Founder’s Week 2010 will be a University-wide celebration of the life and legacy of St. Vincent de Paul.

The theme of this year’s Founder’s Week is “Vincentian Legacy and Destiny: Changing the World with Charity and Justice,” in honor of the 350th anniversary of his and St. Louise de Marillac’s deaths.

Designed around honoring the ongoing legacy of St. Vincent and St. Louise, the week will begin on Jan. 25 with the Founder’s Week Mass at the St. Thomas More Church on the Queens campus.

Mary Ann Dantuono, associate director of the Vincentian Center for Church and Society, said she hopes that the week of events will inspire students and encourage them to celebrate St. Vincent’s life.

“St. Vincent de Paul is who we look to as the founder of the University, so we have a week of events to deepen our knowledge of him and the Vincentian mission,” she said.

Throughout the week, there will be many events celebrating the mission and spirit of St. Vincent. All campuses will be hosting their own events, including the St. John’s campuses in Rome and Paris.

At the Queens campus, Greg Mortenson, a humanitarian and author of Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace… One School at a Time, will lecture on January 26th.

There will also be a Vincentian Convocation so that students and faculty can come together to celebrate the life of St. Vincent.

According to Dantuono, Archbishop Timothy Dolan will speak to the University community at some point during the week.

There will also be additional events run by student organizations.

Dantuono said she thinks that the lasting power of the legacy of St. Vincent de Paul is the most important lesson students will take from Founder’s Week.

“Through this week, we can see how the mission is moving us into the 21st century, how 350 years later, there is still this common Vincentian mission,” she said.