The Society of St. Vincent de Paul was founded in 1833 by Frederic Ozanam, a 20-year old student of the Sorbonne University in Paris.

In answer to a challenge to “Practice What They Preached,” Frederic and a group of fellow students started to seek out and visit the poor of Paris in their homes, taking them food and clothes, their friendship and their concerns.

Similar groups began in Paris, then in the rest of France and eventually spread throughout the Christian world with the object of visiting those in need for the love of God.

The Society of St. Vincent de Paul of Kiel, Inc. is affiliated with S.S. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Kiel, WI and was aggregated in 1984.