Do You Hear the People Sing?

Do you hear the people sing?

Singing a song of angry men?
It is the music of a people
Who will not be slaves again!
When the beating of your heart
Echoes the beating of the drums
There is a life about to start
When tomorrow comes!

It is the 5th June 1832.
A 30 year old Victor Hugo was writing a play in the Tuileries Garden when he heard the sound of gunfire from the direction of Les Halles. Instead of returning home, he went to investigate.
The gun shots were from the Paris student uprising against the Emperor Louis-Philippe.

A 51 year old nun, Sr Rosalie Rendu, from the order of Daughters of Charity of St Vincent De Paul had been working with the poor for many years. Conditions were bad and there had been a cholera spot epidemic the year before, in 1831. One of her works was looking after the wounded from the periodic riots and revolutions in Paris.

This order of nuns is recalled in Hugo's novel Les Miserables. The daughters of charity are mentioned in his novel when Jean Valjean leaves Cosette to be cared by them.

19 year old Frederic Ozanam, was a law student who also wrote for Paris newspapers. He met with a group of friends to discuss the situation in Paris and what they could do about it.
He was encouraged to do something, not just talk about it.

By this time, Rosalie Rendu was very well known for her work in the poor districts of Paris, so like many other people, Ozanam went to ask her advice.

In 1833, Ozanam started the Catholic lay organisation, The Society of St Vincent De Paul. There were 2000 members of the St Vincent de Paul organisation when he died 20 years later.

Remember that the corner Vinnies stores, the thousands of members in their conferences and the large organisations run by Vinnies, such as Matt Talbot, all started in the chaos of the fights between republicans, monarchists and bonapartists in the 50 or so years after the French Revolution. Sometimes people seem to need chaos to make them do something.