The Diocese of Trenton Council of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul will hold a spiritual assembly celebrating the society’s 400th anniversary Sept. 9 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in St. Aloysius Parish, Jackson.
The event will feature the celebration of Holy Mass by Bishop David M. O’Connell, C.M., and a Communion breakfast.
Vincentian Father Joseph Agostino, coordinator of Vincentian Family Office, will be a keynote speaker.
A panel discussion with Father Agostino, Vincentian Father Martin McGeough, diocesan coordinator of Jail and Prison Ministries, and lay Vincentians will follow.
The Society of St. Vincent de Paul began in Paris, France, and was named for the French Roman Catholic priest renowned for his ministry of service to the poor. His good works dated from 1617 when he contacted the Daughters of Charity and began to organize funds for missionary projects and hospitals and gather relief funds for the victims of war.
In 1833, Frédéric Ozanam, a young law student at the Sorbonne, was challenged during a debate to demonstrate what he and his fellow Catholic students were doing to help the poor in Paris.
The Society they created crossed the ocean to the United States in 1845 and formed its first American conference in St. Louis., Mo., which is its headquarters today.
Currently, an estimated 800,000 members worldwide serve the poor in 140 countries.
Admittance to the event is free. For more information, contact Joseph Williams at 732-295-9085 or jwilliams@svdptrenton.org. St. Aloysius Parish is at 935 Bennetts Mills Road, Jackson.