OUR INCREDIBLE JOURNEY – AND IT IS FAR FROM OVER!
November 20 is a special date for the Society of St. Vincent de Paul USA. This date marks the anniversary of an event that changed the face of charity in the United States. A date that we celebrate with gratitude this year as we commemorate 180 years since the Society of St. Vincent de Paul was founded in America.
In 1845, in St. Louis, Missouri, at the Basilica of St. Louis King of France (“Old Cathedral”), a small group of laypeople gathered to establish the first SVdP Conference in the United States. What they didn’t know, and never could have imagined, was that this humble beginning would grow into a nationwide network of nearly 81,000 members serving our most vulnerable neighbors with dignity, respect, and genuine friendship for nearly two centuries.
Let’s take a trip down ‘memory lane’ for a moment.
The Atlantic Crossing and a Divine Appointment
The story of SVdP in America begins with an encounter (it is always about encounter) on the high seas. In the autumn of 1845, Father John Timon, a Vincentian priest from Pennsylvania, was traveling from Ireland to the United States. In his hands, he carried something special: copies of the ‘Rule of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul.’ Having just seen the amazing work of Vincentians in Dublin, Father Timon felt called to bring this charism across the Atlantic.
When Father Timon arrived in St. Louis and spoke with Bishop Peter Richard Kenrick about what he had seen, the Holy Spirit moved the Bishop’s heart. He asked Father Ambrose Heim, a local priest who was known for his work with the poor (so much so that he was known as ‘The Priest of the Poor’) to help establish the Society in St. Louis and serve as its Spiritual Advisor.
And just like that, the Holy Spirit lit a fire that has burned for 180 years and counting!
The first meeting on November 20, 1845, brought together men of vision and heart: Dr. Moses Linton, a prominent physician, was elected President and his friend Bryan Mullanphy, widely known for his generous philanthropy, became Vice President. These men and their fellow members understood something essential that remains at the core of our mission today: that serving the poor is not primarily about what we give, but about the relationships we build. It’s about encountering Christ in every person we meet.
The St. Louis Conference was officially recognized by the Society’s International Council in Paris on February 2, 1846. The movement that had begun just twelve years earlier in Paris with young students challenging one another to live their faith more authentically had now reached across an ocean to a young nation hungry for the Gospel to be lived out in action.
Growth and Spreading Grace
What followed was nothing short of remarkable. Just as the Society had spread across France like wildfire, so too did it take hold across America. Conferences began forming in New York (1847), Buffalo (1847), Milwaukee (1849), Philadelphia (1851), Pittsburgh (1852), and soon in every corner of the nation. By the end of the nineteenth century, the Society had established seven major jurisdictions stretching from coast to coast, and in 1857, New York organized the first District Council in the United States.
In those early days, women could not be members, and women’s groups operated in parallel to the men’s society. For example, the Women’s Society of St. Vincent de Paul was founded in Italy in 1856 to support women and children, a role that men were not handling at the time. But in 1968, the SSVP CGI voted to allow women to become full active members, although women-only and men-only conferences continued to exist initially, and new conferences were encouraged to be co-ed. The society’s international rules were changed after 1968, and the process of integrating women continued over the next few years in different countries.
These early Vincentians, many of them immigrants or children of immigrants, understood poverty. They knew what it meant to struggle. They saw firsthand the conditions facing newly arrived families from Ireland, Germany, Italy, and beyond. Beyond distributing aid, they advocated tirelessly for systemic change. They fought to reform almshouses that treated children like prisoners. They established schools, founded boys’ clubs, opened orphanages, and created industrial training programs. The Society didn’t just respond to poverty; it worked to change the systems that created it. That is our approach today as well, and that early focus on advocacy and justice – with roots back to Ozanam and the Founders – animates our work today.
One of the major turning points in the SVdP USA story occurred in 1915 when leaders from seven major councils, New York, St. Louis, New Orleans, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, and Brooklyn, made the visionary decision to unite under a single national structure. The Superior Council of the United States instituted on June 7, 1915, with the formal inauguration ceremony taking place at the Catholic University of America on November 21, 1915. The first president of SVdP USA was Thomas Maurice Mulry, a man so deeply devoted to the Vincentian charism that he became known as “the American Ozanam.”
Thomas Mulry personified what it means to live the Vincentian Charism to its fullest. Not only did he lead our Society with profound conviction, but he also became a founder and vice president of the National Conference of Catholic Charities, helped establish the Fordham School of Social Service, and served as a trusted advisor to President Theodore Roosevelt on matters affecting children and families. He understood that a single person, animated by Gospel values and connected to a community of faithful servants, could help reshape an entire nation’s approach to poverty and care. Though he passed away just a year after unifying our national councils, his legacy endures in everything we do.
The Essence of Our Mission Then and Now
Throughout our 180 years of service in America, one principle has remained constant: we create relationships, not transactions. This is what makes the Society of St. Vincent de Paul fundamentally different from many charitable organizations. We don’t simply hand out aid – we sit in someone’s home, listen to their story, offer our presence, and walk with them toward stability and hope.
The Personal Encounter has been the beating heart of our mission since those first meetings at the ‘Old Cathedral.’ Two Vincentians visit a person or family in need, they develop genuine friendship, they listen, maybe they pray together, and then they offer emergency financial assistance with rent, utilities, food, clothing, and whatever else will help prevent a crisis from becoming a catastrophe. This simple practice, rooted in the Gospel, has remained remarkably consistent for 180 years because it works. It transforms both the giver and the receiver. We often refer to the practice as the ‘Home Visit’ based on the early practices of our foundation. But the reality is that the term ‘home visit’ is too limiting to describe the beauty of our work. We engage in human-to-human, Christ-centered personal encounters in many ways and places, not just in someone’s home.
Our Work Today: Serving Over 5 million Neighbors with Dignity
At the Society today, we can see the same spirit animating us that moved Frédéric Ozanam to action in 1833, and those brave founders to build their first Conference in St. Louis in 1845. The scale of our service has grown exponentially, but the mission remains beautifully unchanged.
In the 2023-2024 fiscal year alone, our network of nearly 81,000 Vincentian volunteers:
– Served over 5.2 million people across rural, suburban, and urban communities
– Made nearly 2 million visits to neighbors in need
– Provided services valued at $2.2 billion
– Contributed an estimated $416 million in volunteer hours
But behind every one of these numbers is a human story. The family that avoided eviction because a Vincentian sat with them and helped secure rental assistance. The senior citizen who can now afford her medications because of our charitable pharmacies. The person that had a place to sleep on a cold night because we operated a shelter. The young person who found steady employment through our workforce development programs.
The Many Ways We Serve
Our work has expanded and evolved to meet the changing needs of our communities. We operate thrift stores across the nation. They do double duty: providing affordable and free clothing and household goods while generating funding for our local Conferences to use in their communities. The profits from these stores provide the lifeblood of many of our Conferences and Councils.
Our Food Pantries are a lifeline in neighborhoods impacted by poverty. Thousands of families who are plagued by food insecurity and might not be able to put food on the table depend on the fresh and non-perishable goods we distribute. But we’ve gone further. We operate meal programs and community dining halls that not only nourish bodies but build dignity and connection.
Our ever-accelerating efforts in homelessness prevention meets families on the edge of disaster and provides the financial help and support they need to stay housed. For those experiencing homelessness, our rapid re-housing, transitional, and supportive housing programs work to get people off the streets and into stable housing. Innovative programs partner with landlords, navigate systems, and provide the support services that make permanent housing possible.
Our charitable pharmacies in places like Baton Rouge, Madison, Atlanta, Dallas, Cincinnati, and several other communities are a powerful testimony to our commitment to wholeness. Patients no longer must choose between buying groceries and taking their life-saving medications.
We’ve launched programs like Back2Work that provides customized training, continuing education, and connections to meaningful employment for people impacted by incarceration, poverty, and homelessness. We operate youth and young adult conferences nationwide, recognizing that young people are not just the future of our Society but are already the present, already serving with enthusiasm and idealism.
Our Disaster Services Corporation mobilizes when tragedy strikes, providing long-term recovery support that extends far beyond the initial emergency. DSC has innovated with the ‘House in a Box’ program which delivers essential household items to disaster survivors within hours, sometimes within 24 hours, at no cost to families, with donated values often exceeding $3,400 per box.
This spring, we opened a National Office in Washington, D.C., to emphasize and accelerate our efforts in Public Policy and Advocacy. Going back to the days of Ozanam and the founding members of SVdP USA we recognize that to truly serve the poor, we must advocate for systemic change at the national level. Our voice is now heard in Washington, speaking up for those experiencing homelessness, those struggling with poverty, those seeking re-entry after incarceration, and all vulnerable populations.
What Makes Us Different
In a world of nonprofit organizations and charitable agencies, what makes the Society of St. Vincent de Paul unique? It is this: we believe that growth in holiness is found in service to the poor.
For us, this is not a vocation – it is a calling that shapes our spiritual lives. We do not serve the poor to feel good about ourselves or to check a box. We serve because we believe we encounter Christ in every person we meet. We serve because we have been called by our Catholic faith to live the Gospel, not just read it, and to be the answer to someone else’s prayer, to show up in their moment of greatest need and say, “You are not alone.”
This is why our members and volunteers continue to show up, year after year, decade after decade, century after century. It’s why a seventy-year-old retiree will wake up on a Saturday morning to deliver emergency assistance to a family he’s never met before. It’s why a young parent will take time away from their family to help another family find stability. It is why a businessperson will leave the office to sit in someone’s living room and simply listen.
Gratitude and Hope for What’s Ahead
As we stand here in November 2025, celebrating 180 years of faithful service, my heart overflows with gratitude. Gratitude for Frédéric Ozanam, whose youthful idealism was ignited by a challenging question and transformed the world. Gratitude for Father John Timon and Father Ambrose Heim and all the clergy who saw in the Vincentian charism something essential for the American Church. Gratitude for the countless laypeople, priests, bishops, religious sisters, and above all our dedicated volunteers, who have kept this flame burning bright.
I’m grateful for Thomas Mulry, who showed us that one person’s commitment to the Vincentian mission can influence an entire nation. I’m grateful for all the Vincentians who have come before us, who built our thrift stores and food pantries and shelters, who sat in countless living rooms and changed lives through relationship and presence.
And I am profoundly grateful for you, the 81,000 people who make up our Society today. You are the living embodiment of Vincentianism. Whether you’re folding clothes in one of our thrift stores, distributing food at a pantry, visiting a family in their home, serving on a board, or supporting us financially, you are the heart and hands of the Society. You are how Christ’s love reaches the most vulnerable in our communities.
What’s Ahead – Looking Forward with Eyes of Faith
As we celebrate this milestone, we also look to the future with eyes full of hope and excitement. The needs of our communities are great; poverty hasn’t disappeared, homelessness continues to grow, hunger persists, and so many people are just one crisis away from disaster. But we are not discouraged. We know that with faith, with community, with determination, and with the grace of God, transformation is possible.
We are in an excellent position to accelerate and innovate in how we serve. Over the next years, we will be making significant investments from our reserves and resources (prudently and strategically) to continue to meet people where they are; in rural communities where poverty is often invisible, in urban neighborhoods where visible homelessness breaks our hearts, in suburban communities where struggles hide behind closed doors. But we cannot just throw money and aid at these problems and hope they go away; they won’t. We must continue to invest and build capacity, systems, programs, and relationships that will give us the ability to leverage our resources to do more to address the systemic and root cause issues, not just distribute aid. We must, and we will, help our Conferences and Councils grow. Grow in financial resources, membership, and spirituality. Not just by providing funding and National Office staff support, but by training and mentoring, and helping create the systems needed to thrive. And we will continue and grow our work of advocating for policies and systemic changes while serving immediate needs. We will continue to form young people in the Vincentian spirit so that this charism doesn’t fade but deepens with each generation.
Most importantly, we will continue to remember that every person we serve is precious, beloved, and made in the image of God. Every single person deserves dignity. Every single person deserves to be seen and heard. Every single person deserves a friend who will walk with them toward hope.
A Final Word
On this 180th anniversary of the Society’s founding in America, I invite you into deeper communion with our Vincentian mission. If you are not yet an active conference member, consider joining us. If you are already a Vincentian, thank you and accept the challenge to deepen your commitment, to bring a friend, to mentor a young person in this vocation we love.
Let us commit to making sure that 180 years from now, in the year 2205, there are still Vincentians walking through neighborhoods (or maybe they’ll be flying around on personal hovercraft by then), sitting in living rooms, visiting the poor, offering friendship and assistance, and showing the world what it looks like when people take seriously the Gospel mandate to love their neighbor as themselves.
The work of charity will never be finished in this world. But neither will the grace of God. And as long as there are people experiencing poverty and injustice, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul will be there, formed by 180 years of tradition, animated by the love of Christ, and committed to walking with our neighbors toward dignity and hope.
Thank you for being part of this remarkable story. Thank you for caring. Thank you for serving. Thank you for all you do.
Peace and God’s blessings,
John
