St Vincent de Paul

On Wednesday 27th September we celebrated the feast of St Vincent de Paul. Vincent was a French saint who worked towards helping those in less fortunate circumstances in France at this time.

Many years later a young French university student known as Frederick Ozanam looked at Vincent de Paul as a model of the Catholic Church in action and founded a group of lay people dedicated to prayer, study of scripture, reflection and active apostolate towards the poor and disenfranchised in society. These groups soon grew and were known around the world as Conferences of St Vincent de Paul, many parishes and universities having conferences of their own.

In 1881 a young Scottish engineer who had emigrated firstly to New Zealand and later Australia founded the first Conference of St Vincent de Paul Society with the aid of the Marist Fathers at St Patricks Church Hill in Sydney. His name was Charles O'Neill.

Today at Holy Cross we have the junior version of the St Vincent de Paul, Mini Vinnies, which haas operated for two years. We aim to carry on the work of these three men and that of Sr Rosalie Rendu, a supporter of the movement in its early days in France, as we care for those in our community.