is mother, who had long been in failing 
 health, died, and Ozanam felt the blow severely, for 
 he was deeply attached to her. He felt himself now 
 quite alone in the world, and had thoughts of 
 following the example of his friend Lacordaire, who 
 had gone to Rome in order to enter the great Order 
 of St. Dominic. 
 
 His director, however, the good old Abb6 Noirot, 
 who had known Frederic from his childhood, and 
 was thoroughly well acquainted with his character 
 and capabilities, persuaded him that his true vocation 
 
Life of Frederic Ozanam 17 
 
 was to remain in the world and to fight the battle of 
 the Church from the rostrum. 
 
 M. Cousin now gave Ozanam a further proof of 
 his friendship by offering him the position of pro- 
 fessor at the Paris University, deeming the sphere 
 of Lyons too narrow for his splendid abilities. He 
 accepted, and was named Assistant- Professor in the 
 Chair of Foreign Literature in the Sorbonne. 
 
 He was rejoiced, on returning to Paris, to find that 
 the Society of St. Vincent de Paul had grown and 
 flourished marvellously during his absence. More 
 than 600 members assembled in the amphitheatre in 
 which their meetings were held to welcome him ; and 
 these were not the whole of the members in Paris. 
 "The majority," he says, "was composed of poor 
 students, but set off, as it were, by a few persons of 
 the very highest social position. I elbowed a Peer 
 of France, a Councillor of State, several Generals 
 and distinguished writers. I counted 25 pupils of 
 the Ecole Normale, out of 75 which it numbers; 10 
 of the Polyt^chnique ; one or two of the Ecole d'Etat 
 Major. That morning 150 members had gone up to 
 the altar together. . . . We are now nearly 2,000 
 young men, enrolled in this peaceful crusade of 
 charity. . . . Now, too, that an ever-increasing 
 pauperism stands face to face, in rage and despera- 
 tion, with a monied aristocracy, whose bowels of 
 mercy have grown hardened, it is well that there 
 should be found mediators who may prevent a 
 
1 8 Frederic Ozanam 
 
 collision, of which no man may foretell the horrible 
 disasters; who will gain a hearing in both camps, 
 and who will carry words of resignation to one and 
 counsels of mercy to the other, giving everywhere 
 the password, 'conciliation and love.*'* The estimate 
 which he makes here of the value of the Society is 
 very striking and very just. In France, Belgium, 
 Germany, etc., it has acted as a powerful means of 
 abolishing class prejudices, and reconciling the 
 capitalist with the working man. 
 
 The position in which Ozanam now found himself, 
 although a very distinguished one, was full of diffi- 
 culty. For many years the Sorbonne had been the 
 headquarters of the modern school of philosophy 
 and rationalism. It was therefore no easy task for 
 a youthful professor, fresh from the provinces, to call 
 in question from such a rostrum the teaching of such 
 men as Guizot, Villemain, and even his friend Cousin 
 himself. But he nevertheless applied himself to the 
 task with heroic boldness, for he knew that the battle 
 which he was called upon to fight was that of God and 
 Truth. At first his audience stared and wondered 
 at the new views which were put before them, so 
 different from what they had been accustomed to; 
 but the narrow prejudices in their minds were soon 
 swept away by the torrent of impassioned eloquence 
 which flowed from their professor's lips. His 
 arguments were irresistible, because they were 
 strengthened by apparently inexhaustible stores of 
 
Life of Frederic Ozanam 19 
 
 erudition, and by a logic which was faultless and 
 inexorable. His boldness excited some surprise and 
 much resentment among his fellow-professors; but 
 his views were always expressed with so much 
 mildness and courtesy of language, and were so well 
 backed up by unanswerable proofs, that criticism was 
 disarmed. 
 
 Among his colleagues was M. Lenormant, Assistant- 
 Professor of History, who had succeeded M. Guizot. 
 For the first three years of his professorship he had 
 lectured as a sceptic, and in thorough accord with 
 the spirit of the age; but he had been deeply 
 impressed by the boldness with which M. Ozanam, 
 a new professor, and a man of evidently great 
 intellectual power and of clear logical mind, had 
 upheld the principles of Christian philosophy, and 
 had been led by him to examine more fully into the 
 grounds of his own opposition to it. As a result of 
 his inquiry, his mind was enlightened as to the truth 
 and beauty of Christianity, and with manly boldness 
 he resolved to publicly vindicate its teachings. The 
 anti-Christian majority were furious ; for Lenormant 
 had hitherto been one of their foremost champions. 
 MM. Michelet and Quinet, the leaders of the infidel 
 party, stirred up the students to riotous demonstra- 
 tions, which daily increased in intensity until the end 
 of the term. Ozanam, who strongly sympathized 
 with the difficulties which his colleague encountered, 
 made it a point to attend personally all his lectures. 
 
20 Frederic Ozanam 
 
 accompanied by a number of Catholic students of 
 his acquaintance, in order to encourage him in his 
 struggle, but the opposition was too strong for 
 them. 
 
 The result is thus eloquently described by Miss 
 O'Meara: 
 
 " The recommencing of the lectures was the signal 
 for the renewal of the hostile demonstrations. M. 
 Lenormant's appearance was greeted with hisses, and 
 yells, and unseemly manifestations of dislike. He 
 began to speak, but his voice was drowned in hootings 
 and blasphemous cries. Ozanam, who was present, 
 unable to contain his indignation, leaped up beside 
 the lecturer, and stood for a moment surveying the 
 tumult with proud defiance. The courageous action 
 drew forth an instantaneous salvo of applause ; but 
 Ozanam, with a scornful gesture, commanded silence, 
 and proceeded to tell the assembly what he thought 
 of their behaviour, and what value he set on their 
 plaudits. He spoke with a fiery vehemence which 
 startled all into attention ; he adjured them, in the 
 name of liberty, which they so loudly invoked, to 
 respect liberty in others, and to allow every man the 
 freedom of his conscience. The effect of this harangue 
 was magical ; the tumult ceased, and M. Lenormant 
 continued, or rather began, his lecture, and finished 
 it without interruption." 
 
 It says much for the high respect in which 
 Ozanam's character was held, even by his oppo- 
 
Life of Frederic Ozanam 21 
 
 nents, that shortly after this defiance of the ruling 
 spirit of the University, he was chosen to succeed to 
 the Chair of Foreign Literature in the Sorbonne on 
 the death of M. Fauriel, although at the time only 
 thirty-two years of age. 
 
 For many years he had been working steadily at 
 his duties, giving the day to his lectures, the evening 
 to the meetings of the Conferences of St. Vincent de 
 Paul. But his health, which had never been very 
 robust, gradually broke down under his continued 
 exertions, and in 1847 he was ordered by his 
 physician to pass the winter in Rome. He has 
 left us in his works a record of his impressions of 
 the Eternal City, which in purity of language and 
 elevation of thought compares favourably with any- 
 thing in the French language. In the autumn of 
 1847 he returned to Paris, and resumed his lectures 
 at the Sorbonne with his old energy, and with 
 recruited health. He had need of all his energy and 
 strength now, for ample calls were about to be made 
 on both. 
 
 On February 24, 1848, the revolution broke out. 
 It was a great moral earthquake which overthrew 
 all the foundations of society. Ozanam did his duty 
 as a citizen ; he enrolled himself in the National 
 Guard, and prepared, if necessary, to fight for the 
 cause of order. At the elections he was invited to 
 come forward as a candidate for Lyons, but he 
 firmly refused, on the ground of ill-health. He felt 
 
22 Frederic Ozanam 
 
 that he could benefit his country more by his writings 
 in the Press than by speeches in the Assembl^e 
 Nationale. 
 
 On April 13, in conjunction with P^re Lacordaire, 
 he started a newspaper, entitled the Ere Nouvelle, 
 with the object of welding together the Catholic 
 party and the working-classes, and advocating the 
 principles of a Christian democracy. Thus, the 
 founders thought, might be formed a solid foundation 
 upon which the Republic might rest secure — that 
 Republic of order which, in the minds of these 
 intrepid soldiers of the Church, was now the only 
 hope of good government in France. But the new 
 paper had but a short existence; it made many 
 enemies in each of the camps which it tried to 
 unite. Accordingly it was sorrowfully abandoned 
 after a few weeks, and its promoters turned their 
 attention to the absorbing political events of the day. 
 
 The revolution increased in intensity. Barricades 
 were erected in the streets of Paris, and General 
 Cavaignac was organizing his troops and preparing 
 to meet force by force. At this juncture Ozanam 
 was destined to play an important part in a tragedy 
 which will always be memorable in the history of 
 France. 
 
 One day, when he was posted on guard, with 
 M. Bailly and another friend in the Rue Madame, 
 he suggested that the Archbishop of Paris, who was 
 so popular with the people, might be able to put 
 
Life of Frederic Ozanam 23 
 
 an end to the disastrous civil war if he would appear 
 on the barricades, and exhort the insurgents to 
 surrender, on the promise of a free pardon for the 
 past. The friends agreed, and at once sallied off 
 to the residence of the Archbishop, and submitted 
 their idea to him. To their great surprise he 
 quietly remarked : "I have been pursued by the 
 same idea since yesterday ; but how can it be 
 done ?" 
 
 Ozanam explained the project they had formed, 
 and the good Archbishop, having vested himself in 
 his purple soutane and wearing his archiepiscopal 
 cross, accompanied them to the quarters of General 
 Cavaignac. The latter explained to the Archbishop 
 the dangerous nature of his attempt, and endeavoured 
 to dissuade him from the enterprise. Finding, how- 
 ever, that he was determined to carry it out, he 
 entrusted to his care a proclamation to the insur- 
 gents, offering them a free pardon if they would lay 
 down their arms. 
 
 Thus armed, the saintly Archbishop, with a 
 solemn placidity which deeply affected the by- 
 standers, returned home, made his confession, left 
 a few written instructions concerning business 
 matters, and proceeded to the barricade in the 
 Faubourg St. Antoine, accompanied by his two 
 Vicars-General, Ozanam and some members of the 
 Conference of St. Vincent de Paul. When they 
 arrived on the Place de la Bastille, the Archbishop 
 
 3 
 
24 Frederic Ozanam 
 
 mounted on the barricade, holding the proclamation 
 in his hand. From an open window a shot was 
 fired at this moment, and Archbishop Affr^ fell back 
 mortally wounded. His last word were, *' May my 
 blood be the last shed!" And his prayer was heard; 
 for the emeute came to an end at once. 
 
 This dreadful tragedy affected Ozanam very deeply; 
 for he felt that he had been unwittingly the instru- 
 ment of Providence in winning a palm of glorious 
 martyrdom for the Archbishop. 
 
 From this time forward his health rapidly failed 
 him, and he was compelled constantly to seek rest 
 and relaxation from his duties. In 1851 he was 
 induced by a scientific friend to pay a visit to 
 London, to see the wonders of the Great Exhibition. 
 He had never visited England before, and was much 
 struck with the evidences of vast material wealth 
 which met him upon every side. But they suggested 
 very grave reflections. '* It looks to me," he said, 
 " like a seal of reprobation on these riches that they 
 do not serve to ameliorate the lot of humanity — the 
 lot, that is, of the greater number — and that the 
 most opulent city in the world is also that which 
 treats its poor most harshly. . . . The English 
 cannot prevent mendicity from penetrating into 
 London — they tolerate it — and I give them credit 
 for doing so ; but why, then, do they insult so 
 derisively the mendicity of Catholic countries ? 
 Never in the streets of Rome did I see anything 
 
Life of Frederic Ozanam 25 
 
 approaching to these women in rags, who hold out 
 their hands to you as you pass along the Strand — to 
 those little girls one sees, in a frock tattered up to their 
 waist, with their naked feet in the cold black mud." 
 
 On his return to France his health continued to 
 decHne ; but he still clung manfully to his duties 
 at the Sorbonne, as of old. 
 
 At last, in 1852, he was struck down by a serious 
 attack of pleurisy, which confined him to his bed for 
 many weeks. He was still in this condition when 
 a rumour reached him that ungenerous remarks 
 had been made as to his neglect of his duties at the 
 Sorbonne, which had been ascribed to love of ease. 
 He was stung to the quick by the news. 
 
 " I will show them it is not true ; I will do honour 
 to my profession !" he cried. 
 
 And notwithstanding the entreaties of his wife 
 and of his brother, who was attending him, he rose 
 and drove to the Sorbonne. He found in the lecture- 
 room a crowd of students, who started when they 
 beheld his pale face, and his thin, attenuated frame 
 worn out by suffering. Amid repeated rounds of 
 applause he ascended the rostrum, and delivered a 
 lecture which surpassed in eloquence and grace even 
 those of his palmiest days. At its conclusion the 
 applause was loud and long; but his friends saw 
 sorrowfully at what cost he had delivered it. It was 
 a final and a fatal effort, and he returned to his house 
 Hke a dying man. 
 
26 Frederic Ozanam 
 
 By the advice of his physician he was moved to 
 the Pyrenees, where his health recovered sufficiently 
 to allow of his visiting a few of the coast towns, and 
 even making a short excursion into Spain. He then 
 journeyed by short stages to Italy, where the 
 balmy air seemed to do him much good at first ; and 
 for a time the expiring flame of life flickered with 
 something like its old brilliancy. But he knew that 
 his end was approaching, and he besought Almighty 
 God for the last grace of being allowed to die in his 
 own loved France, among the people whom he 
 loved, and for whose benefit he had worked so long. 
 His prayer was heard, and he was able to return by 
 sea to Marseilles. He wished to proceed to Paris, 
 in order that he might yield up his soul in the city 
 which had been the scene of his labours, but he was 
 already too much exhausted with the fatigue of his 
 long journey. 
 
 After receiving the last Sacraments with much 
 devotion, he gave up his soul to God on the Feast 
 of the Nativity of our Lady, September 8, 1853. 
 
 His whole life was an example of what great things 
 a man of good heart and will can do. Few men 
 are endowed with the brilliant talents of Frederic 
 Ozanam ; but his charity to all men, and his love of 
 the poor, can be imitated, and should be the model 
 of all members of the Society of St. Vincent de 
 Paul. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE SOCIETY OF 
 ST. VINCENT DE PAUL IN ENGLAND 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE SOCIETY OF 
 ST. VINCENT DE PAUL IN ENGLAND 
 
 When Ozanam returned from Lyons to Paris and 
 commenced his lectures at the Sorbonne, he was 
 gratified to see them attended by many young men 
 of various nationalities. He gladly made the acquaint- 
 ance of these, and persuaded some of them to join 
 the Conference of St. Vincent de Paul at St. Etienne 
 du Mont. Among these was a young Englishman 
 named George Jonas Wigley, a student at the 
 Ecole des Beaux Arts, and another, an American. 
 Ozanam took special interest in these, and thoroughly 
 impressed them with his conviction that a new spirit 
 of revolt against Religion and Law had arisen, and 
 was destined to uproot the foundations upon which 
 social order was based. Religion was the only 
 barrier to some great social upheaval, which would 
 surely come sooner or later. There were signs of 
 its rapid approach in France, and he believed that all 
 the chief industrial nations would be affected by it, 
 especially England, America, and Belgium. He felt 
 strongly that the spirit of class hatred, of the revolt 
 of Labour against Capital, could only be combated 
 
 28 
 
Establishment of the Society in England 29 
 
 by a revival of Religion, and by the personal visits 
 to the poor at their own homes by educated Catholics, 
 who would fraternize with the workmen and advise 
 them. This, he said, was the principal object of the 
 Conferences of St. Vincent de Paul, and their work 
 had already been very effective in Paris and Lyons. 
 Hearing that Wigley was contributing some articles 
 to the only Catholic newspaper in London, the 
 Tablet, and that the Editor, Mr. Frederick Lucas, 
 was a friend of his, Ozanam advised Wigley to 
 write an account of the objects of the Conferences 
 of St. Vincent de Paul in France, and of the bene- 
 ficial effects of their work among the poor. This 
 Wigley did, and Mr. Lucas took up the cause 
 warmly, and advocated the establishment of the 
 Society in London. Ozanam was delighted with 
 the news, and supplied Wigley with numbers of 
 interesting statistics and instances of what had been 
 done in France. Through Wigley he invited Lucas 
 to act as Founder and first President of the Society 
 in London. This honour, however, was declined by 
 Lucas, but he succeeded in gaining the approval of 
 the Vicar-General of the diocese, and of Bishop 
 Griffiths. A number of influential Catholics were 
 induced to form a committee for the purpose, among 
 whom was Mr. Pagliano, the proprietor of the 
 Sabloniere Hotel in Leicester Square. There the 
 first Conference used to meet weekly, Mr. Pagliano 
 acting as temporary President. Wigley translated 
 
30 Frederic Ozanam 
 
 the rules, etc., into English, and, at Ozanam's 
 request, returned to London and helped the new 
 Conference to take the necessary steps for the organ- 
 ization of the Society and its affiliation to that of 
 Paris. New ideas are slow to take root in England. 
 English Catholics in the middle of last century were 
 especially timid and apprehensive of the effects of 
 introducing new works of charity by Catholics upon 
 their Protestant fellow-countrymen. It was too soon 
 after Catholic emancipation from the slavery of the 
 Penal Laws to risk the revival of the "No Popery" 
 cries in the streets. And therefore the progress of 
 the infant Society was very slow. But Conferences 
 were gradually started in many of the London 
 missions, and were joined by many members, who 
 recognized the practical value of the work. 
 
 In impressing upon Wigley the importance of 
 introducing the Society into England, Ozanam used 
 some strange arguments. He said that England had 
 done a very great wrong to France in the eighteenth 
 century, and owed her reparation for it. He said 
 that the first French Revolution had been initiated 
 and fomented by English Freemasons who had 
 established the Order in Paris, and that the leaders 
 of the Revolution in France were all members of 
 the Order, the headquarters of which were in 
 London, while its principles were opposed to Chris- 
 tianity and to the authority of the State. Also that 
 the theories of the ** Rights of Man," which had 
 
Establishment of the Society in England 3 1 
 
 been put forward by English philosophers, had sown 
 the seeds of Socialism among the working classes in 
 France, and had fomented the spirit of revolution 
 and class hatred. He predicted that the inevitable 
 result would be a war of Labour against Capital, the 
 outcome of which would be a great commercial and 
 social crisis, from which England and America would 
 suffer more than France. It was fitting, therefore, 
 he said, that Catholic France should repay the evil 
 which England had done her by the good service 
 which the Society of St. Vincent de Paul would 
 render her by providing an antidote of charity and 
 love of the poor against irreligion and anarchy. 
 
 A prominent quality in Ozanam's character was 
 his desire to see theories illustrated by facts. He 
 felt that it was not enough to preach a doctrine ; we 
 must also practise it if we wish to get men to accept 
 it. Thus we find him writing, in March, 1833, to his 
 friend, Ernest Falconnet : 
 
 "You knew before I left Lyons what was the 
 object of my ambition. You know that I hoped to 
 form a reunion of friends working together at the 
 building up of scientific knowledge under the standard 
 of Catholic Faith. This idea remained for a long 
 time latent, until a friend introduced me to a small 
 literary society, the last remains of the old Committee 
 of Research, but the unscientific methods of which 
 left but little scope for philosophic and serious in- 
 vestigations. The average attendance at these meet- 
 
32 Frederic Ozanam 
 
 ings was fifteen, and it was scarcely dared to intro- 
 duce the higher questions of the future or of the 
 past for consideration. Now the Society numbers 
 sixty, and includes men of some note, students of 
 art, philosophy, political economy, but mostly of 
 historical subjects, and even two or three poets." 
 
 Some of these young men were destined to make 
 names for themselves in the world. Among those 
 he mentions we find Montalembert, Lacordaire, 
 Ampere, Alfred de Vigny, Sainte-Beuve, de Merode, 
 Lherminier, Victor Consid^rant, etc. 
 
 On January 29, 1844, several Catholics met at the 
 Sabloniere Hotel — viz., Pagliano, Frederick Lucas 
 (founder and editor of the Tablet), George J. Wigley, 
 William Amherst, George Blount, Bosanquet, Robert 
 Barnewall, Martial Thompson, Wright, Carew, 
 James Floris, John Rogers Herbert (later a Royal 
 Academician). It was resolved " that it was advis- 
 able that an institution should be formed on the 
 basis of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, established 
 in France, for London and its vicinity." 
 
 On February 12 it was resolved to form the 
 " Brotherhood of St. Vincent de Paul." This title 
 was altered to that of the " Society of St. Vincent de 
 Paul," on aggregation by the Council-General of the 
 Society in Paris. 
 
 Brother Frederick Lucas, who, by articles in the 
 Tablet, had done much to bring about this movement, 
 was elected President, but he declined. Brother 
 
Establishment of the Society in England 33 
 
 Pagliano was then elected, and continued President 
 till 1852. 
 
 During this period the " Clifton Tracts," in refuta- 
 tion of violent anti-Catholic attacks in consequence 
 of the establishment of the Hierachy in 1850, were 
 published by the " Brotherhood of St. Vincent de 
 Paul." Brother J. Spencer Northcote (at that time 
 a layman, and afterwards Provost of the Chapter of 
 the Diocese of Birmingham) was editor. 
 
 On the resignation of the Presidency by Brother 
 Pagliano in 1852, Brother George Blount, at the age 
 of thirty-three, was elected on January 16, and con- 
 tinued President till his death, at eighty years of 
 age, on January 18, 1899, a period of forty-seven 
 years. He lived to see the Society raised from a 
 few Conferences, on his accession to the Presidency, 
 to 170 Conferences, with a total of 3,057 members, 
 on December 31, 1898. 
 
 A subscription was set on foot to honour his 
 memory by some Work of Patronage for Boys, 
 which was his favourite work. 
 
 A freehold house and grounds were purchased, 
 and the " George Blount Home for Working Boys " 
 was opened at 31, Mitcham Lane, Streatham, 
 London. Accommodation is there provided for 
 twenty boys between the ages of fourteen and 
 eighteen, who are either orphans or whose homes 
 are objectionable, and who have daily employment. 
 The work is carried on successfully by the Patronage 
 
34 Frederic Ozanam 
 
 Committee, with the support of the Conferences and 
 members of the Society throughout England. 
 
 On Brother George Blount's death, Brother the 
 Marquess of Ripon was elected President, and on his 
 death, July g, 1909, was succeeded by Brother Sir 
 John Knill, Bart. 
 
 Following Brother Ozanam's maxim that "no 
 good work is foreign to the Society," the English 
 Conferences started works of charity of many kinds 
 in every parish in which they were established. In 
 co-operation with the parish priest, who was gener- 
 ally chaplain to the Conference, they established 
 ladies' societies for the care of cases of women and 
 children outside the scope of the Society. One of 
 the first works to be established was that of the 
 Catholic Shoeblack Brigade for the employment of 
 poor boys, which was followed by the establishment 
 of the Working Boys' Home and the Patronage 
 Committee. The next work founded by the Society 
 was the St. Vincent's Home for Destitute Boys at 
 Hammersmith. This was a separate work, managed 
 by a committee of members of the London Council, 
 of which Brother George Blount was President. 
 After being carried on for fifteen years, it was handed 
 over to the care of Father Lord Archibald Douglas. 
 It is now carried on by the " Crusade of Rescue for 
 Destitute Catholic Children," established by the late 
 Cardinal Vaughan, and which supports nearly one 
 thousand boys and girls. Numbers of these are sent 
 
Establishment of the Society in England 35 
 
 every year to Canada, where their future is fully 
 provided for. 
 
 In 1859, the year of the terrible war which robbed 
 the Church of its patrimony and deprived the Holy 
 Father of the necessary means for carrying on the 
 rule of the Universal Church, Cardinal Wiseman 
 appealed to the London Council to support a move- 
 ment initiated by Brother Wigley for the revival of 
 the ancient subsidy paid to the Holy See by our 
 Saxon forefathers. This was called ** Peter's Pence." 
 His Eminence also asked that the Society should 
 establish a cheap newspaper accessible to the poor, 
 which should pubHsh the truth concerning the war 
 which was being waged by Victor Emmanuel, 
 Cavour, and Garibaldi against the Church. In both 
 cases the London Council found itself unable by the 
 rules of the Society to undertake the responsibilities 
 proposed, but collateral committees were formed by 
 which they were carried out. A penny newspaper 
 was established, named the Universe^ and which 
 worked in conjunction with M. Louis Veuillot, the 
 proprietor of VUnivers of Paris. At the request of 
 Cardinal Wiseman, the writer acted as first editor 
 and Brother Wigley as foreign colleague. 
 
 In like manner the Peter's Pence Association was 
 formed of members of the Society, George Wigley 
 being Hon. Secretary, Lords Feilding and Campden 
 (afterwards Earls of Denbigh and Gainsborough) 
 and myself as Hon. Treasurers. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SOCIETY OF 
 ST. VINCENT DE PAUL THROUGHOUT THE WORLD 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SOCIETY OF ST. VINCENT 
 DE PAUL THROUGHOUT THE WORLD 
 
 The aims and objects of the Society of St. Vincent 
 de Paul cannot be better set forth than in the follow- 
 ing preface to the official Report of the Superior 
 Council of England for igi2 : 
 
 " The Society of St. Vincent de Paul is a Society 
 of men in all countries associated together for mutual 
 encouragement in the practice of a Christian life. 
 By taking an active part, however small, in works of 
 mercy, they hope to make progress in piety, and 
 with this object they try to be the friends of the 
 poor, visiting and reheving them in distress, in- 
 structing them in religion, visiting workhouses, 
 hospitals, and similar institutions, distributing 
 wholesome reading, conducting Penny Banks and 
 Libraries, and giving such kinds of help as may be 
 most required. Mindful of their holy Patron's care 
 for the young, they take a great interest in boys, and 
 they try to benefit them by assisting in the conduct 
 of their clubs, seeing that they attend Catholic 
 
 38 
 
The Development of the Society 39 
 
 Schools, obtaining suitable situations for them when 
 they leave school, and supervising their attendance 
 at Mass and Catechism. Many other works are 
 undertaken by the Society', varjnng according to 
 circumstances, but the above are universally needed 
 and belong to its general practice. It is a primary 
 rule that no work of charity is foreign to the 
 Society. 
 
 ** Members are either Active or Honorary. An 
 Active Member need not do more than attend the 
 weekly Conference Meeting, at which there is a 
 voluntary^ and strictly secret collection, and visit one 
 poor family. As this need not occupy much more 
 than an hour a week, no great demand is made upon 
 his time, while he may easily find foil employment 
 for any amount of leisure and charitable zeal. The 
 Society w^as founded by young men, and these are 
 invited earnestly to become Active Members, assur- 
 ing them of the brotherly welcome with which they 
 will be received, and the speedy re>**ard they will 
 win in the gratitude of the p)oor. 
 
 ** Honorary Members incur no obligation but the 
 contribution of a fixed sum, annually or otherwise, 
 to the Society's fonds, the amount being optional, 
 and no minimum being fixed ; they are entitled to 
 attend all general meetings, retreats, etc, and to 
 participate in the Society's prayers and good works, 
 and they add verj' much to its strength. 
 
 " All men are eligible as Members provided they 
 
 4 
 
40 Frederic Ozanam 
 
 are in a position to contribute anything, however 
 small, to the Society's funds, and are so far prac- 
 tising their religion that they may be expected to 
 edify their fellow-members and be edified by them. 
 
 ** There are 308 Conferences in England, which 
 assemble at a stated time each week, and at which 
 the brothers meet to join in common prayers and 
 spiritual reading, to discuss the visiting and other 
 works in progress, and to promote the objects of the 
 Society. Men desiring to join the Society should 
 communicate in writing with the local President, or 
 with the Secretary of the Superior Council, from 
 whom copies of the rules, reports, and all informa- 
 tion can be obtained. Where no Conference exists, 
 any eligible men may he enrolled as Corresponding 
 members, and will so participate in the works and 
 benefits of the Society. 
 
 ** Ladies cannot be members, but by subscribing 
 an annual amount, however small, they can be en- 
 rolled as * Benefactresses,' and as such are enabled 
 to obtain special Indulgences ; and they may be of 
 great assistance to the Society, either individually 
 or in associations, by entering into communication 
 with it, undertaking to visit cases more suitable to 
 them, dispensing the Society's relief to such cases, 
 and helping to provide clothing, sick relief, bed- 
 ding, or employment for the poor, or distributing 
 literature. 
 
 " The Society is entirely non-political, but is open 
 
The Development of the Society 41 
 
 to co-operate with any charitable societies, whether 
 Catholic or not, for the better care of the poor. 
 
 " The Rule of the Society was duly submitted to 
 and approved by the Holy See, which in token of 
 approbation has at various times enriched the work 
 with ample Indulgences, particulars of which will be 
 found in the Rule Books and cards of the Society. 
 The present Holy Father deigned thus to address 
 the President- General and some other members of 
 the Society, whom he received in private audience 
 on May 11, 1904 : 
 
 "* Beloved Sons,— I wish to thank you for all 
 the good you are doing. Yes, assuredly, I know 
 your Society. I saw it at work at Mantua, and in 
 Venice, where it was rendering invaluable services 
 to the poor by distributing alms, but still more so by 
 bringing them spiritual aid. How many families 
 have been saved through its intervention ! but above 
 all, how many young men have been led back to the 
 right path by it ! The Society of St. Vincent de 
 Paul is a work of apostleship for good, while there 
 are others which are, at the present day, works of 
 apostleship for evil. Continue, therefore, to exercise 
 charity in the way you are doing ; you will find in it 
 peace for your soul, and (he added smihng) when 
 one has done some good in the day, he rests more 
 peacefully at night. Your Society is the work 
 needed for the present times. I will encourage and 
 bless it.' " 
 
42 Frederic Ozanam 
 
 The organization of the Society is as follows : 
 
 The General Council of the Society is situated in 
 Paris. It has jurisdiction over the Superior Councils 
 which are established in every country. 
 
 The Superior Councils have jurisdiction over the 
 various Councils presiding over the Conferences in 
 the districts of the country allotted to them. These 
 are called Central Councils, and have control over 
 what are called Particular Councils serving sub- 
 divisions of their district. 
 
 An example of the organization of the Society in 
 England will best illustrate its methods : 
 
 The Superior Council of England has under it six 
 Central Councils, eighteen Particular Councils, and 
 308 Conferences. 
 
 These Councils are situated respectively at 
 Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Liverpool, Manchester, 
 and Newcastle-on-Tyne. 
 
 Under these Central Councils there are Particular 
 Councils at London, Liverpool, Preston, Manchester, 
 Blackburn, Burnley, Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, New- 
 castle, Jarrow, Durham, Bradford, Leeds, Plymouth, 
 Portsmouth, and Sheffield. There are, in addition, 
 fifty-three isolated Conferences situated in country 
 towns not yet grouped under Particular Councils. 
 
 The total number of active and honorary members 
 attached to the 308 Conferences of the Society in 
 England in 1912 is given as 5,818. The total 
 number of visits paid by them to poor families in 
 
The Development of the Society 43 
 
 igi2 is stated as 160,526. In addition, there were 
 45 orphans partly or wholly supported; 6,149 boys 
 under the care of Patronage Committees ; 2,585 
 boys attending Sunday-schools ; and 3,195 adults 
 attending Clubs and Evening Schools. 
 
 Finally, the net receipts of the Conferences in 
 England in 1912 were ;f 13,575 3s- Qd., and the actual 
 expenditure, ^12,461 7s. 2d. 
 
 The Reports of the Conferences throughout the 
 country to their respective Councils show a remark- 
 able record of the variety of good works carried out 
 by the brothers in addition to their normal work of 
 visiting the poor at their own homes as friends. In 
 nearly every parish some member of the Conference 
 registers the attendance of boys at Mass, and after- 
 wards teaches in the Sunday-schools. Hence they 
 keep in friendly relations with the families of the 
 children. Other members of the Conference attend 
 Police Courts, Workhouses, etc., to see that Catholic 
 children are suitably provided for in respect to religi- 
 ous matters. 
 
 Others, again, organize Boys' Clubs for Cricket and 
 Football, Boys' Brigades, Boy Scouts, etc. They 
 also manage Young Men's Clubs, Evening Schools 
 for adults, etc. 
 
 Some Conferences support, wholly or in part, 
 destitute boys in orphanages, supplying them with 
 clothing, etc. One Conference reports that one of 
 the poor boys under their charge won a scholarship, 
 
44 Frederic Ozanam 
 
 and the Conference provided him with a complete 
 outfit to go to college. 
 
 The most striking point in all the reports of Con- 
 ferences with respect to their patronage works is 
 the prevailing anxiety shown by them to look after 
 the boy at the most critical period of his life, when 
 he leaves the protection of school and home, and is 
 exposed to the demoralizing influence of other boys 
 of his own age, who have had no religious and moral 
 training, and whose sole idea of life is to seek for 
 material pleasures and amusements. 
 
 This is the most important of all works of the 
 Society, for it is training the men of the next genera- 
 tion, who will in turn influence succeeding generations 
 for good or ill. 
 
 Many Conferences allude to the desirability of 
 apprenticing boys to trades which will provide a 
 future for them, but all lament the double barriers 
 which prevent their action. These are, first, the pay- 
 ment of the apprenticeship fee, and the helping to 
 support the boy until such time as he can earn 
 sufficient wages ; and the next is the refusal of the 
 Trades Union to allow more than a certain number 
 of boys to be apprenticed except in proportion to the 
 men employed. 
 
 In Ireland there is a Superior Council in Dublin, 
 with Central Councils at Derry with 15 Con- 
 ferences ; Kilmore with 5 Conferences ; and Down 
 and Connor with 58 Conferences. 
 
The Development of the Society 45 
 
 There are Particular Councils at Dublin with 
 32 Conferences ; Belfast with 20 Conferences ; Cork 
 with 4 Conferences ; Derry with 5 Conferences ; 
 Limerick with 4 Conferences ; and Waterford with 
 4 Conferences. In addition there are 144 isolated 
 Conferences in various districts. The total number 
 of Conferences in Ireland is 210, having 4,601 active 
 and honorary members. 
 
 In Scotland there is a Superior Council of Edin- 
 burgh and I Particular Council with 27 Conferences 
 and 329 active and 46 honorary members. In Glas- 
 gow there is a Superior Council with 67 Conferences 
 and 958 members. There is also the Central 
 Council of Galloway with 9 Conferences and 123 
 active and honorary members. 
 
 In France itself there are 1,522 Conferences, with 
 a membership of 24,300 brothers. 
 
 In Belgium there are 1,188 Conferences with 
 23,689 brothers. 
 
 In Italy there are 342 Conferences, with 6,579 
 brothers. 
 
 Spain has 551 Conferences with 14,921 members. 
 
 Switzerland 72 Conferences and 2,321 members. 
 
 In the Dominions overseas of the British Empire, 
 there are also 337 Conferences with a membership 
 of 11,804 active and honorary brothers. 
 
 In India there is at Bombay the Central Council 
 of Western India with i Particular Council and 
 18 Conferences with 499 active and honorary mem- 
 
46 Frederic Ozanam 
 
 bers. There are also Conferences at Calcutta, Ran- 
 goon, Ceylon, Singapore, Hong-Kong, Shanghai, 
 Gibraltar, and Malta. 
 
 In Canada there is a Superior Council with 2 
 Central and 13 Particular Councils, and 157 Con- 
 ferences with 7,690 active and honorary members. 
 These Conferences are situated in all the provinces 
 and cities of the Dominion. 
 
 In British Guiana there is a Particular Council 
 and 3 Conferences, English and Portuguese. There 
 are also Conferences in Jamaica, Trinidad, Santa 
 Lucia, and Haiti. 
 
 There is a Superior Council of Australasia, com- 
 prising Australia, New Zealand, and Tasmania; it 
 includes 2 Central and g Particular Councils ; there 
 are 175 Conferences with 3,242 active and honorary 
 members. There are Central Councils in New South 
 Wales and Melbourne, and Particular Councils at 
 Melbourne, Sydney, Bendigo, Adelaide, Brisbane, 
 Charters Towers, Christchurch, Wellington, Auck- 
 land, etc. 
 
 In Africa there is a Central Council of the Western 
 Province of Cape Colony, with 6 Conferences; a 
 Central Council at Port Elizabeth with 7 Confer- 
 ences. There are also Conferences at Durban, 
 Pietermaritzburg, Johannesburg, and Kimberley. 
 
 In the United States the first Conference of the 
 Society of St. Vincent de Paul was established in 
 1845 at St. Louis, Missouri, and in New York 
 
The Development of the Society 47 
 
 in 1846. The Society and its objects were enthusi- 
 astically taken up by the practical American people, 
 and it is now thoroughly organized in all the States. 
 The statistics for 1910 show that there were 730 
 Conferences, with 12,062 active and honorary 
 members. In that year there were 24,742 families 
 visited, and 233,044 visits paid to them, while 
 2,949 situations were found for members of the 
 families. The amount expended in charity, etc., 
 during the year was $387,849. 
 
 Among the various works taken up or supervised 
 by the Conferences in the United States may be 
 mentioned the support of Orphans, Homes for 
 homeless lads, or for those employed in works. Boys' 
 Clubs, visits paid to Hospitals and Prisons, Sailors' 
 Homes, Employment Registers, the work known as 
 that of St. Francis Regis for supplying the certificates 
 required by the French Law for marriages, etc. 
 
 The Society of St. Vincent de Paul is entirely a 
 lay organization. The Conferences are established 
 in the parishes with the consent of, and for the 
 assistance of, the parish priest, who generally acts as 
 chaplain. The Rules are simple and practical, and are 
 distinguished by a truly democratic simplicity. The 
 President of the Conference is elected by the members 
 and confirmed by the Council of the town where it 
 is situated. These local Councils consist of the 
 Presidents, Secretaries, and Treasurers of the various 
 Conferences within their jurisdiction. These local 
 
48 Frederic Ozanam 
 
 Councils, again, are grouped into Provincial Councils, 
 which are governed by a Superior Council, which 
 generally includes all those in a nation or province. 
 
 The Council-General of the Society meets in Paris, 
 and is reported to by all the Superior Councils 
 throughout the world. 
 
 The constitution of the Society is essentially demo- 
 cratic ; the President is only primus inter pares, all the 
 members of the Conference, whether they be peers, 
 shopkeepers, or workmen, are equal. No political 
 discussion is permitted at the meetings of the Con- 
 ference. There is another remarkable rule which 
 marks it off from all other charitable societies, there 
 are no paid officers in the Society — all services are 
 gratuitous, and the meetings of most Conferences 
 are held in the schoolrooms of the church. Thus the 
 whole income of the Society goes to the poor direct, 
 for the brothers carry it to their charges on the weekly 
 visits which they pay to them. It may be added, as an 
 example, that the meetings of the Superior Council 
 of England are held in the crypt of one of the 
 London churches. There is a strange contrast 
 shown between the balance sheet of the Society 
 of St. Vincent de Paul and those of the great majority 
 of charitable associations, which generally show an 
 expenditure of about one-third of the total subscrip- 
 tions in the costs of administration. 
 
 Another characteristic of the Society is the spirit 
 of Catholic modesty and self-effacement which was 
 
The Development of the Society 49 
 
 enjoined on its members by Ozanam. He was 
 intensely opposed to ostentation, and did not approve 
 of the brothers wearing any distinctive dress or 
 badge, or even of their taking part oiBcially as a 
 body in any pubHc ceremony or procession. But he 
 strongly recommended the brothers to mingle in the 
 ranks of any religious processions of the people in 
 private dress, and thus to encourage the devotion of 
 the poor whom they visit. 
 
 It would seem that the Society of St. Vincent de 
 Paul, with its unassuming and practical work and its 
 absence of any kind of self-advertisement, should be 
 a very attractive one to Englishmen, in whom the 
 spirit of philanthropy is so general. But the work 
 does not appear to be sufficiently known or under- 
 stood, or the number of its members would be 
 greater and its finances strengthened. Nevertheless 
 we see frequently in Catholic newspapers piteous 
 complaints of recent converts that they cannot find 
 sufficient outlets in their parishes for their fervent 
 zeal. And yet there is a Conference of the Society in 
 every parish, at the weekly meetings of which a few un- 
 obtrusive members attend and study the needs of the 
 poor, who, as our Lord said, " are always with us." 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 THE FUTURE OF THE SOCIETY 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE FUTURE OF THE SOCIETY 
 
 The Society of St. Vincent de Paul is destined to 
 play an important part in the future of the Catholic 
 Church in England. For it is a living contradiction 
 to the falsehoods about Catholics, which have been 
 repeated ad nauseam by historians during the past 
 three hundred years. Our Church has been repre- 
 sented as the enemy of civilization and of liberty, 
 and Catholics generally as a superstitious, uneducated, 
 and weak-minded class. Less than a century has 
 passed since Catholics gained their rights as citizens. 
 Many of us must remember the stigma under which 
 in youth we laboured as Catholics. Most of the 
 professions were closed against us, as well as all the 
 great Enghsh Universities. Everything we did was 
 misrepresented and distorted in the pubhc Press; 
 monks and nuns were shamefully vilified and 
 accused of dark and mysterious outrages in their 
 convents. And all these lies were believed against 
 us by the Protestant public. 
 
 But a great change has taken place in public 
 opinion during the past fifty years. It has been 
 
 5» 
 
The Future of the Society 53 
 
 found that, after all, Catholics are not the evil-dis- 
 posed people they were thought to be, and that they 
 are even capable of doing some good. And this 
 change has been partly brought about by the Society 
 of St. Vincent de Paul. For although it does not 
 advertise its good works as Protestant societies do, 
 nor spend one-third of its income in salaries (or 
 even any of it), the example of its brothers in visiting 
 and relieving the poor, and the self-sacrifice which 
 this entails, is gradually getting known throughout 
 the country. 
 
 Sir Arthur Helps said that there is no better 
 training for life than the discipline of the playground 
 of a public school, and he was right. But for a study 
 of human life and character there is no better school 
 than a Conference of St. Vincent de Paul. In the 
 visits which a brother pays to his cases, what 
 dramas and even tragedies of real life he meets with ! 
 What comedies and even farces, caused by ignorance 
 and inexperience! What touching examples of 
 charity and self-sacrifice among the very poorest in 
 helping one another ! Believe me, we have more to 
 learn from the cases we visit than we can teach 
 them ! 
 
 To compare the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in 
 1844, when it was established in England, with 
 that of 1913 is like comparing the Thames at its 
 source among the hills, where a man can jump 
 across it, with the great stream at London Bridge. 
 
54 Frederic Ozanam 
 
 From being a small and insignificant Society it has 
 grown to be a mighty influence for good throughout 
 the world. It might well say with the Roman poet : 
 
 " Quae regio in terris, nostri non plena laboris !" 
 
 But it would not accord with the modest spirit of 
 the Society to make such a boast. 
 
 Ozanam's prophecy that the Society would prove 
 an antidote to the poison of Socialism is likely to be 
 verified in England in such districts as are influenced 
 by the Conferences. In founding the Society he 
 tried to realize a dream of his youth ; he saw that 
 in his own country men were divided into two cate- 
 gories — the rich and landed gentry, and the working 
 classes. The rich looked down on the poor as being 
 ignorant and uncultivated slaves, while the poor 
 regarded the rich as a class of men living upon the 
 fruits of the toil of the working classes. Ozanam 
 recognized that there was a modicum of truth in 
 both views. He knew that one of the causes of the 
 first French Revolution had been the well-known 
 indifference shown by the landowners of France to 
 the welfare of the people who cultivated their lands 
 and created their large revenues, and whom they 
 treated as serfs. He knew that in the sight of God 
 all men, whether Kings or peasants, masters or 
 servants, were equal, and that the Church had 
 always treated them as such. The sons of peasants 
 had become Bishops and Popes; and many Saints 
 
The Future of the Society 55 
 
 canonized by her were of the same extraction. 
 He knew that the monastic life was the realization 
 of an ideal republic, where the Abbot, perhaps the 
 son of a peasant, was often the ruler of a community 
 which counted among its numbers Princes and 
 members of the highest families in the land. And yet 
 he was only primus inter pares. " Liberty, Equality, 
 and Fraternity," for which the revolutionaries raved 
 hypocritically, were only to be found in perfection 
 within the walls of a monastery. 
 
 In his lectures at the Sorbonne he had always 
 argued that history proved that the Church had ever 
 been the true promoter of civilization and culture 
 and the protector of the poor. It was necessary 
 that this fact should be brought home to the hearts 
 of the people, and both he and his friend Lacordaire 
 impressed this upon their hearers in their lectures 
 and sermons. But the poor and the workmen did 
 not frequent either the Sorbonne or the Notre Dame, 
 and they only knew of either by the travesties which 
 were published in the infidel papers, which alone 
 they read. 
 
 Ozanam felt that the only way to reach the minds 
 and hearts of the working classes must be by laymen. 
 The anti-clerical feeling in Paris was very strong, and 
 a priest would not be listened to. And it was for 
 this reason that he established the Conferences of 
 St. Vincent de Paul. 
 
 He determined that the Conference should consist 
 
 5 
 
56 Frederic Ozanam 
 
 of laymen, not priests ; not a confraternity, but a 
 meeting of friends united unassumingly to do good 
 to the poor, to visit, advise, and relieve them, thus 
 performing the spiritual and corporal works of mercy. 
 He was totally opposed to the Society advertising 
 itself in any way, either by badge or by publishing 
 lists of subscriptions. 
 
 When Ozanam spoke to the men of Paris in praise 
 of the Church, and in commendation of her power to 
 heal the evils of Society, it was said to him : " If you 
 speak of the past, what you say is true. Christianity 
 did do wonders, but now it is played out. What 
 works are you doing to prove your Faith, and to 
 make us respect and believe it ?" Ozanam felt the 
 full force of the retort, and resolved to remove further 
 occasion for it. He said to his Catholic friends : " We 
 must bestir ourselves and make our actions agree 
 with our Faith. Let us, therefore, turn to the assist- 
 ance of the needy, and so put our faith under the 
 protection of charity." 
 
 In this you have the true motto of the Society of 
 St. Vincent de Paul — Faith, under the protection of 
 Charity. The Society was created to be a vindica- 
 tion of the Church by the exercise of charity in its 
 widest sense, charity for mind, charity for heart, 
 charity for the body, charity for the whole man — 
 full and perfect service to our neighbour by charity 
 of the spirit. The Society was intended to be a 
 proof of the healing power of Christianity, a testimony 
 
The Future of the Society 57 
 
 before men of the truth and beneficence of the 
 Church. Is this idea too ambitious ? Ozanam 
 would have replied that no one can measure the 
 power of charity, for it appeals to the human heart 
 as nothing else can. Force may compel an un- 
 willing submission, but the loving counsel of a friend 
 wins the heart and keeps it. 
 
 As the good work done by the Society becomes 
 better known and appreciated, the Conferences 
 must increase in number, and attract to themselves 
 numbers of active and honorary members, especially 
 of young men. The weekly meetings of the Confer- 
 ences are short and business-like, the subscriptions 
 are placed secretly in a bag like any ordinary collec- 
 tion in church, nobody knows what his neighbour 
 has given. The case which is given to the brother to 
 visit will deeply interest him, the employment of the 
 father, his wages, his health, the attendance of the 
 children at Mass and Sunday-schools, their employ- 
 ment when they leave school, and their supervision ; 
 all of these are matters of human interest, and sub- 
 jects of special study. 
 
 Some persons have objected to join or to subscribe 
 to the Conferences of St. Vincent de Paul upon 
 principle. They said that they thought that alms- 
 giving to the poor was very demoralizing and 
 pauperizing, that it was humiliating to the poor, 
 and destructive of their manly self-respect and inde- 
 pendence. But does not everything depend upon 
 
58 Frederic Ozanam 
 
 the way the help is offered? No brother of the 
 Society of St. Vincent de Paul could confirm such 
 a theory from his personal experience. They are 
 not relieving officers ; they visit the families as 
 friends and sympathizers, anxious to know how 
 they can help the family — by advice as to the 
 children, by getting hospital tickets when required, 
 by arranging quarrels and family disputes, by getting 
 the children employment when they leave school, 
 or by suitable introductions. They do not go to 
 patronize but to fraternize ; they sit down and talk 
 familiarly with the family, showing that they come 
 as friends and by no means as patrons. Hence it 
 comes that the brother is always a welcome visitor. 
 The material relief is always a subsidiary matter, it 
 is the friendly interest and advice which is valued. 
 
 The Society already comprises a great number of 
 works of charity of every description, but it is always 
 ready to join in any work which may benefit the 
 poor ; for it has adopted literally Ozanam's noble 
 motto : " No good work is foreign to the Society." 
 Future generations will inevitably witness a great 
 development, not only in the number of Conferences, 
 but also in that of the brothers. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 THE CENTENARY CELEBRATIONS IN PARIS 
 AND MANCHESTER 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 THE CENTENARY CELEBRATIONS IN PARIS AND 
 MANCHESTER 
 
 A Centenary Celebration in the honour of Frederic 
 Ozanam was solemnly held at Paris. It was an 
 international meeting, and was attended by repre- 
 sentatives of the Conferences of the Society from all 
 parts of the world. The 5,000 members of the 
 Society in Paris were joined by 1,356 from the 
 provinces and abroad. Cardinal Vincent Vannutelli, 
 who was sent by the Holy Father as Papal Legate to 
 attend the Centenary, arrived at Paris on April 23, 
 1913, accompanied by his suite. On the same day 
 he received the President and the members of the 
 Council-General of the Society, and expressed his 
 satisfaction at having been chosen to preside at 
 the Centenary festivities to celebrate the memory 
 of a great apostle of Truth and Charity. The Holy 
 Father's words in sending him were : " Ozanam 
 is one of the men who have most honoured Christ 
 in the poor ; is it not therefore right that the Pope, 
 Christ's representative on earth, should honour him 
 in his turn ?" 
 
 60 
 
The Centenary Celebrations in Paris 6i 
 
 The first meeting was held at the Catholic Institute, 
 under the Presidency of the Right Rev. Monsignor 
 Baudrillart, the Rector, and was attended by the 
 members of the Council- General and a vast con- 
 course of the brothers. 
 
 On Saturday, at the Church of the Carmelites, 
 Mass was celebrated by Monsignor Baudrillart in 
 the presence of the Cardinal Legate, the Cardinals 
 of Paris, Rheims, and the Bishops attending. Holy 
 Communion was given to 3,000 of the members 
 present. An eloquent sermon upon the principle of 
 Charity was preached by His Eminence Cardinal 
 Lugon. 
 
 After the Mass, the Cardinals, accompanied by the 
 Bishops, the members of the Council-General, and 
 the representatives of Ozanam's family, descended to 
 the crypt, where lie the remains of Frederic Ozanam. 
 Prayers having been recited, the Cardinal Legate 
 blessed the monument which has been erected to the 
 memory of their founder by generous subscriptions 
 from the Conferences of the Society throughout the 
 world. The mausoleum, which rests between two 
 pillars decorated with palms, is surmounted by a 
 pendant in which Ozanam's profile is depicted in 
 a medallion. The whole effect is solemn and religious, 
 and the work is carefully carried out. 
 
 At the International General Meeting the Cardinal 
 Legate presided, attended by the Cardinals Arch- 
 bishops of Paris and Rheims; the Archbishop of 
 
62 Frederic Ozanam 
 
 Sens; the Bishops of Amiens, Clermont, Troyes, 
 Aire, Meaux, Moulins ; Monsignor Baudrillart ; the 
 Abb6 Ozanam, nephew of Frederic Ozanam ; Messrs. 
 Laporte, son-in-law and grandson of Ozanam ; the 
 Marquis de Vogue, Comte d'Haussonville, and the 
 Presidents of many Paris charities. 
 
 After reading the customary prayers. Cardinal 
 Vannutelli handed to the Secretary- General the 
 following letter from the Holy Father : 
 
 To OUR Venerable Brother Vincent Vannu- 
 telli, Cardinal of the Holy Roman 
 Church, Bishop of Palestrina. 
 
 PIUS X., POPE. 
 
 Esteemed Brother, — Health and Apostolic 
 Benediction. 
 
 We have learned that in a short time, a century 
 having passed since the birth of Anthony Frederic 
 Ozanam, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul is pre- 
 paring to celebrate the memory of this great man by 
 a solemn commemoration. We greatly approve of 
 such a project, and very willingly We shall act so as 
 to make those celebrations yet more solemn by Our 
 participation therein. In fact. We not only find it 
 right to honour the name of him who devoted his 
 entire life (too short, alas !) to prove by his writings 
 and deeds the salutary efficaciousness of the Catholic 
 
The Centenary Celebrations in Paris 63 
 
 Faith, so much so that he has been ranked among 
 the most distinguished champions of Christian 
 science ; but neither do We wish to let the present 
 opportunity escape, without asserting once more 
 how much we are in favour of the work called the 
 Conferences, of which Ozanam is rightly considered 
 the principal founder. This Association, which is 
 exclusively devoted to works of Christian Charity, 
 and which so justly claims for itself the name and 
 protection of St. Vincent de Paul, cannot fail to win 
 admiration for the shortness of the time in which 
 it has been everywhere propagated, and for the profit 
 it has brought to all. Scarcely had Our beloved 
 Ozanam, with a few companions actuated by the 
 same spirit and zeal, sown its seeds, than it firmly 
 planted its roots, and that, more promptly than 
 people could have supposed, it grew up into a large 
 and widespreading tree, extending its branches over 
 the country, a development in harmony with the 
 genius of the French nation, which no other race 
 surpasses in activity or fecundity in undertakings 
 calculated to promote religion. At the present time, 
 this work of the Conferences, spread afar over the 
 whole universe, is most useful, not only to the multi- 
 tude of indigent poor, whom it provides with prac- 
 tical relief, both for the present life and for the world 
 to come, but also to the members themselves, whom 
 it trains admirably in sanctification by means of 
 different works of Christian charity. 
 
64 Frederic Ozanam 
 
 These considerations are quite sufficient to cause 
 Us to be among the first to take part in the celebra- 
 tions which are in preparation, and to make Us wish 
 that the honours paid to so deserving a personage 
 may develop among men a knowledge and a liking 
 for his work. Assuredly, in the present great up- 
 heaval of all things, the result of false doctrines and 
 of the licence of wicked desires, it would be extremely 
 useful to civil society if those who are trying to give 
 it a Christian discipline would take Ozanam for their 
 master and guide. Accordingly, you must implore 
 God for an ever-increasing extension of the Society 
 of St. Vincent de Paul, in order that it may propa- 
 gate in all directions, even in the most remote 
 regions, the salutary practices for which it is indebted 
 to its founder. 
 
 Furthermore, in the meeting which the delegates 
 of the Conferences are about to hold in Paris, at the 
 headquarters of the Council-General, we wish to 
 have someone to interpret these wishes of Our inmost 
 heart. For this purpose We see no person more fit 
 to receive such a mission than the Cardinal of the 
 Holy Roman Church, who has for the past twenty 
 years been Protector of the said Society on behalf of 
 the Apostolic See, who participates in its works, and 
 very actively promotes its enterprises. 
 
 Accordingly, it is you, esteemed brother, whom We 
 send as Our Legate, to express in Our name, at this 
 assembly the sentiments We show to you by the 
 
The Centenary Celebrations in Paris 65 
 
 present letter. You will also bear the Apostolic 
 blessing, pledge of heavenly favours, to the Council- 
 General, to the other members who, as We have just 
 said, will be at that meeting, to all those whom the 
 Society of St. Vincent de Paul unites together as 
 members, or assists as poor people ; to all the dis- 
 tinguished men, either the clergy, or the faithful, 
 who shall have contributed in any way to enhance 
 the said celebrations. And this blessing We give 
 to you first of all most affectionately, esteemed 
 brother. 
 
 Given at Rome, near St. Peter's, on the day of the 
 Feast of Easter, in the year 1913, tenth of Our 
 Pontificate. 
 
 Pius X., Pope. 
 
 Eloquent panegyrics upon Ozanam were then 
 delivered by His Eminence Cardinal Vannutelli, the 
 Cardinal-Archbishop of Paris, and by M. Calon, 
 President-General of the Society of St. Vincent de 
 Paul, who read out a telegram of thanksgiving which 
 he was sending to Cardinal Merry del Val. 
 
 After a solemn blessing to the brothers of the 
 Society by Cardinal Vannutelli, the meeting broke 
 up. At a subsequent meeting important papers were 
 read upon the commencement of the Society in Italy 
 by a member of the Superior Council there, and in 
 Belgium by the President of the Superior Council at 
 Brussels. 
 
66 Frederic Ozanam 
 
 The national centenary celebrations of the birth 
 of Frederic Ozanam, the founder of the Society of 
 St. Vincent de Paul, took place in Manchester on 
 May 30, 1913. Although celebrations of inter- 
 national character were held in Paris at Easter, the 
 English Conferences, desirous of marking the festival 
 on English soil, called on the brothers to rally at 
 Manchester, which was considered the town most 
 centrally situated. The Cardinal-Archbishop of 
 Westminster, the Archbishop of Liverpool, the 
 Bishop of Salford, other members of the Hierarchy, 
 and brothers from all over the country participated 
 in the rejoicings. The dominant note of the three 
 days' proceedings was struck by the Cardinal's 
 thrilling appeal to the Catholic young men of 
 England to take up the noble work begun by 
 Ozanam. The deliberations of the conferences 
 generally should prove of practical value. The 
 Cardinal's suggestion that the brothers should 
 supervise the emigration of Catholic grown-up men, 
 and the Archbishop of Liverpool's question as to 
 whether the brothers could not enlarge the scope of 
 their activities for the poor by becoming pawnbrokers 
 and money-lenders, have been eagerly discussed. 
 Brother A. Carey, who described the attitude of the 
 society to the Liverpool education authority's scheme 
 for the after-care of school-children, contributed a 
 short but pregnant speech, which will doubtless 
 greatly influence Conferences all over the country 
 
Centenary Celebrations in Manchester 67 
 
 when they are fronted — as is likely they soon will be 
 by the same problem. 
 
 The proceedings opened on Friday night with 
 a large informal gathering in the Grand Hotel, to 
 welcome the visitors. The Bishops of Salford, 
 Sebastopolis, and Teos were present, and the former 
 gave a short address of welcome. A programme of 
 music was arranged for the occasion. 
 
 On Saturday morning, at eleven o'clock, a 
 solemn High Mass of Requiem was celebrated 
 in St. John's Cathedral, Salford, by his Lordship, 
 Bishop Vaughan. 
 
 THE OPENING MEETING. 
 
 A great meeting was held on Saturday afternoon in 
 St. Patrick's Hall. Long before the hour appointed, a 
 great concourse of people lined the thoroughfares leading 
 to St. Patrick's presbytery. The interior of the hall 
 was gaily decorated with flags and plants, whilst a large 
 banner in the centre had inscribed upon it " Welcome to 
 our Cardinal." 
 
 His Eminence presided at the meeting, and was 
 supported on the platform by the Bishop of Salford, the 
 Bishop of Shrewsbury, Bishop H anion. Bishop Butt, 
 Bishop Mclntyre, Monsignor Canon O'Kelly, V.G., 
 Very Rev. Father Joseph P. Bannin, P.S.M., Canon 
 Sharrock, Rev. Fathers Wookey and Thomas Walsh, 
 Alderman D. McCabe, J. P., Councillor Charles Egan, etc. 
 
 The Superior Council, in the absence of the President, 
 Sir John Knill, Bart., was represented by Brother 
 
68 Frederic Ozanam 
 
 F. A. R. Langton, Vice-President, Hon. A. E. Bingham, 
 and Leonard C. Lindsay, Secretary. There were also 
 present : Brother C. Hadfield (President of the Sheffield 
 Council), Brother C. J. Munich, K.S.G. (London), Brother 
 C. E. Marchall (President of the Manchester Central 
 Council), Brother James Reynolds, P.L.G. (Treasurer 
 of the Manchester Council), Brother James Connor 
 (Secretary of the Manchester Council), and Brother J. 
 Rossall. 
 
 Father Bannin opened the proceedings with prayer, 
 after which Father Wookey gave a spiritual reading. 
 
 His Eminence the Cardinal read the following : 
 
 Telegram to the Holy Father. 
 
 " Cardinal Merry del Val, Vatican, Rome. National 
 Ozanam Celebration in Manchester, seven Bishops 
 present, with members of Society of St. Vincent de 
 Paul, offers homage to His Holiness, rejoices at his 
 recovery, begs his blessing for themselves, benefactors, 
 and the poor " (loud applause). 
 
 The Bishop of Salford's Welcome. 
 
 The Bishop of Salford then said : " The task that has 
 been assigned to me this afternoon is an entirely deUght- 
 ful one. It is one which I won't say is a duty, but is a 
 very great privilege. It is the task of welcoming the 
 Society of St. Vincent de Paul, not only those belonging 
 to this county, not only those belonging to this diocese, 
 but to the whole of England — of welcoming them to our 
 city in order that we may celebrate the centenary of 
 their chief founder, the great Frederic Ozanam. When I 
 was approached some months ago with a request from the 
 Central Council in London that the National English 
 
Centenary Celebrations in Manchester 69 
 
 Celebration of this Centenary should take place in 
 Manchester, I need not tell you, I am sure, I felt highly 
 flattered, and I felt, and I am sure all the Manchester 
 brothers felt, complimented that our city should have 
 been selected as the central point to honour the memory 
 of Ozanam. 
 
 " I am sorry," Dr. Casartelli proceeded, " his Grace 
 the Archbishop of Liverpool is not here this afternoon, 
 because I should have liked to have quoted to him what 
 one of our leading Manchester daily newspapers stated 
 this morning in explanation of why Manchester had been 
 chosen for this honour. It says : ' Because Manchester 
 is the chief city of the most Catholic county in England.' 
 I think this a most intelligent remark, and I have no 
 doubt that this is the opinion of the Central Council of 
 the Society of St. Vincent de Paul also, because if it is 
 not, I cannot understand why they should have shown 
 us this honour. In my own name, as Bishop of this 
 diocese, in the name of my clergy, and in the name 
 of the brothers of the local Conferences, I offer you 
 all a most hearty and sincere welcome to this our 
 city." 
 
 Dr. Casartelli proceeded to say that it was very gratify- 
 ing to think that their visit to the city of Manchester 
 was not unwelcome to their fellow-citizens at large. 
 The Lord Mayor had most kindly and most cordially 
 entered into that welcome, and had thrown open the 
 Town Hall in honour of the brothers and their friends. 
 
 The Early History of the Society in England. 
 
 A paper written by Brother Archibald J. Dunn, on 
 "The Early History of the Society in England," 
 
70 Frederic Ozanam 
 
 was read in that gentleman's absence by Brother 
 Lindsay. 
 
 The first beginnings of the Society in this country were 
 due, under God, to George Jonas Wigley, a Lancashire 
 man, who was born in Manchester in the year 1825. 
 His father and mother having died while he was still a 
 child, his aunt, Miss Wigley, took him to France and 
 had him educated at the school established by Mon- 
 seigneur Haflfreingue in Boulogne. Later he was sent 
 to Stonyhurst College, which he entered in the year 1837. 
 Finishing his studies there, he returned to Paris and 
 entered the ** Ecole des Beaux Arts " to study for his 
 chosen profession of architect. Here he joined a group 
 of young men, fervent Catholics, who attended the 
 lectures at the Sorbonne of Professor Frederic Ozanam, 
 who was at that time delivering a course on the " History 
 of Civilization in the Fifth Century." These lectures 
 attracted much public attention, and were furiously 
 attacked in the anti-clerical Press. Large numbers of 
 students from the University attended the lectures with 
 the object of shouting down the Professor and disturbing 
 the audience ; for the followers of Rousseau and Voltaire 
 realized that Ozanam was destroying the foundation 
 upon which all their anti- Catholic theories had been 
 based. In 1833 Ozanam proposed the formation of a 
 Conference for the purpose of visiting the poor in their 
 own homes, and seven young men at once volunteered 
 to join him. The Archbishop of Paris warmly approved 
 of the project, and gave it his blessing. Thus was 
 established the first Conference of the S. V. P. The rules 
 had been drawn up with French precision, and Wigley 
 translated them into English. He sent them to his 
 friend, Frederick Lucas, and urged upon him to establish 
 
Centenary Celebrations in Manchester 71 
 
 a Conference of the Society in London. Wigley, as soon 
 as he had taken his diploma as an architect, returned to 
 London to practise his profession. Eventually, having 
 already watched the progress of the Society in France, 
 Wigley called upon Bishop Griffiths, in London, the 
 Vicar-Apostolic of the London district at the time, and 
 sought his interest. The Bishop warmly approved of 
 the proposal, and invited several prominent and influential 
 Catholics to meet and establish the Society. Wigley 
 acted as provisional secretary. Mr. Fred Lucas was 
 elected the first president, but on his refusal, Mr. Pag- 
 liano was offered and accepted the post. This was in 
 the year 1844. The London conference was affiliated 
 to that in Paris, and the rules of the English Society 
 were printed, and the work commenced at Mr. Pagliano's 
 Hotel, the Sabloni^re, in Leicester Square. In 1848 
 Wigley repaired to Paris to help Brother Ozanam in 
 the trying times of the Revolution, and they were 
 both witnesses to the death of the saintly Arch- 
 bishop of Paris, who was shot down in the streets. 
 When the Revolution was ended Wigley went to 
 Rome, and was created by Pius IX. a Knight of St. 
 Sylvester, as a reward for his services to the Church. 
 Returning later to England, Brother Wigley entered 
 actively into the work of the Society, joining the Confer- 
 ence of Warwick Street, London. " I first met Brother 
 Wigley," writes the author of this paper, " at meetings of 
 the London Council in 1857. The president then was 
 Brother George Blount, and the other members were 
 Brothers Renfric and Henry Arundell, J. Sidney Lescher, 
 Charles Corney, John Stuart Knill, John St. Lawrence, 
 S. J. NichoU, J. J. H. Saint, Hubert Jerningham, and 
 George Wigley, who was foreign secretary." The paper 
 
 6 
 
72 Frederic Ozanam 
 
 next reviewed Wigley's incursions into Catholic 
 journalism, at the request of Cardinal Wiseman, and also 
 his great work (again with the Society at his back) as 
 secretary of the St. Peter's Pence Association — an 
 organization which assisted the Pope financially in the 
 period following the Italian Revolution. This Society, 
 which owed its inception to Wigley, was a success, as 
 much as ;f 300 per month being sent to Rome. Poor 
 Wigley eventually died of fever in Italy, contracted 
 through attending a fever-stricken sailor. He was an 
 Oriental scholar, and had the reputation of understanding 
 seventeen languages, always a most amiable and kind- 
 hearted man, but very unconventional. He was very 
 proud of being a " Lancashire lad," and prophesied that 
 the Society of St. Vincent de Paul would flourish more in 
 the North than in the South of England. 
 
 In the discussion which followed, Father Wookey 
 asked whether the prophecy of Brother Wigley had as 
 yet been fulfilled. If the reply was in the negative, 
 was it not time they made a start to see to its fulfil- 
 ment? 
 
 Father Bannin, who has charge of the Italian parish in 
 London, disputed the claim that the initiative of the St, 
 Vincent de Paul Society in this country was altogether 
 due to Brother Wigley. On behalf of the Italians, the 
 Reverend speaker claimed that Ozanam was born in Milan, 
 and was, therefore, an Italian. Brother Wigley was a 
 cosmopolitan. His family now resided in Milan ; he 
 died in Rome ; and he was a man who spoke almost every 
 language upon the earth except his own mother tongue. 
 In fact, he was half Manchester and half Italian. Father 
 Bannin also maintained that Brother Pagliano, an Italian, 
 was the first president of any English Conference. 
 
Centenary Celebrations in Manchester 73 
 
 Father Bannin concluded by saying that the Society 
 might yet hope to see Frederic Ozanam, although a lay- 
 man, upon the altars of the Church. There was no 
 reason why the cause of his Beatification should not go 
 on. He asked them all to pray unceasingly that Frederic 
 Ozanam might soon be found worthy of that great honour 
 and dignity (applause). 
 
 Brother C. E. Marshall (president of the Manchester 
 Council), in the course of an address, said he had 
 suggested to the Superior Council that the Society 
 should take charge in some way or other of the Catholic 
 emigrants leaving this country. They knew that there 
 were a great number year by year who left these shores 
 for the Colonies, and they heard from brothers in various 
 parts that Catholics, or at least many of them, who 
 emigrated, were led astray, either on the voyage or just 
 after landing. Mr. Marshall submitted that the local 
 branches should ascertain all possible particulars about 
 intending emigrants, and keep the London Council fully 
 posted up. The Superior Council would then know 
 what Catholic emigrants would be on board a particular 
 steamer, and a chaplain and other Catholics travelling on 
 the same steamer might be asked to interest themselves 
 in the emigrants. By these means Catholics would get 
 to know one another on the voyage, and therein safe- 
 guards to many would be assured. The names of the 
 emigrants and all particulars could be sent to the various 
 ports in the Colonies, where the brothers would meet the 
 steamers. 
 
 His Eminence Cardinal Bourne stated that at the 
 present time the North had as many as 2,812 members, 
 and the South 3,01 1. When they came to analyze them, 
 however, they would find that in the North there were 
 
74 Frederic Ozanam 
 
 2,089 active members, and in the South 1,731. In the 
 North again, there were 725 honorary members and in 
 the South 1,276. So they would see that there was 
 plenty of room for development both in the North 
 and South. In congratulating Mr. Archibald Dunn 
 on his interesting paper concerning the early days 
 of the Society in England, the Cardinal said that 
 names were mentioned in that account, the memories 
 of which ought certainly never to be lost in this 
 country. Men such as Bishop Griffiths, who welcomed 
 the Society, and Frederick Lucas, who did untold 
 good for the Church in this country, vigorously — some- 
 times, perhaps, too vigorously — but who certainly did an 
 immense work for the Church of God as editor of the 
 Tablet. And the next was Brother Wigley, whose name 
 was almost forgotten. The account given to them, 
 proceeded his Eminence, was of special interest to him- 
 self. It brought back the fact to their minds that in the 
 early days their Society in England was known as the 
 Brotherhood of St. Vincent de Paul. One of the early 
 Conferences was founded at St. Edmund's College, Old 
 Hall, Ware, and that Conference survived to this day. 
 He himself was a member of it, and it had always been 
 known in that College as the Brotherhood of St. Vincent 
 de Paul. And in alluding to that fact he would like to 
 express the hope and the wish that, whatever the name 
 of the Society might be, it might always be permeated 
 by that spirit of brotherhood which it had had from the 
 beginning. 
 
 No suggestion, continued the Cardinal, that had been 
 made at any recent meeting of the Society of St. Vincent 
 de Paul appeared to him more worthy of attention than 
 that regarding emigration. This question of the care of 
 
Centenary Celebrations in Manchester 75 
 
 their emigrants was a very pressing one indeed. All 
 their various Rescue Societies had been coalesced into a 
 Catholic Emigration Society, and considerable provision 
 had thus been made for the emigration of boys and girls 
 to Canada, but no such provision had, as far as he knew, 
 been made in connection with other parts of the British 
 Empire. Until a short time ago no provision even for 
 women emigrating to Canada existed, but now, thanks to 
 the efforts of the Catholic Women's League, due provision 
 had been made. A hostel had been started in Liverpool 
 by them, and Catholic women, who intended going to 
 Canada, would have the opportunity, if they cared to 
 avail themselves of it, of emigrating under Catholic 
 auspices. But, so far as he knew, there were no pro- 
 visions whatever for Catholic grown-up men going out 
 anywhere under the auspices of any Catholic Society ; 
 they had no provision for the emigration of Catholics, 
 whether men or women, boys or girls, to any other part 
 of the world. He had been speaking lately to the 
 recently appointed Bishop of Calgary, and the feeling 
 was expressed that the great thing was, if possible, to get 
 Catholics to emigrate to some centre where Catholics 
 already resided in numbers, or failing that to get their 
 people to emigrate in groups and form a settlement in 
 the new Canadian countries. If Catholics in twos and 
 threes settled in places where Catholics were not 
 numerous, they were in great danger of being very easily 
 absorbed into non- Catholic communities around them. 
 In many places there was no Catholic church at all, 
 whilst the nearest priest obtainable was some fifty miles 
 away. The churches in these rising townships in 
 Western Canada were, as everywhere else, the centres 
 of social intercourse on Sundays. People came in from 
 
76 Frederic Ozanam 
 
 farms situated sometimes at great distances, and, for the 
 sake of social intimacy, drifted towards the EpiscopaUan, 
 the Presbyterian, or the Wesleyan chapels. If Catholic 
 emigrants could be persuaded by Catholic Societies to go 
 either to those places where Catholics already existed in 
 numbers, or arrange to emigrate in groups and start a 
 Catholic centre, not only would they be protected to a 
 large extent against the loss of their own faith, but they 
 would be the means of building up the Catholic Church 
 in Canada. All the Bishops in the Western parts of 
 Canada were of the same opinion. They had no Society 
 whatever to look after the men of their Faith who 
 emigrated, so if the Society of St. Vincent de Paul would 
 take in hand this duty, with that devotedness, earnest- 
 ness, and world-wide charity known to them, he did not 
 know of any greater work of charity that could be com- 
 mitted to their care. 
 
 His Eminence spoke also of the emigration to New 
 Zealand and Australia. In the former country Catholics 
 had representation on a committee that was formed for 
 dealing with emigrants, but they had no Catholic Society 
 to deal with boys and young men who wished to go to 
 Australia. The field out there for emigrants was simply 
 enormous, and the area was almost inconceivable. He 
 was speaking the other day to the Catholic Bishop of 
 Perth, Western Australia, who told him that, when he 
 wished to visit certain parts of his vast diocese, he had to 
 undertake a journey necessitating a sea passage of four 
 whole days. The day must come, sooner or later, his 
 Eminence concluded, when they would find that Catholics 
 would be setting their faces in the direction of emigration 
 to Australia, and it was, therefore, very important indeed 
 that some organization should be set on foot to deal with 
 
Centenary Celebrations in Manchester 'j'j 
 
 it, and with all his heart he welcomed the suggestion of 
 Brother Marshall, and trusted that the Society of St. 
 Vincent de Paul would be able to put it into practice as 
 soon as possible. 
 
 MAYORAL RECEPTION. 
 
 The Right Hon. the Lord Mayor of Manchester 
 (Mr. H. W. Royse) had intended to hold a reception at 
 the Town Hall on Saturday evening, to welcome His 
 Eminence the Cardinal, the Bishops, and the visiting 
 brothers of the Society. As many as 1,200 invitations 
 were sent out. His Lordship, owing to an unfortunate 
 indisposition, was prevented at the last moment from 
 attending the function, and his place was taken by the 
 Lady Mayoress and Dr. Eraser and Mrs. Eraser. The 
 reception — unique so far as Manchester is concerned — was 
 a brilliant afifair. 
 
 THE PARAMOUNT NEED. 
 
 YOUNG MEN AND THE SOCIETY'S WORK. 
 
 Cardinal Bourne presided over the mass meeting of 
 the delegates and the general body of Manchester 
 Catholics, held in the Free Trade Hall, on Sunday after- 
 noon. His Eminence was accompanied on the platform 
 by the Archbishop of Liverpool, the Bishop of Salford, 
 Bishops Mclntyre, Hanlon, and Vaughan, Mgr. Canon 
 O'Kelly, V.G., Mgr. Jackman, D.D., the Mayor of 
 Battersea (Brother T. Brogan), and a representative body 
 of clergy and laity. 
 
78 Frederic Ozanam 
 
 The Mayor of Battersea, who delivered an eloquent 
 address, said that the brothers were fighting together for 
 the great common cause for the common good of the 
 common people. Europe was an armed camp. The 
 Cross and the Crescent had again been in conflict, and 
 thousands of the dead were lying unburied on the battle- 
 fields of the Near East. In the factory, in the work- 
 shop, in the office, the brothers of St. Vincent de Paul 
 had to preach the great lesson of Christian charity their 
 great Founder had implanted in their hearts. They had 
 to spread the noble gospel that the great work of life 
 was not to destroy life, but to preserve it. They had to 
 show to the world that the spirit of Frederic Ozanam 
 was alive in their hearts to-day, and that it was growing 
 up a great, powerful, dominant force, which would 
 eventually make England a better England, the Empire 
 a better Empire, and the world a better world. But 
 there was other work than this — work nearer to hand 
 and, perhaps, more easy of immediate accomplishment. 
 In the richest country of the world, with the wealth of 
 the world pouring into her coffers — in a land as beautiful 
 as a poet's dream, with a soil as fruitful as God's own 
 love, with a climate as sweet as a mother's smile, and 
 teeming with inexhaustible mineral wealth, there were 
 thousands perishing of hunger and starvation. Proceed- 
 ing, his Worship alluded to the Mayoral reception of the 
 previous evening in the greatest industrial beehive in 
 all the world. That was a proof, he declared, that 
 Catholicity was at last coming into her own again in 
 England. People were finding out that Catholics, after 
 all, did a little bit for the poor, although they did not 
 proclaim it from the housetops. There were people 
 who did not know of the tremendous amount of money 
 
Centenary Celebrations in Manchester 79 
 
 Catholics saved the State every year in the poor-rate by 
 looking after their own poor. There were those who did 
 not realize — until it came to an education fight — that 
 Catholics saved the State millions every year by edu- 
 cating their own children. The Catholic Church was 
 the greatest factor in the world for the training and 
 building up of moral character, the greatest factor in the 
 world for looking after the poor, and the greatest factor 
 in the world for the education of children. 
 
 Cardinal Bourne said that Bishop Mclntyre's eloquent 
 sermon and the Mayor of Battersea's address had 
 suggested two thoughts to his mind. The first was that, 
 when the founders of the St. Vincent de Paul Society 
 began their work sixty years ago, they certainly never 
 foresaw the developments the work would attain. As 
 far as France was concerned, the present generation had 
 great reason to be thankful to Almighty God that what 
 Ozanam wrote seventy years ago would not be true to- 
 day. There had been progress, and there had been 
 progress all along the line, and it was only by looking 
 back over a long period of years that they could realize 
 that those forces of evil which were so powerful seventy 
 years ago had certainly been weakened very consider- 
 ably in the time that had elapsed. And he thought that, 
 whilst they must not shut their eyes to the evils that 
 surrounded them, it would be unworthy of them, and 
 derogatory also to the honour and glory of God, were 
 they not fully to recognize the things that had been 
 accomplished by Divine grace. Here in England in 
 those sixty years, his Eminence proceeded, the Catholic 
 Church had certainly gained a power and position and 
 influence — an influence for the exercise of charity that 
 was not given to her hitherto. The second thought was 
 
8o Frederic Ozanam 
 
 this, the Cardinal went on : Had the Society of St. 
 Vincent de Paul here in England made the progress it 
 ought to have made in the last sixty years ? Sixty years 
 ago, or a little over sixty years ago, at the time of the 
 introduction of the Society into this country, the 
 ecclesiastical hierarchy of England had not been 
 restored, and progress was hindered in many directions. 
 But since then Catholics had seen a remarkable growth 
 in the number of their Bishops and clergy, in the number 
 of religious houses, charitable institutions, churches, 
 schools, and the children attending those schools. That 
 progress had been very great indeed. He did not say it 
 had been more than they might have hoped for, but it 
 had been more than was hoped for sixty years ago. 
 While it had certainly been great, it might have been 
 greater. How had things gone with the Society of 
 St. Vincent de Paul ? When they recognized that there 
 were in this country something between 5,000 or 6,000 
 members of the Society, he was sure they must recognize 
 also that despite its magnificent aims the progress had 
 not been what it ought to have been. He did not like 
 to sound a note of sadness or a note of criticism in the 
 midst of the celebrations, but if they wanted to do better 
 in the future it was only right to see whether or not they 
 had done as well as they might have done in the past. 
 " Your work," his Eminence pointed out, " is a work for 
 laymen, and especially for young laymen. I say that 
 with special emphasis to-day, because, to our very great 
 regret, it is brought home to us that some of the older 
 members who have stood in the forefront and been your 
 leaders in the past are absent from these celebrations by 
 reason of years and failing health, and their absence is a 
 call for the young men to step into the ranks and take 
 
Centenary Celebrations in Manchester 8i 
 
 their places. Men like Brother Count Torre Diaz, 
 Brother Hemelryk, and Brother President Sir John Knill 
 — although Sir John is a younger man — gladly though 
 they would have come, are not here to-day, simply and 
 solely because ill-health prevented them. Their absence 
 brings home with special force the fact that with the 
 older workers falling out and passing to their reward, it 
 is to the young men we must look to carry on the work 
 of the Society." 
 
 What was the inspiring motive that, amongst other 
 things, led Frederic Ozanam to begin his work? He 
 saw young men round about him on whatever side 
 attacked, as all young men are to some extent, and 
 always will be, and are especially at the present day — 
 attacked by those incitements to scepticism and to loss 
 of virtue which are always amongst the most potent 
 causes of the leakages we so constantly deplore. We 
 must not shut our eyes to these facts. At the present 
 day, when young men enter on life, equipped perhaps 
 only with such religious instruction as they have been 
 able to obtain in our elementary schools, they are met in 
 the office and workshop by other young men who, in 
 a few specious words, are able to put before them objec- 
 tions which seem to strike at the very root of Catholic 
 Faith. It is always easy to make objections; it is 
 always easy for the flippant and the superficial to catch 
 up an objection out of some sixpenny handbook, and 
 then hurl it at the head of the Catholic young man, who 
 not infrequently, having present to his mind no complete 
 and adequate answer, is sometimes apt to forget that 
 when he is dealing with the things of Almighty God, he 
 is often dealing with matters of mystery, which, taken by 
 themselves, have to be looked at with the eye of faith. 
 
82 Frederic Ozanam 
 
 although, regarded in their connection with the Christian 
 revelation* the eye of reason can find no flaw in them. 
 If such a young man is not careful, and does not watch 
 over himself, he may be brought to the threshold of the 
 loss of his soul. We know that this is going on : 
 Ozanam in his day knew it was going on. What did he 
 do ? He said to these young men : " Get to know the 
 real conditions of life. Go amongst the poor. See their 
 lives, understand their difficulties ; and then ask your- 
 selves whether it is not the revelation of Jesus Christ 
 alone that can answer the questions of those sorely 
 stricken hearts ?" He put them in the way of overcoming 
 the difficulties urged upon them, not by direct answer, 
 but by showing them that the problems of life, which 
 many men, and especially young men, feel so acutely, 
 cannot be solved by the specious theories of the objector 
 but can be solved only by the Gospel which God has 
 given to us. Then we know how many are led astray by 
 the uprising vices which attack them in early manhood. 
 They pass from the practice of their religion because their 
 hearts are in a turmoil of confusion by the unruled and 
 unruly affections that afflict them. To such young men 
 in his day Frederic Ozanam said : " Go down amongst 
 the poor and see their sufferings, and help them. In that 
 self-sacrifice you will find the very elements that will 
 enable you to govern your own poor faltering hearts." 
 From that point of view alone, his Eminence went on to 
 declare, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul was a necessity 
 to the Catholic young men of to-day. If a young man 
 wished to keep bright and clear his Faith, if he wished to 
 preserve unsulHed and unspotted his virtue, there was no 
 surer way than by becoming a devoted and earnest 
 member of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. Did they 
 
Centenary Celebrations in Manchester 83 
 
 ask how they might better understand what should be the 
 work of the Society in England, he would answer that the 
 only way was to go back to those principles upon which 
 the Society was built up. 
 
 Call for Personal Service. 
 
 They must begin by remembering that the Society was 
 not a mere relieving society. What their founder called 
 upon them to do was to give personal service to the poor 
 in every way they could. Very often the best and most 
 potent service they could render was what any man with 
 a heart could give, even if he had not a penny in his 
 pocket. Men and women there were to-day amongst the 
 poor who were crushed to the very heart, and could not 
 look up to Heaven because they were so heavily laden, 
 and the man who went amongst them, and could say a 
 kind word, would lift up their hearts to higher things and 
 make them look with confidence for a better day — such a 
 one was a true brother of St. Vincent de Paul, even 
 though he never gave a sixpence. The young men round 
 Frederic Ozanam had, no doubt, very little indeed to 
 give. They were students of law, doctors just beginning 
 to practise, men in different walks of life, and what 
 Ozanam asked of them was to give freely of personal 
 service, each using the individual talents of his profession. 
 In every position of life to-day there were men who were 
 able to give of their fuller knowledge of some particular 
 department of life, which would be of help and guidance 
 to the poor they visited. He feared that a good many 
 young men were held back from joining the Society 
 because they had nothing to give. Let them understand 
 that it was not money, but personal service that was 
 required. The Cardinal next suggested that if the Society 
 
84 Frederic Ozanam 
 
 was to increase and spread it must be governed by loyalty 
 to the traditions of its founder and a spirit of progress 
 that moved along traditional lines. Many things existed 
 to-day which did not exist in the days of Frederic Ozanam : 
 many problems were before them which Ozanam could 
 not foresee. But the Society must not set those things 
 aside as unworthy of their attention ; they must not with- 
 draw from the consideration of those problems simply 
 because Ozanam did not know them. Let them be filled 
 with his spirit, and when in their work there arose some- 
 thing needing to be done, which no one was doing and 
 no one was prepared to do ; when some problem faced 
 them which needed tackling, and was not being tackled — 
 let them ask themselves whether it might not be that the 
 very spirit, the very vitality, and the very principles of 
 Frederic Ozanam urged them to take that work in hand. 
 An instance of a work that required attending to, and to 
 which no one, so far as he knew, had as yet attempted to 
 attend, was that of superintending the emigration of 
 Catholic grown-up men. The organization of the Society 
 of St. Vincent de Paul was represented all over the world, 
 and probably no other organization could take the work 
 in hand with such prospect of success. 
 
 Catholic Women's League and the Catenian 
 Association. 
 
 " He trusted that it would not be taken amiss if he 
 alluded to the work of the Catholic Women's League. 
 One of the secrets of the success of the Women's League 
 was that its members had so readily accepted local condi- 
 tions, and tried to do work that had to be done, and that 
 no one else would do. He had also heard recently, and 
 with very great satisfaction, of the formation of a new 
 
Centenary Celebrations in Manchester 85 
 
 Catholic Society, which he believed had taken its birth 
 in Manchester. He referred to the Catenian Association. 
 This association banded together a large number of 
 Catholic business and professional men in all parts of the 
 country, and he hoped that it would be very useful to its 
 members in their worldly concerns and the advancement 
 of their children. But he would ask the members of the 
 association with all earnestness to devote their energy and 
 some part of their leisure time to the work of the St. 
 Vincent de Paul Society. And if God had blessed them 
 with sons, he would remind them that there was no 
 greater advantage they could bestow upon their sons in 
 their early manhood than that of letting them join the 
 Society of St. Vincent de Paul." 
 
 The Archbishop of Liverpool said that he had more 
 poor in his diocese than had any of the Bishops present. 
 The poor, his Grace went on, as the Brothers well knew, 
 appreciated sympathy far more than material assistance. 
 Proceeding, his Grace raised the question of patronage 
 work, which, he said, was rather differently conducted in 
 different parts of the country. Through the co-operation 
 of the Bishop of Salford, the Brothers of the whole of 
 Lancashire had an annual meeting to discuss that and 
 other phases of their work, with the greatest benefit. He 
 recommended the practice as one that might be taken up 
 with advantage all over the country. 
 
 Continuing, his Grace remarked that the poor had two 
 great friends. One was the pawnshop, and the other, also 
 a deadly enemy, was the money-lender. He had often 
 wondered when he thought of the mont de piete of the 
 Catholic countries on the Continent, whether it would not 
 be possible for the Brothers of St. Vincent de Paul to 
 take up a somewhat similar work. In other words, could 
 
86 Frederic Ozanam 
 
 the Brothers run a pawnshop ? Money-lending was 
 another subject he thought they might tackle. The clergy 
 and people had made a start in Liverpool in one of the 
 poorest Catholic parishes, and the movement, though at 
 present only on a small scale, inspired the hope that it 
 was going to be a success. The great port of Liverpool, 
 with its sea-going population, was obsessed by the demon 
 of casual labour, and, as a result, by the curse of money- 
 lending. The wives of the seamen, through no fault of 
 their own, could not make ends meet, owing to the long 
 intervals between their husbands' pay-days. If the 
 Brothers of St. Vincent de Paul could devise some means 
 of helping these poor and deserving women, incalculable 
 benefits would be the result. Could the Brothers become 
 money-lenders — beneficent money-lenders ? 
 
 The After-Care of Children. 
 
 Brother Carey, who represented Brother Hemelryk, 
 K.C.S.G., O.R.S., President of the Liverpool Central 
 Council, alluded to the scheme for the after-care of 
 children which has been devised by the Liverpool Educa- 
 tion Authority. The authorities, the speaker pointed out, 
 wished to entrust the scheme, so far as was possible, to 
 voluntary workers. Considering the interests involved, 
 and the influence that such voluntary workers would 
 naturally gain in the households they visited, it was 
 extremely desirable — more than that, absolutely necessary 
 — that none but a Catholic should visit a Catholic family. 
 The scheme, which, he believed, would later on be adopted 
 all over the country, had been carefully discussed by the 
 Brothers in Liverpool a few days ago, as they were con- 
 vinced that it was a case in which their activities would 
 be of very special value. It had been decided that they 
 
Centenary Celebrations in Manchester 87 
 
 should accept the principle of the scheme, but only subject 
 to certain conditions and with certain reservations as to 
 detail. One of those reservations was that under no 
 circumstances should the Brothers undertake duties 
 which would cause the poor to look on them as officials. 
 Another was that they should not be required to divulge 
 information which had been given to them in confidence. 
 The Bishop of Salford, in moving a vote of thanks to 
 the Cardinal, the Archbishop, the Bishops, the Mayor of 
 Battersea, and Brother Carey, said that never before 
 in the history of Manchester had a Catholic gathering 
 received such honour at the hands of the municipal 
 authorities. He could not sufficiently express the grati- 
 tude and admiration felt by Catholics for the gracious and 
 charming manner in which the Lady Mayoress had 
 welcomed the delegates at the civic reception the previous 
 evening. His lordship also expressed the hope that there 
 would be a great influx of new blood into the Society. 
 Zealous recruiting work, he was convinced, would result 
 in the Society having a membership not of 6,000, but of 
 60,000 at the end of twelve months. 
 
 THE BANQUET. 
 
 On Sunday evening, 750 guests sat down to dinner in 
 the Midland Hotel. The President of the Manchester 
 Particular Council (Mr. C. E. Marshall) presided, having 
 on his right his Eminence Cardinal Bourne and on his 
 left his Grace the Archbishop of Liverpool. There were 
 also present the Bishop of Salford, Bishop Vaughan, 
 Bishop Mclntyre, Bishop Butt, Bishop Hanlon, Monsignor 
 O'Kelly, V.G., Monsignor Poock, D.D., Canon Sharrock, 
 Monsignor Jackman, D.D., Father Bader, S.J., Rev. 
 
 7 
 
88 Frederic Ozanam 
 
 Dr. Hohn, Rev. F. Gonne, M.A., Rev. J. McNulty 
 M.A., etc. 
 
 During the evening Cardinal Bourne read a telegram 
 from the Holy Father conveying his blessing to all who 
 had taken part in the celebration. 
 
 THE EVILS OF SOCIETY AND OZANAM'S 
 REMEDY.* 
 
 FUTILITY OF NON-CHRISTIAN EFFORT. 
 " By charity of the Spirit serve one another." — Gal. v. 13. 
 If Frederic Ozanam's life is judged only by its duration, 
 it will seem an unfinished and broken life, for he died a 
 comparatively young man ; but if it is judged by its 
 intensity, it will be found a full and well-rounded life. 
 He began to put forth his intellectual strength even in 
 early youth, and that strength was recognized by the 
 most brilliant and noted men of France, some of whom 
 have left their testimony to the precocity of his genius, 
 the power of his understanding, and his admirable moral 
 qualities. Much has been written of him, because there 
 was much to tell of his extraordinary talents, and of his 
 activities as student, as historian, as man of letters, as 
 social reformer, and as Christian apologist. Interest, too, 
 would be found in the accounts left to us of his beautifully 
 winning character — his urbanity and pleasantness, his 
 gentleness and courtesy. A contemporary said of him : 
 ** He takes away your heart and gives you his own." It 
 
 * A sermon to the delegates of the St. Vincent de Paul 
 Society, preached at St. John's Cathedral, Salford, by his 
 Lordship, the Bishop of Lamus (the Right Rev. John 
 Mclntyre, D.D.). 
 
Centenary Celebrations in Manchester 89 
 
 would be interesting to speak of these things, but at 
 present we are more concerned in those things which 
 have won for him a world-wide reverence — his warm 
 charity, his unfailing tenderness for the afflicted and his 
 devotedness of service to them, all of which have found 
 permanent expression in the Society of St. Vincent de 
 Paul. Therefore, laying all else aside, I propose to speak 
 only of what has reference to your Society. I will try, 
 first of all, to set before you the circumstances out of 
 which the thought came to him which afterwards grew 
 into the Society of St. Vincent, and, next, I will try to 
 describe the broad and lofty motives which inspired his 
 labours in building up the Society. From that descrip- 
 tion you will see that there was a moral unity binding 
 together all the activities of Ozanam's life. They sprang 
 from one chief motive, and were directed to one chief 
 end. I trust that even my imperfect account of these 
 things may be received by you with such good-will that 
 every brother will return from this celebration resolved to 
 love the Society more, and to labour more for its advance. 
 The main portion of Ozanam's life fell in troubled and 
 dangerous times. He was seventeen years of age when 
 the Revolution of 1830, overturning the throne of 
 Charles X., began to gather further strength for the 
 greater Revolution of 1848. The King in his fall seemed 
 to pull down with him the power and influence of the 
 Church of France. The forces of private thought, as 
 well as those of public life, began to be directed in 
 bitterness against her. So completely did men become 
 estranged from Religion, so utterly did they neglect its 
 practice, that the sight of a man in church caused as 
 great a sensation as the sight of a Christian traveller in 
 an Oriental mosque. Priests were afraid to go in their 
 
90 Frederic Ozanam 
 
 ordinary dress along the public streets. What was 
 proudly called intellectual enlightenment was regarded 
 as having obtained so complete a triumph over the Faith 
 that the very suggestion of the possibility of a revival 
 was received with a general outburst of amused or 
 contemptuous laughter. It was quite taken for granted 
 that the Faith was dead, that now, at last, it really was 
 dead and buried, and nothing further was required but 
 that the philosophers, men of letters, and politicians 
 should seal the stone of its sepulchre. Ozanam could 
 not but feel the influences of the time, for who could 
 altogether escape them ? Who was safe when a wild 
 flood of thought was carrying away a whole population ? 
 In early youth Ozanam found that the waves of doubt 
 were rising about him and beginning to roll over his 
 head; and although he was too strong to be pulled 
 under, they nevertheless filled him with terror and 
 caused him a struggle of bitter agony. His faith 
 triumphed over every doubt, and the trial through which 
 he had passed was providentially turned to good account. 
 In the providence of God that assault on Ozanam's faith 
 became the occasion of the Society of St. Vincent de 
 Paul. Ozanam had not only gained a deep insight into 
 the nature of the intellectual malady that was infecting 
 the mind of his countrymen, but he had also learned 
 compassion for those who had been less fortunate than 
 himself in escape from that malady. He wished to 
 come to their assistance, and it was this ** charity of the 
 spirit " that prompted his first social efl'orts. This was a 
 true charity of the spirit, for the spirit which is of God is 
 a spirit of truth and faith as well as of consolation. 
 Ozanam's first apostolate was an apostolate of the mind. 
 For the sake of this apostolate he determined to become 
 
Centenary Celebrations in Manchester 91 
 
 a professor and writer ; and to fit himself for the work he 
 studied as much as sixteen and even eighteen hours 
 a day. It is well to remember that his first conferences 
 were started as a ministry of intellectual charity. His 
 desire was to band studious young men together under 
 the standard of Catholic thought ; for, to use his own 
 words, " our Faith always remains young, and as fully 
 equipped for meeting the needs of every age as for 
 healing the wounds of every soul." But by the side of 
 this first compassion there grew up another compassion 
 in his heart ; it was for the toiling masses, who were 
 suffering loss of other things besides loss of Faith. A 
 double misery was upon them ; for not only were they 
 exploited by employers, who forced from them the 
 largest possible amount of labour for the smallest possible 
 wage, but, moreover, while being thus robbed in this 
 world, they were being deluded into giving up their hope 
 of the next world. The thought of this double misery 
 weighed upon Ozanam's soul, and he formed a plan of 
 getting others to join him in a noble crusade against the 
 ignorance, the want, and the misery of the masses. The 
 purposes that were running through his head were set 
 forth in a kind of manifesto : " We are like the 
 Samaritan of the Gospel," he wrote. " We have seen 
 society prostrate and astray from her true road, robbed 
 and beaten as she has been by robbers of the under- 
 standing. And the priest and the Levite who were pass- 
 ing did not pass by ; they drew near in kindness, but 
 she, in her delirium, was afraid of them and resented 
 their approach. We, therefore, whom she does not 
 know, desire to come to her aid and to pour oil into her 
 wounds. We would raise her from the dust, and place 
 her, soothed and calmed, in the hands of the Church — of 
 
92 Frederic Ozanam 
 
 that Divine hostess who will give her food and guidance 
 to complete her pilgrim journey to immortality." You 
 will observe, first, that telling phrase — *' robbers of the 
 understanding." The mind of the people was being 
 plundered of the treasure of truth. You will observe, 
 next, that Ozanam's remedy for the evils of society was, 
 that society should be brought back and placed under 
 the care and guidance of the Church. Further, that it 
 should be brought back by laymen, for it had become 
 afraid of the priest. In no other way could he see 
 perfect deliverance. Now, the striking thing about this 
 suggestion is that at that time Ozanam had not studied 
 the history of the Church as he came to study it later, 
 and was not in a position properly to appreciate the 
 marvellous resources of the Church's healing power. 
 The fuller and clearer knowledge came later. Writing 
 eight years later, in 1843, he said : " I have experienced 
 how much we gain from a close study of Christianity. 
 Certainly I was not ignorant of its benefits, but I have 
 discovered that they have been far greater than I had 
 ever imagined. More than ever do I feel how much we 
 ought to love the Church, which has done so much to 
 preserve us, to train us, and to make possible whatever 
 we possess of learning, of intelligence, of liberty, and of 
 civilization." But although Ozanam had not yet learned 
 all that he afterwards learned about the healing power 
 of the Church, he already knew enough to perceive that 
 the spirit and teaching of the Church would be more 
 beneficial to society than the spirit and teaching of 
 unbeHeving social reformers ; that the teaching of the 
 Church not only contained all that there was of truth 
 and value in the current schemes of social reform, but 
 also preserved that truth free from the dangers and 
 
Centenary Celebrations in Manchester 93 
 
 illusions of self-interest ; and that even if the schemes of 
 the social reformers were free from danger, they were 
 still insufficient of themselves and stood in need of 
 Catholic principle to bring about the triumph of peace as 
 well as of justice. When Ozanam's mind had grown 
 mature in the study of the social question, he expressed 
 his deep fears as to the dangers in the economic theories 
 that were being proposed as a solution. They seemed to 
 him to lead to a conflict of selfishness. It would be- 
 come a system of strike and striking back. On the one 
 side, there was the theory of free competition, and this 
 tempted the employer to grow rich from the competition 
 for employment among the workers ; on the other side, 
 there was the theory of a more equitable distribution, 
 and he feared that in urging this the organizers of labour 
 were in danger of exciting in the workers the same 
 spirit of greed for which they condemned the employers. 
 This would be selfishness against selfishness ; and men 
 needed the Apostle's warning : " If you bite and devour 
 one another, take heed that you be not consumed of one 
 another." Which ever side won, he thought that the 
 victory could only bring a truce ; it would not bring 
 permanent peace. To secure perfect peace, he believed 
 that men must learn from the Church not only a sincere 
 love of justice, but also a love of that true and real 
 brotherhood which they can find only in Christ. Peace 
 and justice would reign when men had learned to respect 
 in each other the image of God, and when they cherished 
 that fellowship to which they are called in the Incarnate 
 Son of God, the Redeemer of all. These are the judg- 
 ments of his later years ; but with a power of insight 
 marvellous in a young man of twenty-three, he had 
 written as early as the year 1836 : "The question which 
 
94 Frederic Ozanam 
 
 now divides men is no longer a political question ; it is a 
 social question. The question is this : Which will pre- 
 vail — the spirit of egoism or the spirit of sacrifice ? will 
 society be exploited by the strong, or will it become the 
 consecration of each for the good of all, and especially 
 for the protection of the weak ? There are many who 
 have too much, and who wish to have still more : there 
 are many more who have not enough, who have nothing, 
 and who wish to take if it is not given to them. 
 Between these two classes a conflict is preparing, and it 
 threatens to be a terrible one, for on the one side there 
 will be the power of gold, and on the other the power of 
 despair." These words ring in our ears with all the 
 clearness of actuality; but it is well to remember that 
 the forecast was made by Ozanam seventy-seven years 
 ago. He foresaw the danger, and he called upon Catholic 
 young men to come with their Catholic principles to 
 interpose between the two armies, and, if they could not 
 prevent the conflict, at least try to lessen the shock. 
 But even if economic systems were far more efl'ective 
 for good than hitherto they have proved to be, there 
 would still remain open a wide field for the exercise of 
 that " charity of the spirit " of which the Apostle speaks : 
 " By charity of the spirit serve one another." For after 
 all is said and done, man is much more than a body with 
 needs and appetites, and his inward peace comes from 
 something higher than the mere contentment of bodily 
 needs and appetites. There are heartaches and miseries 
 of the soul, and sorrow may take hold of the spirit in the 
 midst of material abundance. It was in the design of 
 the Society of St. Vincent to pour the oil and balm of 
 charity into the wounds of the soul also. This is a form 
 of help which brings no hints of inferiority in the re- 
 
Centenary Celebrations in Manchester 95 
 
 cipient, and cannot create any sense of shame in those 
 who stand in need of it ; rather, it elevates both giver 
 and receiver, for it is a sign of their sacred union in that 
 Divine charity which is the bond of perfection. 
 
 Meantime there is great need of the other forms of 
 charity also. Politicians and economists have not yet 
 succeeded in banishing from our midst bodily miseries 
 and wretchedness, and the charitable work of alleviating 
 them must still go on. In fact, the need of ministering 
 to the afflicted in body has been so urgent that it holds 
 a prominent place in the actual work of your Society. 
 This was Ozanam's final step in his vindication of the 
 Church. When he spoke to the men of Paris in praise 
 of the Church and in commendation of her power to heal 
 the evils of society, it was said to him : "If you speak of 
 the past, what you say is true. Christianity did do 
 wonders, but now it is played out. What works are you 
 doing to prove your faith and to make us respect and 
 believe it ?" Ozanam felt the full force of the retort and 
 resolved to remove further occasion for it. He said to his 
 Catholic friends : " We must bestir ourselves, and make 
 our action agree with our faith. Let us, therefore, turn to 
 the assistance of the needy, and so put our faith under 
 the protection of charity." In this you have the true 
 motto of the Society — Faith under the protection of 
 charity. The Society was created to be a vindication 
 of the Church by the exercise of charity in the widest 
 meaning of the word — charity for mind, charity for 
 heart, charity for body, charity for the whole man — 
 full and perfect service to our neighbour by charity 
 of the spirit. The Society was intended to be a proof 
 of the healing power of Christianity, a testimony before 
 men of the truth and beneficence of the Church. Is 
 
96 Frederic Ozanam 
 
 that idea too ambitious ? Ozanam would have replied 
 that no one can measure the power of charity ; that he 
 had no intention of grappling with the whole world, but 
 that he could begin with a few of the poor and allow the 
 work to grow by its own vitality, and to spread silently 
 over the earth. And most wonderfully has it spread. 
 Ozanam himself was indefatigable in labouring for 
 it. Wherever he went, whether for study, or for holiday, 
 or in search of health, he at once established a Con- 
 ference. This he did in Spain, France, Italy, Germany, 
 and even here in England. I have read that to-day 
 the Society counts 7,000 Conferences with more than 
 140,000 brothers. A Society which has already grown 
 so strong gives reasonable hope of becoming a mighty 
 power for good in the Church and in the world. 
 
 But the members must remain true to the noble 
 and generous spirit of Ozanam, and hold fast to the 
 faith that was in him, and which he commended to 
 the brethren in his last will and testament : " I die 
 in the bosom of the Church Catholic, Apostolic, and 
 Roman. I have known the doubts of the age, but the 
 whole of my life has convinced me that there is no 
 rest for the mind and heart except in the Church and 
 under her authority. If I attach any value to my 
 prolonged studies it is because they give me the right 
 to beseech all those whom I love that they remain 
 faithful to a religion in which I found light and 
 peace." 
 
 O lofty-souled, noble-hearted young man, knowing 
 you as we do, we are not surprised to hear the Vicar 
 of Christ say : "I have no stronger wish than that the 
 life and spirit of Frederic Ozanam should spread to 
 the ends of the earth." And you, brothers, here 
 
Centenary Celebrations in Manchester 97 
 
 assembled, do you take those words of the Sovereign 
 Pontiff not only as a wish, but also as a promise and a 
 prophecy. 
 
 OZANAM AS A DEMOCRAT. 
 
 By Rev. H. Day, S.J.* 
 
 We are celebrating the occurrence of a centenary, he 
 said, which reflects a world glory on the beliefs and 
 practice, the faith and charity of the Catholic Church. 
 The central figure of the picture it represents is a young 
 man of the middle class, of Jewish descent, of delicate 
 health, but, withal, of high intellectual capacity, and of 
 supreme moral courage. His name is Frederic Ozanam : 
 his calling that of a Professor of Literature at the famous 
 University of the Sorbonne in Paris. The background 
 of the picture is gloomy enough : Paris after the great 
 Revolution, honeycombed with infidelity and seething 
 with scepticism, and still filled with the rancour of 
 Voltaire's bitter wit and hatred of Christianity. The 
 churches were everywhere empty and deserted. The 
 French Hierarchy were afraid and silent. The schools 
 were frankly unbelieving. Ozanam looked out upon his 
 country and saw its faith and freedom in a pitiful plight. 
 He resolved to rescue it from both these dangers, and 
 set himself to the work in the spirit of a splendid hope. 
 " I felt," he says of himself, " that the past was falling 
 to pieces, that the foundation of the building we have 
 known are shaken, that an earthquake has changed the 
 whole face of the earth. But I believed in Providence, 
 and I did not despair of my country." Amidst the wreck 
 
 * Delivered in the Church of the Holy Name, Manchester. 
 
98 Frederic Ozanam 
 
 of social and political institutions, he took his stand on 
 the bed-rock of human life — the essential truth of religion, 
 the revelation of God, His Providence proclaiming itself 
 throughout the ages in history, His inscrutable wisdom 
 guiding man's destiny, His immutable power sustaining 
 and shaping the changing world. That foundation for 
 him was the Catholic Faith unfolding itself in Catholic 
 Charity. " These are the things," he said, " which 
 society needs, and these are the things which I equally 
 need." 
 
 His faith was a Virile Intellectual Faith — a faith 
 which, like steel, had been tempered in the fire of 
 temptation, and strengthened by prayer and study. 
 Referring to the past and to his student days, he said : 
 " God gave me the grace to be born in the Faith. 
 Later, the confusion of an unbelieving world surrounded 
 me. I knew all the horrors of the doubts that torment 
 the soul. It was then that the instructions of a priest 
 and philosopher saved me. I beheved thenceforth with 
 an assured faith, and touched by so rare a goodness, I 
 promised God to devote my life to the service of the 
 Truth which had given me peace." Rarely was a promise 
 more faithfully kept. In his lectures and in his writings 
 he brilliantly defended Catholic Faith against all comers. 
 And the atmosphere of the faith permeated every one of 
 his numerous scientific and literary works. " Those who 
 desire to see no religion introduced into science," he 
 wrote, " accuse me of a lack of independence. But I 
 pride myself on such an accusation. I do not aspire to 
 an independence, the result of which is to believe and to 
 love nothing." Conscious that his soul was made for 
 God, he lived and worked so as to make himself worthy 
 of this lofty calling. Prayer and the Sacraments were 
 
Centenary Celebrations in Manchester 99 
 
 his constant recourse ; and his charity towards God and 
 his neighbour were commensurate with his faith. So 
 that when, at the close of his hfe, at the age of forty, the 
 priest exhorted him to have confidence in God, swift 
 came the reply from his lips : " Oh, why should I fear 
 God, whom I love so much ?" Such was Ozanam the 
 Catholic. He stood out in a pagan and unregenerate 
 age a man apart, a man alive with faith and supernatural 
 love. There is another phase of his life to consider 
 hardly less interesting or useful. Frederic Ozanam was 
 a Catholic and a democrat. He believed that a Christian 
 Democracy was the end towards which Providence was 
 leading the world ; and he saw in the Christian revelation 
 and in the traditional teaching of the Church the germs 
 of an ideal of government, which he expressed in the 
 formula : " The self-sacrifice of each for the benefit of 
 all." *' This," he added, " was the Christian Republic of 
 the Primitive Church of Jerusalem ; and it will probably 
 be the form of government in the time to come." His 
 dream was to unite the master forces of Catholicism 
 and Freedom — a dream which has since, to some extent, 
 been realized, and is still being increasingly fulfilled. 
 The masses of the people, not the classes, were, in his 
 conviction, the opportunity and the hope of the Church. 
 " I have always believed," he wrote, when things were 
 at their worst, *' in the possibility of Christian Democracy : 
 indeed, as far as politics go, I believe in nothing else." 
 Like Lacordaire, he was " a Liberal to the last." Above 
 all, he insisted that it was the social question and not 
 any political issue which was essential. At the same 
 time, he was fully alive to the eventualities of politics, 
 and he was not afraid of the impending changes which 
 he believed to be inevitable, and a part of the Divine 
 
loo Frederic Ozanam 
 
 dispensation for the development of society on the lines 
 of a higher freedom and purer morality. When France 
 was again on the verge of revolution in 1848, addressing 
 the members of the Catholic Club, he urged them boldly 
 to cast aside the dynastic politicians and to take their 
 stand openly with the people. The outcome of Ozanam's 
 religious and social zeal was the religious and philan- 
 thropic work of the institution and propagation through 
 the world of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. That 
 Society, which now numbers 140,000 active members, 
 may fairly be taken to represent the most perfect 
 scheme of lay charity for the help of the poor which 
 has emanated from the Church in modern times. At 
 once religious in its spirit and democratic in its organiza- 
 tion and methods, it is the abiding and best memorial 
 of Frederic Ozanam — Catholic and Democrat. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 OZANAM AND CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 OZANAM AND CHRISTIAN DEMOCRACY 
 
 OzANAM lived in an age of revolution. Charles X. 
 had been driven off the throne by the followers of 
 Voltaire and Rousseau, whose sophisms and fallacies 
 had shaken the faith of the greater number of French- 
 men in Divine Providence. Louis Philippe, who 
 succeeded him, called himself *' King of the French," 
 not King of France. He was a trimmer, who 
 believed in compromise so as to please both parties 
 in the State. He smiled sweetly at the Clerical 
 and Monarchical parties, and winked confidentially 
 at their opponents. He promised to hold the balance 
 equally between them, and hoped to profit by the 
 mistakes of both sides. 
 
 Scepticism was the predominant note of the 
 educated classes, Reason was accepted as the judge 
 of all truths, and Religion was laughed at as the 
 folly of mankind, a superstition only fit to be believed 
 in by women and children. The professors in the 
 Colleges and Universities were all free-thinkers, 
 and scoffed at the idea of Divine Revelation as 
 childishness. 
 
 1 02 
 
Ozanam and Christian Democracy 103 
 
 The position of Catholics like Ozanam was a 
 difficult one when he was appointed as a professor 
 in the Sorbonne. The Catholic party had always 
 been allied to those of the Legitimists and the nobility, 
 the landowners of France. These had never studied 
 the interests of the agricultural classes, who paid the 
 taxes which supported the State. The first French 
 Revolution would not have succeeded as it did had 
 it not been for the general dissatisfaction caused by 
 the exactions of the Farmers General of the Taxes 
 appointed by Louis XV. The people generally 
 welcomed the new Government as deliverers from an 
 intolerable yoke of oppression. The new Government 
 called itself " Liberal " and preached a new doctrine of 
 Liberty and Equality, promising all kinds of reforms 
 of abuses, which were much needed. Many of the 
 young generation in the Colleges and most of the 
 middle classes adopted Liberalism as their party, 
 hoping through it for a new heaven and a new 
 earth. Lamennais, Lacordaire, and Montalembert 
 were Liberals, and even a few of the clergy here and 
 there. Ozanam himself, although detesting the 
 irreligious teachings of the leaders, admitted that 
 there was some logical truth in some of their theories 
 — such as the natural equality of men. But this 
 could only exist in an ideal Republic where all 
 were animated by the same spirit of justice and 
 friendship. He had long dreamed of an ideal 
 Republic organized by a Christian Democracy, 
 
 8 
 
I04 Frederic Ozanam 
 
 Government by the people for the people. But 
 he soon realized by experience that such an ideal 
 was not possible in a world in which men were 
 only moved by selfishness and jealousy. The ex- 
 ample of the Apostles in Jerusalem, when the first 
 Christians had all things in common, was no longer 
 practised in the nineteenth century, except in Mon- 
 asteries and Convents. There all the inmates were 
 equal and all goods were in common, and the 
 Abbot was only primus inter pares. The theory was 
 therefore practical under certain circumstances. 
 But he found that the fallacies of Rousseau had 
 taken possession of the popular mind, and until 
 their foolishness and futility had been demonstrated, 
 the ideal could never be realized ; and yet something 
 must be done if society and even Christianity was 
 to be saved. Some effort must be made to save the 
 common people from the dangerous doctrines of 
 Socialism which were preached. He wrote to the 
 members of the Conference : " Put yourselves, as 
 Pius IX. is trying to do, at the head of all reason- 
 able movements, and convert the people, as the 
 pagans were converted at the fall of the Roman 
 Empire, by showing the people your faith, your 
 sympathy, and your example. I have always believed, 
 when matters were at their worst, in the possibility 
 of Christian Democracy — indeed, as far as politics 
 go, I believe in nothing else. The true principle," 
 he said, " was the self-sacrifice of each for the 
 
Ozanam and Christian Democracy 105 
 
 benefit of all, and this is the basis of all Christian 
 charity. Let the working classes understand that 
 the Church is the mother of all classes, and perfectly 
 unbiassed in her affection for all men." 
 
 The results of the Revolution of 1848 were an 
 appalling state of destitution in Paris, for over a 
 quarter of a million of the workmen were unemployed, 
 and the distress of their families was extreme. Here 
 was a great opportunity for the Brothers, and he 
 urged them to embrace it. They did so nobly, and 
 many rich men collected money for them to help 
 them in their work. ** Go and make friends among 
 the poor," he said to them : *' give to each family 
 what personal help you can. A better training 
 enables you to assist them ; in one place it will 
 be by legal advice, in another medical. To some 
 you may give practical advice, for others you may 
 procure work. In all cases help them to help 
 themselves, and consider it your primary duty, 
 whether you take them tickets for relief or not, to 
 render them some personal service." 
 
 And this has been the practice of the Conferences 
 of St. Vincent de Paul ever since in all parts of the 
 world. It is the only practical form of Christian 
 Democracy which is possible. 
 
 Whether Ozanam's forebodings of a great struggle 
 between Labour and Capital is to be fought out in 
 England or America the future alone will show. 
 
 The efforts of the Socialists of late years point to 
 
io6 Frederic Ozanam 
 
 their hope of a great international strike — a war of the 
 classes. The Socialistic forces, true to their origin, 
 are diametrically opposed to the Catholic Church. 
 The new paganism hates both Catholic principles 
 and practices ; instead of brotherly love, it teaches 
 self-love. It denies Revelation, the supernatural, 
 and the authority of the Church. It exalts the 
 Seven Deadly Sins into Civic Virtues. Here the 
 work of the brothers can be of great aid to the 
 Church. In their visits to their cases they can see 
 that the children are baptized and attend Mass and 
 Catechism on Sundays, and that when they leave 
 school they get Catholic situations ; that they 
 associate with Catholics in clubs, etc., and that they 
 regard the brothers always as friends and advisers. 
 
 The annual reports sent by the Conferences to 
 the Councils prove how generally these works are 
 carried out. 
 
 The personal friendship of the brothers with the 
 poor, their courtesy and helpfulness, will have more 
 weight than the flimsy sophistries of the Socialists. 
 The common sense of the working man will show 
 him that all the advantages offered to him by them 
 have been already provided by the care of the 
 Church. He will look upon the Socialists as upon 
 blind men groping helplessly in the dark after an 
 ideal which exists before them. As a plain fact, the 
 community in which are found the ideals of true 
 Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity is the Catholic 
 
Ozanam and Christian Democracy 107 
 
 Church itself. I believe, as did Ozanam, that the 
 Society of St. Vincent de Paul is destined to become 
 a great international power in the future, the greater 
 as it is perfectly disinterested, and as free from 
 national or party prejudices as was the " Good 
 Samaritan " in the Scriptures, the prototype of the 
 Society of St. Vincent de Paul. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 AIDING CATHOLIC EMIGRANTS 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 AIDING CATHOLIC EMIGRANTS 
 
 In his speech at the Ozanam Centenary at Man- 
 chester, Cardinal Bourne urged upon the Society 
 the necessity of assisting Catholic male emigrants 
 in choosing where to settle, and, if possible, to select 
 particular centres, and in places where Catholics 
 were numerous. Emigrants going out in twos or 
 threes were liable to be absorbed into non- Catholic 
 communities. He added : ** No greater work of 
 charity could be committed to the Society of St. 
 Vincent de Paul than this of looking after Catholic 
 emigrants." 
 
 In this matter the Conferences both in Great 
 Britain and the Dominions can render useful assist- 
 ance. The Dominions are calling out for emigrants 
 and offering great inducements to settlers. But they 
 do not think much of the religious requirements of 
 Catholics. 
 
 To show that the importance of this work has 
 been appreciated by our Colonial Conferences, I 
 give here an extract from a circular which has been 
 
 no 
 
Aiding Catholic Emigrants 1 1 1 
 
 addressed by the Superior Council of Australasia to 
 the Superior Councils in Great Britain and Ireland : 
 
 "Society of St. Vincent de Paul, 
 
 "Superior Council of Australasia, 
 " 176, Phillip Street, Sydney, 
 
 " 2ist February, 1913. 
 
 " Sir and Dear Brother, 
 
 " I am instructed by the Superior Council of 
 Australasia to ask you to kindly inform the Presi- 
 dents of Conferences under your Council that letters 
 of introduction to us from Presidents of our Society 
 given to Catholic immigrants to Australia or New 
 Zealand will receive special attention from us. We 
 shall do our best to help them in every way, temporally 
 and spiritually. 
 
 " The addressee of the letter of introduction had 
 better be, of course, the President at the port at 
 which the immigrant is to land. I can answer for 
 it that everywhere his reception will be cordial. I 
 send you a copy of our latest Annual Report, con- 
 taining the names and addresses of our Presidents, 
 though a letter simply to the President without any 
 name would easily be delivered. Any priest, and 
 almost any Catholic, could direct the bearer. 
 
 '* We, here, know that there is no very great need 
 for aid to our co-religionists on landing. They can 
 obtain employment in a few days as a rule, and 
 religion is diffused here as in the Old World. Any 
 sensible Catholic man landing in one of our cities 
 
112 Frederic Ozanam 
 
 need be no more at a loss or in danger as to his 
 religion than he would be on landing in Liverpool. 
 But it is always much better to have an introduction 
 to a Catholic friend ; and some classes of labour do 
 not find employment as rapidly as others, and so 
 a local helper may be useful. 
 
 ** And in the case of lads, we would do our best 
 to see that they were placed with Catholics, and to 
 look after their faith and be their friends afterwards 
 as long as they wished. 
 
 ** Yours truly, 
 
 " L. F. Heyden." 
 
 At one of the sectional meetings of the National 
 CathoHc Congress held at Plymouth, Brother P. E. 
 Smyth, of Melbourne, stated that in Victoria the Con- 
 ferences were taking up the work practically. They 
 were surprised to see so many Catholic emigrants 
 arriving in the colony, and they were doing their 
 best to meet their requirements. He said they had 
 300 Conferences of the Society who were all anxious 
 to get in touch with Catholics arriving. He suggested 
 that the names of proposing emigrants, with the 
 dates of their sailing, and the ports at which 
 they would arrive, should be communicated to the 
 Conferences at those ports. 
 
 There can be no doubt that the Conferences of 
 the Society in all other parts of the British Empire 
 will be equally desirous of receiving and helping 
 
Aiding Catholic Emigrants 1 1 3 
 
 Catholic emigrants. Statistics show that the majority 
 who leave Great Britain go to the provinces of 
 Canada, in consequence of the great advantages 
 offered to settlers. Now, the Catholic Church is 
 very strong in some of the provinces of Canada, and 
 relatively weak in others. The distances between 
 Catholic missions are so great in some districts that 
 it is practically impossible for CathoHcs to secure 
 the blessings of their faith except at great sacrifices 
 of time and money. 
 
 I have no doubt that the numerous Conferences 
 in the United States will gladly co-operate in so 
 practical a work of Catholic charity. 
 
 I feel sure that if Ozanam were alive he would 
 encourage to the utmost an apostolic work of this 
 nature. But I think also that he would advise its 
 extension to other parts of the world beyond those 
 of the British Empire and the United States. He 
 would point to the fact that so many thousands 
 of emigrants leave Italy, Spain, and Central Europe 
 every year to settle in the United States, Brazil, etc. 
 Would not the same organization render priceless 
 services to those emigrants also ? No doubt that 
 also will come to pass in due course. 
 
 The fruitful soil of the Society of St. Vincent is 
 constantly bringing forth abundant crops of good 
 works, suited to the needs of the different countries 
 in which the Conferences are settled. These works 
 are always indigenous to their native soil. But thi 
 
114 Frederic Ozanam 
 
 work of assisting Catholic emigrants is one of inter- 
 national importance, for we are living in an age of 
 national unrest, similar to that which flooded Europe 
 in the first centuries of the Christian Era and over- 
 turned the mighty Roman Empire. The descendants 
 of those barbarian tribes of Goths, Huns, and Vandals 
 are as restless as ever, and they are bent upon peopling 
 the New World. It is fitting, therefore, that the Con- 
 ferences of St. Vincent de Paul, as the friends and 
 brothers of the poor, should be privileged to render 
 the emigrants fraternal advice and assistance, both 
 when leaving and when arriving. 
 
 The Report of the Board of Trade shows that the 
 number of passengers from the United Kingdom to 
 places outside of Europe in igi2 was 656,835. Of 
 these 28*8 per cent, were foreigners, and of these 
 probably about half were Catholics, and no doubt 
 poor, as they travelled in the steerage. Of the 
 British emigrants 74*5 per cent, were about to settle 
 in other parts of the Empire, and 23*4 per cent, 
 went to the United States. The Canadian Agency 
 states that in one week there arrived at Winnipeg 
 3,868 emigrants, of whom 2,610 were British. It 
 will be noticed therefore how vast a field is opened 
 for Catholic charity by this great emigration move- 
 ment. The great need is to group Catholic emigrants 
 in such districts as where Catholic families are already 
 settled, and where Catholic churches and schools are 
 to be found. If Catholic fervour is to be maintained 
 
Aiding Catholic Emigrants 1 1 5 
 
 it can only be by the emigrant associating with 
 Catholic neighbours. There is no surer way of 
 extinguishing a fire than by scattering the embers 
 of it. There is no reason why CathoHc villages 
 should not be formed in some of the colonies, a 
 certain number of families undertaking to settle in 
 one district and to unite to provide for the main- 
 tenance of a priest and church. This has been 
 practically carried out in several of our distant and 
 smaller colonies with good effect. 
 
 In the United States there are many colonies of 
 Germans, Italians, Spaniards, Poles, Greeks, etc., 
 all of which support their own schools, native priests, 
 and churches, and all with success. It is a great 
 international movement of historic importance, and 
 one in which the great International Society of 
 St. Vincent de Paul should take a leading part. 
 
 Ozanam, in one of his letters to Wigley, alluding 
 to the collapse of one of the communist settlements in 
 the United States, wrote ; " Nevertheless, I believe 
 that the principles upon which the community was 
 founded were correct. It failed because it was lack- 
 ing in the spiritual cement which is composed of the 
 feelings of self-sacrifice, brotherly love, and justice. 
 Perhaps we shall see established some day a truly 
 Catholic settlement upon one of those vast prairies 
 of the West, under the guidance of one of the great 
 Orders like the Benedictines or the Chartreux, in 
 which all benefits shall be equitably shared among 
 
1 1 6 Frederic Ozanam 
 
 the members under the stewardship of the monks. 
 That such a system of community of goods existed 
 among the Apostles and Disciples in Jerusalem in 
 the first century is proved by the words in the Acts 
 of the Apostles. Not otherwise can the stern judg- 
 ment of St. Peter upon Ananias and Sapphira be 
 explained." 
 
 In another letter he wrote : 
 
 "The experience of the Franciscans in Mexico, 
 and of the Jesuits in Paraguay, prove the possibility 
 of insuring the happiness of the people here and 
 hereafter where justice is guided by religion. But 
 when selfishness and cupidity are allowed to rule, 
 unhappiness and failure must result. . . . 
 
 " In your own country, as in Gaul, the monks 
 were always the instructors in agriculture. We find 
 that the farmers who cultivated the Abbey lands were 
 always more successful than they who worked for the 
 nobles. And so I hope that some day the English 
 or the Americans, with their well-known practical 
 spirit of initiative in which we Frenchmen are want- 
 ing, will find districts in your vast and fertile colonies 
 upon which will be founded truly Catholic communi- 
 ties and cities under the aegis of the Church, as of 
 old. This would be the fulfilment of my old dream 
 of a Christian Democracy. . . . 
 
 " The Christian family is the unit, the State is the 
 multiple ; this is a truth which should be impressed 
 by the Conferences upon the cases whom they visit ; 
 
Aiding Catholic Emigrants 1 1 7 
 
 it will help them to realize the true meaning of 
 the words * Equality ' and * Fraternity.' " 
 
 Wigley was at the time a member of a small group 
 of young men who sympathized with the new school 
 of the pre-Raphaelites in Art, and followed the dicta 
 of Ruskin, William Morris, and Rossetti, as Gospel 
 utterances. Ozanam denounced the spirit of these 
 as pure paganism, and hoped that the Society of 
 St. Vincent de Paul in England would produce from 
 its colleges, as in France, young writers who would 
 uphold in the Press and in lectures the ancient 
 claims of the Catholic Church as Mother of Arts, 
 Letters, and Civilization. 
 
 So many of Ozanam's prophecies and aspirations 
 have been fulfilled that we may hope that some day 
 defenders of Catholic interests may arise from the 
 ranks of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. But 
 it must be remembered that the Society takes no 
 glory in this world for the works of her children. 
 She gives the inspiration for the good work, the 
 brothers carry it out as best they can, 
 
 I think it only just in this place to put upon record 
 some of the works which have been carried on in 
 England by the brothers of the Society outside 
 of those of the Conferences. The first, which was 
 introduced by Brother Wigley, was the Society of 
 St. Francis Regis, whose work it is to obtain from 
 parents, etc., the certificates of consent to the 
 marriages of their children, etc., as required by 
 
1 1 8 Frederic Ozanam 
 
 foreign law. The next was the establishment of the 
 S.V.P. Shoeblack Brigade, to provide employment 
 for Catholic poor boys. This was founded at the 
 express request of Cardinal Wiseman. In connec- 
 tion with this class was established a Home for 
 Working Boys in Soho. 
 
 The next work was the establishment of St. 
 .Vincent's Home for Destitute Boys in Hammer- 
 smith, which is now carried on by the ** Crusade 
 of Rescue for Destitute Catholic Children." Finally, 
 the George Blount Home for Working Boys at 
 Streatham, erected as a memorial to the late 
 President of the Superior Council of England. 
 
 In addition to these, all the particular Councils in 
 the provinces have started Football and Cricket 
 Clubs, Boys' Brigades, Boy Scouts, Penny Banks, 
 Sunday-schools, Evening Classes, etc. 
 
 The Society will ever remain an inexhaustible 
 source of good works, both of the spiritual and 
 corporal order, in all countries where it is established, 
 and is therefore deserving of support by all philan- 
 thropists. 
 
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