About Our Organization
About the Society of St. Vincent de Paul Mahoning District Council, Inc.
The Society of St. Vincent de Paul Mahoning District Council, Inc. has operated locally in the Mahoning Valley since 1931, and the Catholic, lay-led non-profit is comprised on both paid staff and volunteers, working together to maintain a dining hall, food pantry, annual outreach events, and a thrift store & donation center.
Our Mission
The mission of the Mahoning County Society of St. Vincent de Paul is to serve and love God by easing the burden of our neighbors who are in need through volunteer work, charitable donations and person-to-person service.
Our Structure
The Society of St. Vincent de Paul Mahoning District Council, Inc. is the umbrella non-profit entity that governs each of the individual, parish "Conferences" that make up the organization. YOU and your parish can form a Conference too. All it takes is reaching out to our Corporate Office today!
What is a Vincentian?
Members of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul (known as “Vincentians”) are men and women who strive to grow spiritually by offering person-to-person service to neighbors in need. Our members represent all ages, every race, and all incomes. All are gifted with awareness that the blessings of time, talent, and treasure are to be shared with neighbors in need.
About the Society of St. Vincent de Paul Worldwide
Founded in 1833, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul is a worldwide organization serving neighbors in need. Our founding activity, still practiced today, is the face-to-face Home Visit, in which Vincentian volunteers visit the homes of those they serve, to identify both immediate and longer-term needs. The National Council of the United States, Society of St. Vincent de Paul was established to organize and represent local SVdP Conferences and Councils, providing resources, training, and spiritual development for nearly 100,000 Vincentian volunteers across the country.
"A [person] of prayer is capable of everything."
- St. Vincent de Paul
About Our Founder - Blessed Frederic Ozanam
Blessed Frederic Ozanam (1813 – 1853) was founder of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. He was born on April 23, 1813, in Milan, Italy, where his French parents had temporarily settled. His father and mother, both outstanding Christians, handed on to him the love of God and the poor from his earliest years. Frederic was a husband and father, professor and servant of the poor. He founded the Society of St. Vincent de Paul as a young student with others of the Sorbonne in Paris.
In the late autumn of 1831, he moved to Paris to enroll in the School of Law at the Sorbonne, University of Paris; he was eighteen years old. There he found open hostility to Christianity. He was soon defending the faith he loved, in and outside the lecture halls, along with others whom he had gathered. He was fulfilling his vow to truth!
On April 23, 1833, his twentieth birthday, he founded the “Conference of Charity” with six others. Their purpose was to “go to the poor” as Jesus had done and took the risk of responding to the glaring inequality and injustice emerging in Paris, France. The group adopted the name the “Society of St. Vincent de Paul” in honor of the saint revered for his work among the needy. The group financed their works of charity for the poor out of their own pockets and from contributions of friends. We who have come after them are guided by the same desire to do God’s will through faithful service to those who are pushed to the margins of society. Frederic continued to be actively involved with the administration, activity and growth of the Society until his death. He personally saw the Society spread throughout the world.
Frederic received his primary education in Lyon, France, where his family moved when he was quite young. Frederic excelled in studies. After a crisis of faith, Frederic dedicated himself to the service of truth. Frederic received his Doctor of Law (1836) and then his Doctor of Literature (1839). The Sorbonne hired Frederic as a professor. He quickly became one of the most popular and celebrated members of the faculty.
On June 23, 1841, Frederic married the girl of his dreams, Amelie Soulacroix, at St. Nizier’s Church, in Lyon. Their only child, Marie, was born in 1845.
From childhood, Frederic was never a person of robust health. He became very ill. His wife, Amelie, took him to the Ligurian coast with hopes of recovery. But Bright’s Disease ( acute or chronic nephritis ), had ravaged his body. On August 31, 1853, on Frederic’s insistence, and contrary to the doctors’ advice, Amelie boated passage on a ship back to France; Frederic wanted to die in his beloved France. They arrived at Marseille, on September 2, met by Amelie’s family, Frederic’s two brothers, and members of the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul. On the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, September 8, 1853, Frederic died; he was forty years old.
He is buried in the crypt of the Church of St. Joseph-des-Carmes, Paris, at the Institute Catholique.
Pope John Paul II beatified Frederic Ozanam on Friday, August 22, 1997, in Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris, during the World Youth Days. Frederic Ozanam was the first person beatified in Paris during its long history.
(Source: SVdPBoston.com)