SVdP History
History of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul
SVdP is a world-wide Catholic lay organization. Frederic Ozanam founded the Society with six friends in 1833 in Paris; they were students at the Sorbonne. Their friends had challenged them about how Catholics deal with the social problems at the time, asking: “What do you do besides talk to prove the faith that is in you?” So they went out to help those most in need.
St. Vincent de Paul is the Patron of SVdP. He was born in France in 1581, became a priest with a large yearly income, and was a tutor and chaplain to an aristocratic family. Later, he dedicated himself to the poor, lived like they did, and served them in humility.
The Society grew rapidly worldwide; today there are over 800,000 active members in 150+ countries.
The first conference in the U.S. was founded in 1845 in St. Louis, only 12 years after the Society was founded in Paris. The first conference in Boston MA was founded 150 years ago, in 1869. There are 150 conferences in the Archdiocese of Boston now (2019).
History of SVdP Lincoln & Weston
Our Conference was founded in early 2003 at St. Joseph Parish in Lincoln MA. When the Parish became part of St. Julia Parish in 2004, the area in which we serve clients was extended from just Lincoln to Lincoln and Weston. The Food Pantry was added in 2005 and is located behind St. Joseph Church. For many years, food was stored in a closet off the Cry Room at the side of St. Joseph Church.
Over the years, the number of clients increased steadily, and towards the end of 2017 we saw an additional large increase in the number of people seeking support through the Food Pantry.
It became clear that we could no longer serve our clients well in the limited space that was available to us. In January 2018, we started planning the conversion of the two-car garage located behind St. Joseph Church into a new space for our Food Pantry. With the expert leadership of Chris Knollmeyer, who donated his services and many goods, the new pantry space was ready within a couple of months. We opened our doors for the first time in August 2018.