In 1833, a young Catholic named Frederic Ozanam gathered five friends and took the risk of responding to the glaring inequality and injustice emerging in Paris, France. The group began feeding, housing, and clothing those in need with funds out of their own pockets and from contributions from friends.
Seeing that need was on the rise in their community due to COVID-19, an incoming freshman Catholic student from
San Antonio, Texas called together Five Friends and they gathered face-to-face via Zoom to discuss how they could help their local Society of St. Vincent de Paul. They were troubled by the situation and they wanted to help.
Together, they decided they needed to begin telling the story of SVdP. They also knew they needed to find ways to support their local Council and they needed to encourage everyone they knew to FIND FIVE FRIENDS…just like Frederic Ozanam did. Their hope is that through this initiative they will create a viral network of supporters to help SVdP feed, house, and clothe those in need.
Inspired by Gospel values, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, a Catholic lay organization, leads women and men to join together to grow spiritually by offering person-to-person service to those who are in need and suffering in the tradition of its founder, Blessed Frederic Ozanam, and patron, St. Vincent de Paul.
“I learned about the Society of St. Vincent de Paul during the start of the pandemic. It really struck me that many of the challenges people are facing today–lack of food, housing, and clothing–were things Frédéric Ozanam and his friends saw when he started SVdP.
We aren’t able to be physically together, face-to-face, but we can still make a difference. Imagine if each of my five friends found another five friends to support SVdP. Imagine if that wave of friendship continued.
Imagine the difference we could make in someone’s life?”
Brandon Davis
Read the full article at https://svdpsa.org/find-five-friends