St. Vincent de Paul

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul is an international lay Catholic charitable organization founded on April 23, 1833, by Frédéric Ozanam in Paris, France, to assist the poor. The society was established in the United States in St. Louis, Missouri, at the Basilica of St. Louis, King of France, commonly called The Old Cathedral, in 1845. Father John Timon, an American Vincentian priest from Pennsylvania, and later Bishop of Buffalo, New York, brought copies of the Rule of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul back from Dublin, Ireland, to St. Louis.

The first meeting of the society in the United States was held on November 20, 1845, just 12 years after its founding in Paris. Nineteen of the most important Catholic laymen of St. ...