The Society of Saint Vincent de Paul (SVP or SVdP or SSVP) is an international voluntary organization in the Catholic Church, founded in 1833 for the sanctification of its members by personal service of the poor.

[1] The Society of St. Vincent de Paul was founded in 1833 to help impoverished people living in the slums of Paris, France.

[6] The primary figure behind the Society's founding was Blessed Frédéric Ozanam, a French lawyer, author, and professor in the Sorbonne.

Frédéric collaborated with Emmanuel Bailly, editor of the Tribune Catholique, in reviving a student organization which had been suspended during the revolutionary activity of July 1830.

[10] The Society is part of the Vincentian Family which also includes two congregations founded by St. Vincent de Paul – the Congregation of the Mission with Vincentian priests and brothers and the Ladies of Charity – along with the Sisters of Charity in the Setonian tradition and several others, including some religious groups that are part of the Anglican Communion like the Company of Mission Priests.

Parisian Monsieur Baudon, who would assume the presidency of SVDP in 1847, visited London in 1842 and persuaded Spencer to write about the Society in the Catholic Magazine.

Then in January 1844 M. Pagliano, a London restaurateur and recent convert to Catholicism, gathered 13 Catholic men and the first English SVP conference was founded.

[11] Early initiatives included the formation of the Catholic Shoe Black Brigade, providing boys with gainful employment and the first home of "the Rescue Society" which under various names still offers child care in many dioceses.

On 16 November 1845, Bishop Peter Richard Kenrick dedicated the new St. Vincent de Paul church on South Eighth Street and invited Timon to preach.

Timon discussed the Society in his sermon,[13] in the presence of prominent laymen who took hold of the idea and held an organizational meeting on 20 November 1845.

The Conference included Moses Linton, founder of the St. Louis Medical and Surgical Journal, and as chair Judge Bryan Mullanphy who would become mayor of St.

[15] Gerald Ward was born in London in 1806 and was recruited for the Melbourne mission by the pioneering father, later bishop, Patrick Geoghegan.

Ward was familiar with SVP from London and, observing the plight of the poor after the Victorian gold rush, established the Society in Australia in 1854.

The National Council of India has its Headquarters in Mumbai and the present President’s secretariat is at Chennai, Tamil Nadu with the election of Bro.

The National Council of India is registered under the Income Tax Act 1961 with exemption under Sec 80G, FCRA under the ministry of Home Affairs and Societies Regn.

[4] A Conference may be based out of a church, school, community center, hospital, etc., and is composed of Catholic volunteers who pursue their own Christian growth in the service of the poor.

Programs include visits to homes, prisons, and hospitals, housing assistance, disaster relief, job training and placement, food pantries, dining halls, clothing, transportation and utility costs, care for the elderly, and medicine.

Saints Blesseds The St. Vincent de Paul Society runs charity shops in many countries including Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Ireland, and Canada.