[7] While still a student, Ozanam took up journalism and contributed considerably to Bailly's Tribune catholique, which became L'Univers,[5] a French Catholic daily newspaper that adopted a strongly ultramontane position.

"[8] As a consequence, in May 1833 Ozanam and a group of other young men founded the charitable Society of Saint Vincent de Paul,[6] which already by the time of his death numbered upwards of 2,000 members.

According to Thomas Bokenkotter, Lacordaire's Notre Dame Conferences, "...proved to be one of the most dramatic events of nineteenth century church history.

"[10] Still, he also pursued his personal interest, and in 1839 he obtained the degree of Doctor of Letters with a thesis on Dante that then formed the basis of Ozanam's best-known books.

A year later he was appointed to a professorship of commercial law at Lyon, and in 1840, at the age of twenty-seven, assistant professor of foreign literature at the Sorbonne.

His lectures proved highly successful despite the fact that he attached fundamental importance to Christianity as the primary factor in the growth of European civilization, unlike his predecessors and most of his colleagues, who shared in the predominantly anti-Christian climate of the Sorbonne at that time.

[6] The remainder of his short life was extremely busy, attending to his duties as a professor, his extensive literary activities, and the work of district-visiting as a member of the society of St. Vincent de Paul.

[5] During the French Revolution of 1848, of which he took a sanguine view, he once more turned journalist by writing, for a short time, in various papers, including the Ère nouvelle ("New Era"), which he had founded.

[5] His naturally weak constitution fell prey to consumption, which he hoped to cure by visiting Italy,[5] but on his return to France he died in Marseille on Thursday, 8 September 1853, at the age of 40.

[6] Ozanam "is recognized as a precursor of the Catholic Church's social doctrine, whose cultural and religious origins he wanted to know and on which he wrote books which are still in great demand.

"[13] In contemporary movements, he was an earnest and conscientious advocate of Catholic democracy and of the view that the Church should adapt itself to the changed political conditions consequent to the French Revolution.

[7] In his writings he dwelt upon important contributions of historical Christianity, and maintained especially that, in continuing the work of the Caesars, the Catholic Church had been the most potent factor in civilizing the invading barbarians and in organizing the life of the Middle Ages.