On Tuesday of this week, students from Ozanam House spent the afternoon celebrating one of our House Patrons, Frederic Ozanam. 

Frederic Ozanam was born in Milan, Italy in 1813. As a young student in Paris, Frederic had to walk through the poorer areas of the city on his way to university lectures. He became deeply moved at the hopeless state of families who had been left without income and support after the cholera epidemic in 1832. As a devout Catholic, he was taunted about his faith and service by an anti-religious debating society opponent: ‘You are right Ozanam when you speak of the past! In former times Christianity worked wonders, but what is it doing for mankind now? And you, who pride yourself on your Catholicity, what are you doing now for the poor? Show us your works.’ This prompted Frederic into action and, on 23 April 1833 he gathered a small group of friends to decide what they could do to help the poor. After the meeting, Frederic and his flat mate took the rest of their winter wood supply and gave it to a widow.

The group he formed adopted the name the Society of St Vincent de Paul, after the Patron Saint of Christian charity. They were introduced to people they could assist and met weekly to strengthen their friendship and respond to the needs of those they served. As others noticed the charitable works of the students, the Society grew in membership and expanded across the city and eventually throughout Europe and the world. The compassionate outlook, enthusiasm and vision of the St Vincent de Paul Society continues today with over 45,000 members and volunteers across the country sharing their time, care for humanity and energy to make a difference in the lives of disadvantaged people. 

Our four House Patrons - Frederic Ozanam, Mary MacKillop, Eileen O’Connor and Oscar Romero were all ordinary people. Ordinary people who made extraordinary decisions about how they would spend their time, talents, energy and resources. Their choices were based on a desire to be more like Jesus and thus, to find ways to reach out to others with compassion, kindness and love. Each time we pause to remember and celebrate our House Patrons, we are challenged to find ways that we can do the same in our own lives. We are challenged to ‘answer the call to be more’.

God bless

Angela Myles | Executive Principal