OLLE-LAPRUNE, Léon. — Philosopher, b. in Paris on 25 July 1839, d. there on 13 February 1898. A student of the École normale supérieure, he began his teaching career at the Lycée in Nice, moving in 1864 to the Lycée in Douai. In the same year, he obtained the agrégation in philosophy.
He then went to Versailles and in 1871 to the Lycée Henri IV in Paris, which he left to take up a teaching position at the École normale supérieure (1875). It was during this period that he produced the notable study La philosophie de Malebranche (Paris 1870) and his doctoral work, De la certitude morale (1871–1880) and De Aristoteleae ethices fundamento (1871–1880). At the École normale, where he had among his students M. Blondel, he remained for the rest of his life, producing his other works: Essai sur la morale d'Aristote (1871–1881); La philosophie et le temps présent (1871–1890); Les sources de la paix intellectuelle (1871–1892); Le prix de la vie (1871–1894, Italian trans. by A. Codignola, Florence 1924); Ce qu'on va chercher à Rome (Paris 1895); La raison et le rationalisme (posthumous, 1896). For having taken a stance of protest at the time of the expulsion of religious orders, he was suspended from teaching for a year (1880). In 1897 he was called to succeed Vacherot at the Institute.
The thought of O.-L. is directly linked to the spiritualist school of Cousin through his teacher E. Caro. Yet, while remaining faithful to the introspective method and to his metaphysical positions, he distinguishes himself by aligning with the tradition of that Christian philosophy as illustrated by Gratry. From this thinker, O.-L. drew many themes, the first being that one must seek the truth «with one’s whole being», developing them with a clear personal imprint. The philosophy of O.-L. does not arise from a crisis—he never doubted his faith—but from a need to deepen and clarify fundamental human truths. The task of the philosopher, he held, is precisely to communicate: to do this, one need not start from doubt. «To examine is not to doubt», but to deepen the data of common sense and to grasp in consciousness the certainties of the existence of the self, of the world, and of God as the cause and reason of the universe in which we move. And God is particularly a loving Providence who assists and guides: against the Jansenist concept of a Providence governed by ironclad laws, as Malebranche would have it (and this is one of the criticisms O.-L. most insists upon in La philosophie de Malebranche).
The living consciousness of God’s love for man and hence of the value of man is characteristic of O.-L. For this reason, his investigations, though marked by rigorous scientific method, turn to topics designed to enlighten minds and open them to Christian truth. A purpose of strict clarification is joined to a demand for the affirmation and dissemination of his own faith, which does not close off but rather stimulates and crowns research without encroaching upon its domain. In this vein, he pursued his study on the conditions of «moral certainty», intended to highlight the place that reason and will occupy in the knowledge of moral truths. Far from rationalism, yet not conceding to fideism, O.-L. clarifies how the will does not posit truth but helps to see it through a presence that begins with attention and culminates in adherence to truth; without this act, moral truths are not known in their nature and value. «In the order of moral truths, the adherence of the will is required as a condition for the complete and definitive assent of the mind; complete certainty is personal. To recognize moral truth in its proper mode, one must in some way be similar to its object, according to the definition of the ancient philosophers; one must do the truth, according to the admirable word of the Gospel» (De la certitude morale, ed. cit., p. 79): even though one must admit that «the motives for affirming, the duty to affirm, exist for all and are visible to all, once certain preliminary conditions have been met, and thus the affirmation itself has a sufficient and valid objective principle for anyone endowed with reason» (ibid., p. 345). This voluntaristic motif is taken up again in La philosophie et le temps présent. Philosophy can arise and avoid the degenerations of aestheticism and positivism only where a lofty and full life expands the knowledge of reality acquired through science and sustains thought.
Yet philosophy cannot give everything. Man seeks not merely knowledge but the possession of truth. «Can what is alive be illuminated, guided, restrained, or overturned by what is not alive? This is inadmissible. Only life gives the final word to life. Let love be placed, and everything is animated without any injury to the ideal» (Il valore della vita, ed. cit., p. 162). And where love is spoken of, there is the person, the relationship between persons—in a word, there is Christianity. Only in this doctrine, which engages the whole being and is guaranteed by solid historical proofs (classical apologetics, though with greater emphasis on interior dispositions, is by no means denied by O.-L.), does man find the word and the means of salvation, the value of life. Whoever has not attained this certainty wastes away in vain (as O.-L. shows in his essay on Th. Jouffroy) in the attempt to find a substitute for
II. Only the Church—and this is one of the fundamental ideas repeated by O
L. in his writings and affirmed in his teaching—possesses the word of true life, even for modern minds, and holds the light and strength to illuminate and resolve all the problems of man, from the interior to the social.OLOFERNE. — Highest-ranking military commander, second only to the king (Judg. 2:4; cf. 1 Chron. 16:5; 2 Chron. 28:7; Esth. 13:3; 16:11), to whom Nebuchadnezzar (= Artaxerxes III Ochus, 358–338 B.C.; V. GIUDITTA) entrusts the plan to occupy and devastate the rebellious West (Judg. 2:4–13). Oloferne assembles his general staff, gathers a vast army—120,000 infantry and 12,000 elite cavalry—and attacks and devastates Asia Minor, Syria, and the coastal region as far as Gaza, which surrenders in terror (ibid. 2:4–13); Judah, however, prepares its defense (ibid. 4). Oloferne rejects the Achior (v.) and besieges Bethulia. He is captivated by the beauty of Judith, who, invited to a banquet, cuts off his head while he lies in a drunken stupor (ibid. 5–7; 12–13).
The name Oloferne is «of distinctly Persian stamp; in that language it means ‘fortunate’; it is also written, more correctly, Orofene» (A. Vaccari [V. BIBLICA.], p. 309), as appears from comparison with other names.
OLSHAUSEN, JUSTUS
Chapter on Olomouc: the exceptional right to elect the bishop. Among the most distinguished bishops are: E. Zdik (1126-50), promoter of ecclesiastical reform; G. Zelezny (of iron); 1416-30, first cardinal of the diocese, principal accuser of John Hus at the Council of Constance; Guglielmo Prusinovsky (1565-72), founder of the University; Cardinal Francesco Dietrichstein (1599-1636), friend of St Philip Neri and Cardinal Baronius, who brought Moravia back to Catholicism; A. C. Stojan (1921-23), founder of the Apostolate of SS. Cyril and Methodius, zealous promoter of the union of dissident Slavs with the Catholic Church, called by the people for his charity “Father Stojan,” dying in a reputation for holiness. During the religious wars caused by the movement of John Hus, the diocese remained faithful to Catholicism. In 1566 the University was erected there, directed by the Jesuits, with all faculties. In the 19th century this University was suppressed, except for the theological faculty, later called “Faculty of SS. Cyril and Methodius”; by decree of 14 July 1950 even this faculty was abolished by the communist government.
Among the city’s monuments of art worthy of note are the metropolitan church of St Wenceslas, founded in the 12th century and rebuilt in the 14th and 19th centuries, the Gothic church of St Maurice from the 15th century, the Archbishop’s Palace, a work of the Italian architect Carlo Fontana (1670), and a chapel built on the spot where in 1620 the Blessed John Srakander was martyred by Protestants for the sacramental secret.
In 1950 all religious houses were confiscated by the communist government and the religious men and women were deported to concentration convents. The centres of religious life in the diocese of Olomouc are the pilgrimage places: Velehrad (SS. Cyril and Methodius), Svaty Hostyn (in 1948 there were 133,000 communions there), Svaty Kopecek, with their monumental churches and their respective houses for spiritual exercises.