The Society was founded in 1833 in Paris by a young Italian student named Frederic Ozanam (now Blessed Frederic). He was appalled by the poverty he saw in Paris and formed a group of young men to pray together and work towards helping people in need. He named the Society after St Vincent de Paul who had done similar work in Paris 200 years previously. More groups were formed throughout France and later the whole world and the first group in the UK met in London in the1850s.

There was an active group in English Martyrs from the time the church was founded in the 1930s until the 2^nd world war and it was re-formed in 1968 and has been active ever since. There are groups active locally in St Aelred’s, St George’s, St Wilfrid’s. St Paulinus’ and St Margaret Clitherow’s, also in Ampleforth and Easingwold.

The Society’s motto is ‘Turning Concern into Action’. We try to put this into practice in our parish by visiting and helping anyone we see or hear to be in need, individuals and families, – needs including problems arising from lack of means, debt, loneliness, help with form-filling, or maybe just visiting the housebound to give them a different face to see or to keep them up with parish news. A few of us take Holy Communion to those who cannot get to mass. We regularly give aid to asylum seekers and refugees. We get referrals from social services, City of York Council, Social Prescribers, neighbours, friends and parishioners.

We meet fortnightly in the Hall, say some prayers, report on visits, check our finances and discuss future action or events. The minimum commitment is to attend an hour’s meeting every two weeks and to do at least one or two visits at times to be mutually arranged. We normally visit in pairs and no-one is asked to do anything they are not comfortable with. We do have access to local or national SVP funds but, through the generosity of our parishioners we rarely need to call on these. We are always looking for new members.

Mike Walmsley (President)