Jean Leon Le Prevost

As early as 1833, Jean Léon Le Prévost became involved alongside Frédéric Ozanam in the first Conference of Charity, proposing to place it under the patronage of Saint Vincent de Paul in 1834. Noting the lack of time laypeople had for works among the working class, he founded the Institute of the Brothers of Saint Vincent de Paul in Paris on March 3, 1845, with Clément Myionnet and Maurice Maignen. The congregation is dedicated to the evangelization and material support of the working-class environments. Under his leadership, the institute had the Notre-Dame de la Salette chapel built in Paris in 1858. The Constitutions received the decree of praise from the Holy See in 1869. Tried by the war of 1870 and the Paris Commune, during which Father Henri Planchat was executed by firing squad, he retired to Chaville where he died on October 30, 1874.

The cause for the beatification and canonization of Jean Léon Le Prévost opened in the dioceses of Paris and Versailles. The diocesan informative process took place from 1937 to 1943. The validity of this process was recognized by a decree on July 5, 1991, promulgated on July 5, 1992, by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. The theological consultants then met on March 17, 1998, to evaluate the heroic nature of his virtues.

On December 21, 1998, Pope John Paul II promulgated the decree recognizing the heroic virtues of Jean Léon Le Prévost, conferring upon him the title of Venerable. His mortal remains rest in the church of Notre-Dame de la Salette, in the 15th arrondissement of Paris. His cause is currently awaiting the recognition of a miracle to open the way for his beatification.

The spirituality of Jean Léon Le Prévost is based on active charity, humility, and abandonment to Providence. Considered a precursor of social Catholicism, he leaves a living legacy through the Religious of Saint Vincent de Paul, active in France, Canada, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In 2024, on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of his death, an International Year was dedicated to him by the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul.