Chapter VI: The Conference of Charity. The Society of St. Vincent de Paul

Bailly, President – Ozanam, founder – The beginning – Sister Rosalie – Ozanam among his poor – The feast of Corpus Christi at Nanterre – Ampère and Ozanam – Gustave de la Noue.

M. Bailly had drunk in sentiments of charity in his own home. Devotion to St. Vincent de Paul was a family tradition. His father died at Brias, near Bethune, in Artois, and possessed at the time of his death a large collection of manuscripts belonging to the Saint, which were guarded like a treasure in the home. The name of him who was called by his parents the family Saint was never pronounced save with devotion. His brother, the Abbé Bailly, joined the Vincentian Order. He, himself, deeply imbued with the spirit of the great apostle, entered the service of charity in the world. About the year 183o, M. Bailly had become the right hand man of the Abbé Borderies in the manage­ment of the “Society of Good Works,” and also of the Abbé Des­genettes, who was at that time parish priest of the Church of the Missions. Madame Bailly shared her husband’s devotion to Our Lord Jesus Christ in the person of the poor. At the request of Sister Rosalie, she had undertaken with a friend to visit some poor in their homes. Discouraged by the reception she met with in that work she agreed with her husband that “it was not women’s work. Men, and young men, were wanted for it.”¹

It was while under the influence of that expression of opinion, that M. Bailly received the communication of Ozanam and his friends. It recommended itself strongly to him. “The project of a small private association, altogether devoted to works of charity met with his cordial approval,” reports Lallier. As to what works should be adopted, he expressed the opinion that the parish priest of their Parish, St. Etienne du Mont, should be first consulted. The parish priest was the Abbé 011ivier, later Bishop of Evreux. Not having had any previous knowledge of their project he contented himself for the moment with advising the brave young volunteers to teach Catechism to the children of the poor.

But their zeal was altogether directed towards the visitation of the poor. M. Bailly was of the opinion that, if carried out with prudence, it would have on themselves, even more than on those whom they would visit, the most salutary influence. Four members were already certain. Ozanam pointed out two more who were members of the Conference of History: Felix Clave and Jules Devaux. The former was a son of the head of an institution in the Roule suburbs, in Paris, a recent convert from Simonism, the latter a medical student from Normandy. They both “gladly accepted.” That was the corps d’elite: the rest of the band of young Christians stood silent and expectant. The number of members did not exceed eight.* These, of whom one alone Lamache was over zo years of age, were: Frederic Ozanam, Auguste Le Taillandier, Paul Lamache, Felix Clave, Francois Lallier, Jules Devaux. M. Bailly was at the head. There was one other whose name is not recorded.

It is also worthy of note that “None of the seven or eight² original members of the Society belonged socially to the aristocracy, nor even to the wealthy middle class, whom the July Revolution had brought into power. Their families passed a simple and honourable existence in the liberal professions. Their personality is almost unknown. Lamache, an excellent Professor of a Faculty in the Provinces: Lallier the presiding Justice of the Court in the town of Sens: Le Taillandier, a good and simple man, divided between associations of good works and his business interests in Rouen: Devaux, a Catholic country doctor; Clave still more obscure. Ozanam alone stands out by his ability, his activities and his place in the intellectual world. Does he not equally surpass them in humility?”

Sixty years later, Lamache, then over eighty, was asked as to the part played by each at the beginning and replied as follows in the journal Le Monde on the 4th August, 1892:

” To tell the truth, not one of us, not even Ozanam, who had certainly the greatest initiative and most ardent zeal, could be described as the founder of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. We were influenced solely by the desire of finding for ourselves, for we were so weak, mutual support in the practice of doing good. After having fought with pen and speech in the Conference of History for the defence of religion, we felt the need of the support, strength and con­solation which is to be found in devoting ourselves to some little works for the sake of the love of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. It is then God and God alone Who has done all. That is exactly why we have every reason to hope that the Society of St. Vincent de Paul will live.”

All this is indeed true. But it is equally true that Ozanam was the principal instrument whom the Almighty had chosen for this work.

The same Lamache wrote to the Abbé Ozanam on the 1st July, 1888: “I solemnly declare on my word of honour that it was Ozanam who first spoke to me of that Conference: that he was its soul as he had been that of the Conference of Literature, and that, without Ozanam, the Conference of Charity would never have come into being.”

Less than three years after Ozanam’s death, fourteen surviving members of the first Conference wished to testify to that fact by confer­ring on him, Ad perpetuam rei memoriam, the title of Founder in a written document to which all would affix their signatures. Two of his oldest Lyons friends, therefore, Paul Brac de la Perriere and Chaurand, instituted a searching enquiry into the part played by Ozanam in the foundation. They took evidence and made their report in the follow­ing joint Declaration, which appeared in the Lyons Gazette on the 25th March, 1856:—

” Unwilling that the absolute accuracy of facts should be obscured, of which we had special means of personal knowledge, and of which we had special op­portunities of hearing from the lips of the founders themselves, we testify as follows:

” If it is true that the Society of St. Vincent de Paul has been jointly founded by many, it is none the less true that Frederic Ozanam had a preponderating and decisive part in that foundation. It was he who shared with M. Le Tail­landier the idea of an Association, whose members would join the practice of charitable works to faith: it was he who carried by his initiative the majority of the members to adopt that act of devotedness to the poor, none of the others having belonged to any of the previously existing charitable Associations.” Signed on the 20th March by Messieurs F. Alday J. Arthaud, C. Bietrix, A. Bouchacourt, Chaurand, J. Freney, J. Janmot, A. Lacour, L. Lacuria, P. de la Perriere, E. Rieussec, all members of the first Conference in Paris in the Parish of St. Etienne-du-Mont.

Added on the 20th and 21st March, Messieurs Aime Bouvier in Bourg, and Henri Pessonneaux in Paris.

M. Devaux of Triviere (Calvados) states: “I had the honour to be one of the seven or eight first members who formed the nucleus of the Association. It was Professor Ozanam who procured that great happiness for me. The honour of that foundation is his for ever.” (Abbé Ozanam, Life o Frederic Ozanam, ch. iv., p. 156. Cf. M. de Lanzac de Laborie, The Founder in the Revue d’apologetique, vol. xiv. p. 730.

Much corroborative evidence is forthcoming from the correspondence of contemporaries and fellow-workers. Lallier exclaims: “Ozanam, to whom I owe, after God, almost any merit I possess!” Curnier wrote to Ozanam in 1840: “It is out of the inspiration of your heart, that the holy association sprang, which may be destined to spread over the whole of France as a net-work of charity.” Paul de la Perriere wrote: “Our dear Ozanam, through his excessive humility, has contributed his share to mis-stating the history of our foundation. God will take full account of that unselfishness; but He will certainly scold him for having spoken and written the very reverse of the truth.” Can we not adopt the rather solemn conclusion of Pere Lacordaire, who was also a witness: “Ozanam was the St. Peter of that little guest-chamber.”?

The first meeting of the Conference of Charity took place in the month of May, 1833, at eight o’clock in the evening, the verified date of the foundation of the Society. The first and subsequent meetings were held at M. Bailly’s rooms in the offices of the Tribune Catholique, 18 Rue de Petit-Bourbon-Saint-Sulpice.

On taking the chair, the venerable President took good care to tell them, “If you really wish to serve the poor and yourselves, direct your – charity to moral and spiritual, rather than material, improvement. You will thus sanctify yourselves in the contemplation of Jesus Christ suffering in the person of the poor.” It was to His Divine service in His person that they bound themselves in this Society.

Their dispositions were admirably generous and disinterested. A regulation of the late Societe des Bonnes Etudes bound its members to aid one another in their worldly careers. The young Conference of Charity laid down a rule in contradistinction to that, to the effect that no one was to use the Society for the advancement of any personal interest whatever. Self-oblivion was to correspond to complete self-abandonment.

Their only charitable resources were a bag collection made at the meeting. One day they found, to their great surprise, some large pieces of silver in the bag. It was M. Bailly, who found this means of rewarding the free contributions of several members to the Tribune Catholique, Gazette du Clerge, which was his paper. It was, therefore, with the produce of their toil that they fed the poor.

Prayers were added, for the poor, for benefactors, for Brothers; all were placed under the patronage of St. Vincent de Paul. His name was invoked at the meetings even before the Society was officially called after him.

It was to the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul that the Conference had recourse in order to get into touch with the poor. The treasurer of the Conference, Jules Devaux, was deputed to wait on the renowned Sister Rosalie, who was so popular in the XII Ward and whose abounding charity was known throughout Paris. Glad to be able to associate in her charitable ministry such men of good will as came to consult her, she welcomed Devaux with the kindness of a mother, encouraged the Society of the young apostles, gave them invaluable advice, drew up for them a list of poor families to visit, furnished them with bread and meat tickets, until such time as the Conference would be able to issue its own.

Each Brother had a family to look after. That which fell to Ozanam’s lot appeared to stand in moral rather than material need. The household consisted of a mother who worked herself to the bone to procure a living for five children, and a drunken husband who took all that she earned, to the last farthing, to spend in drink. “Whenever he comes in from the public house he beats us all, but that does not happen every day,” the unhappy poor woman reported conscien­tiously. She had reached the last stages of distress and despair when Ozanam found her. He was not long in discovering that there had not been any form of marriage, and that the unhappy woman was free to shake off the ignoble and hateful burden. She could scarce believe it. “It is too good to be true,” she said. Ozanam had it proved officially, freed the woman, and by means of a private collection, procured for her the means of returning to Brittany with her two youngest children; the two eldest he placed in M. Bailly’s workrooms. That was truly the dual aid, moral and material, which the charitable president had recommended. In the very first case the idea of the future work of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul was established.

Charity infused into the hearts of these young Christians a pious zeal. One month after his quiet inauguration, the Conference enrolled some thirty students for a religious feast in the country. They were invited by Ozanam to be at Nanterre for the feast of Corpus Christi, to provide an escort for Our Lord in the pro– cession of the Most Holy Sacrament. He thus describes it to his mother on the Igth June, 1833.

The pious manifestation was at the same time a challenge: “You know, my dear mother, that in Paris, as in Lyons, religious processions are forbidden. But because it pleases some disturbers of the peace to confine Catholicity to its temples in the large cities, that does not appear to virile young Christians to be a good and sufficient reason why they should be deprived of a most impressive religious ceremony. Therefore, some were to be found who did think of taking part in the procession at Nanterre.” Nanterre, a quiet village, the home of St. Genevieve, patroness of Paris! Was she not in a very special way the patroness of those young parishioners and citizens of the glorious Mount St. Genevieve?

All the letter is delightful, poetic in its colouring, animated in its tone, pulsating with friendship, deeply imbued with piety, and addressed to a mother. It describes their departure on a fine Sunday morning in June ‘neath a cloudless sky; the arrival at the rendez-voits Barriere de l’Etoile. They number thirty! The intellectual aristoc­racy of the Conference is there: Lallier; Lamache; Cherruel, a converted follower of Saint Simon; de La Noue, a graceful poet; Le Jouteux; men of Languedoc, of the Francs-Comtois, of Normandy, above all of Lyons, mostly wearing moustaches and some five feet eight inches in height. “The procession is passing; the students mingle with the peasants, join in the chorus, astonish them by our turn out, edify them with our piety.” In the village “the houses are decorated, the paths strewn with flowers, the altars on the way perfumed.” Then the High Mass, into which the crowd surges and extends into the street. From Nanterre, twenty-two of the boldest set out at great speed for St. Germain-en-Laye, but not without gathering some strawberries in the woods. There they spend “a quarter of an hour in the Church singing Vespers,” followed by a visit to the Chateau, enjoying the panorama of its immense terrace; dinner at a restaurant at two shillings a head, etc. “We set out again in groups in the cool of the evening. The moon shed her silver beams through the trees; it was a moment charged with delight. We walked, filled with happiness at the thought of having rendered the homage to God which is His due . . . . Night descended and we parted. We were lost to one another in the darkness. When I reached my rooms with two of my friends, Monday had just dawned. I know in my heart, dear mother, how often I thought of you all during that day, one of the most delightful in my life.”

Let it not be forgotten that it was also in June, 1833, that Ozanam and his friends had presented to Monsignor de Quelen their first peti­tion for the establishment of Conferences in Notre Dame. Piety, Charity, Truth, those three consuming fires radiated their light, heat, and electricity from the heart of that choice young spirit of twenty years of age.

Ozanam’s dwelling, that to which he returned from his pilgrimage to Nanterre, was then at No. 7 Rue des Gres, on the sixth storey, on a level with the dome of the Pantheon and “next to the stars,” as he himself says. He had had to give up his room in Ampère’s, for M. Jean Jacques Ampère had returned home; but that in no wise affected the bonds of filial veneration which united him to the great man. The latter could no longer get on without the young man, as the following note, dated 5th May (year not given) states: “My dear and excellent friend, you well know that I have but a week longer to spend in Paris, and that the translation of the Latin verses, explanatory of my tableau for the classification of sciences, calls for more than one sitting. By all your friendship for me, there is not one moment to lose; you would not wish to deprive me of that to which I attach the greatest possible importance. I shall be more grateful to you than I can say, and I thank you a thousand times in anticipation.—Ever most sincerely yours, my dear and excellent friend.”

The eight members of the Conference of Charity, jealous of their new found treasure of friendship, had so little prescience, or desire, of future development, that they kept the door of their guest-chamber firmly closed. It was kept closed at first even to Gustave de La Noue, a future poet, son of a magistrate in Tours, whom Ozanam described as “one of those chosen spirits to whom God has given angel’s wings.” His name was submitted and supported by Lallier; but would not his admission destroy the atmosphere of intimacy and simplicity of the little family? Ozanam definitely declared, not alone in favour of this nomination, but in favour of the general principle of the extension of the Society as far as it would please God to send recruits. The door which was opened to de La Noue was never again closed. At the close of 1833, the Association counted 20 to 25 members.

Ozanam introduced his cousin Pessonneaux and his countryman Chaurand. The most important of the new recruits was certainly Leon Le Prevost, the future founder of the Congregation of the Brothers of St. Vincent de Paul. He did not come from the schools, and he was the only one who did not. He was a man in the forties, of literary tastes, who had been a member of Societies of Romantic Literature. A conversation with M. Bailly informed him of the foundation and existence of the Conference of young men. It awakened hope in his heart and he wrote to his friend, Victor Pavie, as follows on the loth August, 1833: “There is in existence here at the moment a great movement for charity and faith. But all that is veiled from the surrounding world by its own indifference. I am much mistaken if a light for the world does not stream forth from these modern cata­combs.” The Lord was preparing for the future in M. Le Prevost, one of the most fruitful grafts of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul.

As M. le Prevost had said, the world was completely indifferent to the Catholic movement which, at least, shook the resolution of those whom it did not carry with it. The fact is that Ozanam’s social action had, even in a short time reached the mentality and altered the moral tone of the youth of the old Latin Quarter. A contemporary witness, and one who is not suspect, is forthcoming in the person of Sainte-Beuve himself. After having bid adieu to the Rationalism of the Globe, then to Saint Simonism, the Sainte-Beuve of 1833 and 1834 had his ardent sympathy attracted to the Catholic religion, which, however, may have been literary rather than moral. He noted, in two very remarkable articles, the religious awakening which he witnessed and in which he was regarded by some enthusiasts as a co-operator. “It is indeed a memorable spectacle,” he wrote, “to see amid so much unbelief and such general defection that the chosen band of those virtuous minds does not decrease, that it recruits and perpetuates itself, preserving the moral treasure in all its purity. Whatever may be the form under which the Christian religious spirit is to be reconstituted (as we hope it may be) in society, this progressive virtue of young hearts, this faith and modesty held in reserve and in seclusion, will push forward powerfully the time of its development.”³ Without naming Ozanam, Sainte-Beuve could not indicate more clearly the impress which Frederic had made on the young men in Paris by devoting himself entirely to their service.

The young band continued its charitable action. It renewed its offer to visit the poor to the clergy of Paris, with whom M. Bailly was held in special esteem. The new parish priest of St. Etienne-du­Mont, Pere Faudet, had no hesitation in entrusting to them the care of some poor families in his parish, who afterwards spoke to him most highly of the visitors.

There existed at that time in the neighbourhood of the schools a house of correction for young criminals. The Conference received permission from the Presiding Magistrate, M. de Belleyme, to carry to the young prisoners the charity of their sympathy. Ozanam, Le Prevost, Le Taillandier, Lamache, devoted themselves for two years to this thankless apostolate until the young prisoners were transferred from the Rue des Gres to the prison of the Madelonnettes at the other end of Paris.

Twenty years later, Ozanam, on the edge of the grave, speaking to the Brothers in Leghorn—had the great consolation of pointing out how God had been pleased to make the tiny little association of friends the nucleus of an immense brotherhood spread over a great part of Europe. He told the story of one of his friends, Cheruel, who was then under the evil influence of the doctrines of Saint Simon, saying to him with a feeling of pity, “What can you hope to accomplish? You are eight⁴ poor young men, and it is with such resources that you undertake to succour the misery of a city like Paris! Were you indeed many and many times more and greater, you could do but little. We, on the other hand, are busy in the development of ideas and systems which will reform the world and obliterate misery for ever. In one moment we shall accomplish for humanity all that you could possibly do in many generations.”

“Now, you well know, gentlemen, what the theories which dazzle my poor friend have come to. We, whom he pitied, instead of eight, now number in Paris alone two thousand Brothers, who visit 5,000 families—that is to say about 20,000 persons—or one fourth of the poor whom this immense city holds! The Conferences in France alone number 500; there are others in England, Spain, Belgium, America, and even in Jerusalem. Thus the humble beginnings have been exalted, even as Jesus Christ was exalted from the lowly crib to the glory of Mount Tabor. Thus God has made our Society His own and has seen good to spread it universally and to bless it abundantly.”

1. Ozanam, completely effacing himself, gives expression to the following charming sentiments of humility and gratitude when speaking of M. Bailly’s services, in the Circular-Letter of 11th June, 1844, which he, as Vice-President, issued to Conferences on the resignation of the venerable President-General:

   ” It was M. Bailly who had in 1833 the inspiration to call together a few young men for a charitable purpose under the patronage of St. Vincent de Paul. It was a time when many good men, still timid, stood aside from Associations of good works. Those few young men little expected the marvellous multipli­cation which is to be seen to-day. It was he who gave them a place of meeting, counsel, and example; who taught them how to meet for mutual edification and support; how to recruit new members, how to help the poor, etc. When our members increased and it became necessary to reduce into form our simple practices, it was M. Bailly who wrote the preliminary drafts, instinct with the maxims of our holy Patron, and which definitely fixed the spirit of the Society. In developing those first considerations in the course of several addresses, and throughout all the activities of a crowded eleven years’ presidency, he maintained the unity of the Society during the growth of Conferences in Paris, in the Pro­vinces, and in foreign countries. Our gratitude and our regard are unlimited: if we do not give expression to our sentiments here, we refrain from doing so be­cause we desire to remain faithful to the tradition of humility which he estab­lished. Let us leave to his good works, their obscurity, and to God, the reward­ing of a life which was all spent for the good of Christian young men and in the service of the poor of Jesus Christ.”

   Speaking of the objections urged against M. Bailly’s decision to resign, he added: It was put to him that should he cease to be President of the Society he could never cease to be its founder.”

   Thus Ozanam’s excessive modesty, effacing himself, awards to M. Bailly here and elsewhere, the title of founder. Those who were associated with Ozanam in the foundation were not mistaken. We shall see how very soon they protested unanimously and solemnly to restore fully to him the honour of a distinction which was his.

2. number was actually seven. See Appendix.
3. Beuve, Premiers Lundis ii. p. 262.
4. As to number see Appendix.