2022 is the International Year of Le Taillandier, and a special email signature logo (displayed above) has been developed for all SSVP members to use.
The International themed year project is a chance for the Council General International to continue exploring the biographies and the legacies of the seven founders of the Society, inspired by the divine Holy Spirit.
Pierre-Auguste Le Taillandier, one of the seven friends who founded the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, was born in Rouen (France) 211 years ago, on 28 January 1811.
His father belonged to a family of merchants. His mother was of a noble family background and he had a younger brother, Charles. He and his family moved to Paris where he pursued his legal studies. There he met Antoine-Frédéric Ozanam at the “Conferences of History”, and advocated some charitable work instead of endless discussions about history, literature and philosophy.
Ozanam fondly described him as “a very amiable young man who is well informed and has sound common sense”.
In 1833, he was actively involved in the first Charity Conference (Society of St Vincent de Paul), in addition to giving religious instruction to apprentices when they were home visiting or making visits to prisoners. He left Paris in 1837 to go first to Le Mans and then his home city of Rouen. He married Marie Baudry on 7 August 1838. They had four children, three daughters and one son.
In Rouen, he became regional director at an insurance company and at a hospital. In 1841, he founded St. Godard Conference and became its president. He was highly regarded and very popular among his conference brethren and his fellow citizens.
Pierre-Auguste Le Taillandier devoted his final days to his family, to his children’s upbringing, to his friends, to his Conference and to his garden. He died in Rouen on 23 March 1886, aged 75.