Frederic
Ozanam was born into a European culture deeply affected by the religious
cynicism of Voltaire and afflicted by social inequality and class conflict.
Voltaire ridiculed the Church and considered religious worship, especially
the Eucharist, a mere civic rite to pacify the masses and maintain social
solidarity. On the contrary, Frederic, with keen intellectual insight
and high social consciousness, viewed life through the lens of faith,
seeing Jesus' self-offering as the genuine pattern for solidarity and
service within the human community.
As
a student at the state-run Sorbonne, this brilliant, sensitive young
man of modest middle class background was confronted daily by the misery
of the working poor of Paris, immortalized in Puccini's La Boheme
and Les Miserables. Unlike the good bishop in Hugo's novel who
invests his silver in the future of a poor man, the Archbishop of Paris
was perceived to be in league with the King's repression of the working
class and inattentive to the desperate situation of the poor. Frederic
challenged his friends at the university: "If we are too young to
intervene in the social struggle, are we then to remain passive in the
middle of a world which is suffering and groaning? No, a preparatory path
is open to us. Before doing public good, we can try to do good to a few.
Before regenerating France, we can give relief to a few of her poor."
Committed
to do more than talk about faith, Frederic, with a small group of
friends, formed the first "Conference of Charity," which met
weekly to contribute to a secret collection and then visit the poor in
their homes. This active witness derived from Ozanam's faith vision but
also from his "Vincentian preference" for what he called self-forgetful
charity over ostentatious philanthropy. Frederic and his companions were,
inspired by Sister Rosalie Rendu, a Daughter of Charity, who served the
needy, stood at the barricades with the poor, and mentored these young
students. Today, the worldwide St. Vincent de Paul Society continues this
type of quiet service through its almost one million members.
Frederic
knew professional success and professorial achievement. While he honored
his father's wishes and became a lawyer and professor of law, he also
pursued his abiding passion for literature. Having earned two advanced
degrees, he was a prolific scholar on a broad range of topics from the
theory of law to Italian and German literature. His journalistic writings
are strikingly modern in social analysis, praise of democracy, support
of workers' rights, and direct, crisp style. His lectures, books and correspondence
document his belief that Christianity and progress, like faith and science,
far from being incompatible, are mutually generative.
A
loving husband and devoted father, Frederic achieved greatness as
a gifted scholar, a dedicated teacher, a generous Christian and a gentle
but effective reformer. True to the example of St. Vincent de Paul, he
creatively sought to respond to the needy with sensitive charity and to
replace class struggle with just relationships.
