Olier, Jean-Jacques - Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. IX, p. 85

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

OLIER, JEAN-JACQUES. - French priest, founder of the Society of St. Sulpice, born in Paris on Sept. 20, 1608, died there on Apr. 2, 1657. He completed his studies at the Jesuit College of the Trinity (1617) and was

Article illustration — (courtesy of the Seminary of St. Sulpice) OLIER, JEAN-JACQUES - Anonymous 17th-century portrait - Paris, Seminary of Saint-Sulpice.

made a bachelor of theology in 1630. He was ordained a priest on May 31, 1633. His spiritual director was St. Vincent de Paul, who fostered his ardent zeal and sent him to Auvergne to preach his first mission in the surroundings of Pébrac, of which O. was abbot. He underwent a harsh trial that lasted two years (1639-41): to purify his soul of all self-love, God made him experience the need for His assistance in both the natural and supernatural orders. Illness? Supernatural trial? Certainly both. Abruptly begun, the trial also ended abruptly, and after this date (1641) he experienced nothing more of the kind.

In the same year, he attempted to found a seminary in Chartres, but without success. On Dec. 29, with de Foix and du Ferrier, he established a seminary in Vaugirard. In 1642 the pastor of Saint-Sulpice, de Fiesque, resigned; O. replaced him. The parish had more than 150,000 inhabitants and was one of the most depraved in Paris. O. divided the parish into neighborhoods, striving to instruct his faithful and train them in solid piety. He intensely developed works of charity. The miseries of the two Frondes provided ample opportunity for the exercise of his zeal. The result was magnificent: the parish became one of the most fervent in the capital. But a violent fever forced him to resign in favor of de Bretonvilliers on June 20, 1652.

His appointment to the parish of Saint-Sulpice led to the establishment of the Seminary next to the parish church. Its characteristics were: the separation between children (minor seminaries) and youths (major seminaries), the community divided between teachers and students participating in the same exercises, and governance founded on the spirit of faith, conscience, cordiality, and confidence rather than on disciplinary surveillance. After a longer or shorter stay in the Seminary, the seminarians spent one or more years in the parish, as in a school of practical application.

Several bishops asked O. for priests to direct new seminaries: the first were Nantes, Le Puy, Viviers,

Clermont. The spirit of St. Sulpice spread greatly throughout France. With Le Royer de la Dauversière, he founded the Company of Our Lady of Montreal, and in the very year of his death he sent de Quelus with some companions for the work that he had foreseen and which, through a thousand difficulties, prospered in an extraordinary way.

O. died assisted by St. Vincent de Paul. Bossuet said of him: "virum praestantissimum ac sanctitatis odore florentem".

Works: La Journée chrestienne (Paris 1655; Italian transl., Milan 1935); Catéchisme chrétien pour la vie intérieure (Paris 1656; Italian transl., Milan 1941); Introduction à la vie et aux vertus chrestiennes (Paris 1658; Italian transl., Milan 1838); Traité des saints Ordres (Paris 1676; Italian transl., Turin 1884, 1925); Lettres (ibid. 1672); Pietas Seminarii Sancti Sulpitii (critical ed., Bourges 1879); Mémoires, etc., all works full of fervor, in accordance with the best tradition of the French Oratory and especially according to the doctrine of Card. de Bérulle and de Condren, of love for Christ and mystical union with the Incarnate Word. For the acuteness of his introspection and the finesse of his sentiment, O. can be compared to St. Francis de Sales.

BIBL.: M. Faillon, Vie de M. O., fondateur du Séminaire de St-Sulpice, 4th ed., 3 vols., Paris 1873; F. Monier, Vie de J. J. O., ibid. 1914; H. Bremond, Histoire littéraire du sentiment religieux en France, III, ibid. 1921, chs. 4-5; E. Levesque, s. V. in DThC, XI, cols. 963-82; P. Pourrat, J. J. O., Paris 1932; id., La spiritualité chrétienne, III, ibid. 1944, pp. 525 ff., 562 ff.; A. Portaluppi, G. Giacoma O., Milan 1947; J. Galy, Le sacrifice dans l'Ecole française de spiritualité, Paris 1951, pp. 285-335.

Michele Ruggero Jeuné