Vincent DePaul organized The Ladies of Charity in 1617 in the parish of Chatillon-les Dombes outside of Paris. One Sunday, a parishioner informed him that a family in his parish were all seriously ill and were without help. He pleaded their case in his sermon and the people responded with great generosity but without a plan beyond the moment. Vincent realized then that the poor suffer more from a lack of organization than a lack of charity from others. In a few days he had set up a structure and rule for this parish work and had enlisted a cohort of lay persons to provide this service on an ongoing basis.