Our History
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The Society of Saint Vincent de Paul has been serving our Neighbours In Need in the Greater Toronto area since 1850, providing material aid, programs and services.
In 1833, a young student, Frederic Ozanam, and a group of his peers from the Sorbonne University in Paris were challenged to prove their faith in Christ through actions and not just words. 17 years later, the Society was established in Toronto.
Developing a simple system, they went in teams to help persons in need in their homes, in the streets, in the hospitals and the asylums. Adopting as their patron Saint Vincent de Paul, a 16th century cleric renowned for his work with the poor, the Society arose from humble beginnings to become an international organization found in 130 countries with one million volunteer members.
Our story in Canada begins with Dr. Joseph Painchaud and the first Canadian Conference in 1846 in Quebec. In 1850, George Manly Muir founded the first Ontario Conference at St. Michael’s Cathedral in Toronto, the Conference of Charity of Our Lady of Toronto.
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Special Works in History — serving beyond Home Visits.
The Society responds to persons in need, by visiting them in their homes. In addition, the Society in the GTA has had a long history of providing programs and services to address the root causes of poverty.
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In 1851 the Society in Toronto assumed the cost of coffins and opening and closing the graves of what was then referred to as paupers. This continued into the early 1900’s.
The St. Vincent de Paul Children’s Aid Society was organized in 1894 under Archbishop Walsh’s patronage. Initially this new Society was run completely by the members of the St. Vincent de Paul Society, but it became an independent agency known as The Catholic Children’s Aid Society. By the turn of the Century, a span of five years, the association had counselled parents and hundreds of children. They had placed in homes, 418 children who were orphaned, abandoned, neglected, or in trouble with the law. In 1946 the name was changed to The Catholic Children’s Aid Society of St. Vincent de Paul.
St. Nicolas Institute, which offered continuing education for young men seeking to improve their education, was an early beneficiary of support from the Society. It was supported from the mid-1880’s into the 1920’s.
The Toronto Savings Bank was established in 1854 by Bishop Charbonnel and the Society of St. Vincent de Paul to solve a number of current and future problems. According to the constitution, the goal was to reach the poor of the city “whom we desire to encourage by all means in the ways of industry, temperance and economy thus providing for their future days, and particularly for the education of their children.
