OLIVAINT, PIERRE. — Jesuit, Commune (v.), born in Paris on 22 February 1816, died there on 26 May 1871. Son of a Napoleonic officer, he completed his literary studies (1828) with brilliant success; he was appointed professor at the Lycée of Grenoble (1839) and the following year at the Collège Bourbon in Paris, then accepted the position of tutor to the youngest son of the duke de La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt (1841).
Having converted to the faith in 1837, he took part in the first conferences of S. Vincent Ozanam (v.); then, on 3 May 1845, he entered the Society of Jesus and was ordained a priest on 21 September 1850. From 1852 to 1855 he was attached to the Collège de Vaugirard in Paris as professor, director, and preacher to the students, and subsequently as prefect of studies; finally, he was appointed rector, bringing it to a high level and great prosperity. In 1865 he became superior of the residence on Rue de Sèvres, becoming an indefatigable director of spiritual exercises, confessor, and preacher.
On 5 April 1871 he was arrested by the Communards together with other ecclesiastics and religious. In the Roquette prison he also found the archbishop of Paris, mons. Darboy, whom he comforted in his final moments; he finally fell in the massacre carried out by the Communards at 85 Rue Haxo.
Among his published writings, his Consigli ai giovani, a work translated into the principal languages, have remained famous. His body rests in Paris in the Jesuit church on Rue de Sèvres.
Its recruitment is rigorous and requires a kind of vocation, that is, aptitude for disinterested and competent political action. The Conferenza O. seeks to ensure this competence through a solid general education, especially in philosophy, politics, and modern history, with numerous speaking exercises, collaboration with newspapers and journals, lectures, libraries, and contacts with French and foreign public figures. Every year, in summer, the Conferenza O. moves to a château on the island of Port-Cros in the Mediterranean, where it receives representatives of similar groups from abroad. Young people of every nationality, religious confession, and faculty may belong to II. Emphasis is placed on uprightness, morality, and the study of the Catholic religion. Each month a spiritual retreat offers everyone the opportunity to reflect anew on the problems of faith.
Pius XII, receiving a delegation from the Conferenza O. (Easter 1948), encouraged it to remain above party struggles and passing quarrels “in order to remain firmly united on the essential points of justice, charity, and Christian wisdom” (L'osservatore romano, 28 March 1948). Arnaldo M. Lanz