St Vincent de Paul was born in a peasant family at Gascony (France) in 1580 and died at Paris in 1660. He graduated in theology and was ordained in 1600. He was sold as a slave, but escaped in 1607. St Vincent de Paul tried his best to eradicate the atrocious activities that were prevalent in the society. He concentrated mainly to protect the slaves and extended his tender nursing for taking care of the babies who were thrown out in the street. He was instrumental for the formation of 'sisters of charity' who are mainly dedicated to nursing the sick. The organization founded by Frederick Ozanam and his friends was named as ‘St Vincent De Paul Society’ (SVDPS) . The society under the leadership of Prof Bailey is now spread over 5 continents working for the spiritual and temporal needs of the poor residing in the working area of ‘conferences’. The slogan raised by Frederick Ozanam and his co workers was “Let us go to the poor; See Christ in poor and through them serve Christ”. This is the main policy they adopted to continue.
Primary sector is the‘conference’. All the basic works of the society are being done thru the conference. Second is the ‘council’ which is designed to control the working of the conferences of a particular area. The ‘central council’ works at diocese level. Then comes the ‘regional council’ and ‘national council’. The headquarters of ‘council general’ is in Paris and controls all Vincentian activities.
Activities of the society include visit poor homes, feed the poor, nurse the sick and shelter the poor, make hospital visits and try to help the sick with money and medicine, care for the spiritual life of the poor whom we adopt. Society members go for collection of funds to distribute among the poor and sick and bring them back to life.
The St Vincent de Paul Society is a lay Catholic organisation that aspires to live the gospel message by serving Christ in the poor with love, respect, justice, hope and joy, and by working to shape a more just and compassionate society.
The Society aspires to be recognised as a caring Catholic charity offering “a hand up” to people in need. We do this by respecting their dignity, sharing our hope, and encouraging them to take control of their own destiny.
We have identified seven key values to which we are aligned and they include commitment, compassion, respect, integrity, empathy, advocacy and courage. We are proud of the key values for which we stand and invite you to find out more on the Get Involved section of this website.