The Society of St. Vincent de Paul is an international lay organisation, Catholic in character where all are welcomed, who through personal contact seek to relieve those in need without regard to wealth, position, social status or ethnic origin. In promoting human dignity and integrity, the Society works to redress situations which adversely affect peoples' lives and their basic rights.

    The Society was founded in 1833 by Frederic Ozanam who was then a student of Sorbonne University in Paris. He was challenged to put his Christian beliefs into action. He took up this challenge and together with some close friends, set about helping the poor and oppressed in Paris. He firmly believed that in order to help the less fortunate, one must be prepared to visit them in their homes and see for oneself the conditions of life they are subjected to and then go about helping them.

Frederic Ozanam named the Society after St. Vincent de Paul, the poor man's Saint and the
patron saint for Christian charities. St. Vincent, who lived between 1581 to 1660, devoted his life to helping the poor, the down trodden and the under-privileged. At present the Society of St. Vincent de Paul is established across the five continents in 133 countries, with a membership of 900,000.

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul in Malaysia began in 1934 with the first Conference (branch) formed in the then Church of the Assumption, Penang. In the early fifties, the Society began to mushroom along the western half of the Peninsular and in the eighties it was established in Sarawak. To-date we have 58 conferences with a membership of 700.

Wishing all Vincentians and our readers
a Blessed Christmas
and a Happy New Year