Biography of Frederick Ozanam, founder of the Saint Vincent de Paul Society. Forerunner of Catholic Action in the lay world.
London: A. Ouseley, 1933 (First edition)

From the introduction:

The story of Frederick Ozanam, the founder of the St. Vincent de Paul Society, will be told in the following pages. At the first meeting of the society in May, 1833, eight persons were present. Twenty years later Ozanam, speaking in fluent Italian, was able to tell the members of the newly-constituted Conference in Florence: “Today, in Paris alone, there are two thousand brothers of the St. Vincent de Paul Society… In France fifty Conferences exist, and we have others in England, Spain, Belgium, America — even in Jerusalem.” He died a few months after pronouncing these words. Since that date the organization has grown with astonishing rapidity.