The Society of St. Vincent de Paul is a Catholic lay organization founded in Paris in 1833 by Frederic Ozanam to serve the poor; it reached the United States in 1845. In 1915, seven major independent US jurisdictions united to form the Superior (now National) Council of the United States, inaugurated at the Catholic University of America. Today the National Council supports thousands of local conferences and councils whose volunteer members, called Vincentians, provide direct assistance to millions of people in need each year, and it is headquartered in the St. Louis metropolitan area.