The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1876-11-26
aGsrnlng Star and Catholic Messenger.
FREDERIC OZANAM. HIS LIFE AND
WORKS.
aaow THE SOCIETY OF ST. VINCENT DE PAUL
WAS STARTED.

eains the following notice of the "Life of
Frederic Ozanam, professor at the Sorbonne,
by Kathleen o'Meara," published in Edin
Surg recently by Messrs. Edmonston and
D01glAs:
Twenty three years have elapsed since
the death of this eminent Catholic French
gaan who sank at the early age of 40, pre-
naturely exhausted by literary and intel
Rectuai iabors undertaken in the cause of
religion and true culture. In his short ca
reer he did great things for literature, for
charity, and for the Catholic faith. He had
. father who was himself one of the most
remarkable men Of the period, and to whom
be owed very much of the distinctive
excellence of his character, an indomitable
Nent towards moral and intellectual superb
GRITTY. Like so many eminent men, too, he
had an admirable mother; a model of de-
voted piety, charity, and good sense. The
history of his name and family is 80 re-
snarkable, that it is best given in the words
OF his biographer
The Ozanams would seem to be one of those
Taces where virtue and science are an entailed
7nheSitance, descending like heirlooms from
emo generation to another. For more than
ehree centuries every generation produced
2ome distinguished man OF science, and inva-
Eisbly counted one, frequently several men,
bers In tbe service of the sanctuary. There is
stan preserved amongst the family treasures
lis. Office of our Lady, in Gothic characters,
aad Illuminated with delicate skill, by Eliza
beth Ozsnam, q nun of the Ursuline convent in
ahe fifteenth century. In the last pages of the
book the genealogy of the elder branch of the
Oxanams is recorded, each generation inscrib-
ing its name and dates Individually. Not
che Oganams trace back its roots to immemo.
Eial tradition. In the fret page of the family
records we read tha one Jeremiah HozannAm,
q pretor in the 3Sth Roman legion, came over
20 Gaul with Julius Cesar, after the conquest
Of SeguviR-R country situated between the
J1ra and the AlPs-and received as his share
43ellignum, lying north Of Lyons, and known
later % the village of Boulignieu1. Jeremiah
reelaimed this waste land, which was covered
little Jewish colony. He died in the year 4s
assassinated. 10 had many children, but the
some down to us. He starts the s long ancestral raj
2iNe in which jacob, IshmaeI, Elias, Abime-
1sok, Jehoshsphat, Shem, etc, pass on like .
pCocession Of witnesses vindicating the pure
Jewish origin of the race. The march is unin-
terrupted ur I'll the beginning of the seventh
century, wrea st. Didier placing the GROSS in
Queen BrunhAut's wicked manner Of life, was
P3rsued by that sanguinary princess and fed
Goc eecnrityt to forest near Boulignieux, where
sheltered him with native hospitality. St. |
Didier repaid it by baptizing him and his peo- |
pie in the true faith, and henoeforth we see
names. intermingling moro and more with the
i ~Old Hebrew ones. The saint was seized ct last
by tho ennissarieS OF BrSuhaut, and etrauRled
y Va the bAnks of Q little stream called Renom,
y where in course of time village arose, and
u @as called st. Dder de Rehom.
BeERe ne was eighteen, he wrote, in the
Intervals snatched from the occupations of
clerk in an attorneys Office, a treatise
sagainst the sect of st. Simonians, for
which he received the congratulations of
Lamartine; and it was at that early age
that he was inepiIed with the desire of op-
posing the rampant Voltairiansm of the
age, and of devoting his life to Christian
literature and to the work of reViVfng reli
gion through the agency of the college
Gectnre-room and the periodical press. He
aieu became proficient in science; for, as
his biographer tells Us: "He always had a
Sgreat horror of becoming simply a man of
letters, and nothing else q man whose
mind only worked in one way and on one
anbiect like machine" These tendencies
soon brought him into intimate friendship
with the friends of religion, then few and
far between, and into animated conflict
with the leaders of infidel thought. Whilst
attending the lectures of freethinkinE
professor at the Sorbonne, one NJ Jouffroy,
. he so posed that pundit of unbelief with
questions and objections ON the. side of re-
ligion, that the philosopher was surprised
and disconnected, COMPOUNDED himself in
apologies, declared that he never meant to
attack Christianity in particular, which on
the contrary he held (he eald) in the
highest veneration, and promised to en-
-deavoF, for the future, hot to wound the
faith Of any of his Catholic hearers" And
the reeult actually was that notable
change was thenceforward observed in the
tone of the teaching at the Sorbonne, and
the change was attributed to young
Ozanam's influence. With the same in
Auence also may doubtless be connected
che gratifying fact, that this same Professor
JOuffroy, "on his death bed, ten years later,
returned to the faith which he had spent
che greater part of his life in attacking.
His dying words to philosopher friend,
who stood beside hlm, were, 'All the sys
Sems put together are not worth one page
of tho C0tecbism.'"
Another still more distinguished econ
vert of the SorbOnne" was NJ. Lenormant,
who was the intimate friend of Ozanam,
and whose adhesion to Christianity was the
signal for noisy demonstrations amongst
the studenss, egged. on by the private agi-