OLIER
241
OLIER
adopting the ambitious style of the day; he also fre-
quented fashionable society, causing anxiety to those
interested in his spiritual welfare. His success in de-
fending theses in Latin and Greek led him to go to
Rome for the purpose of learning Hebrew so as to gain
^clat by defending theses in that language at the Sor-
bonne. His eyesight failing, he made a pilgrimage to
Loreto, where he not only obtained a cure, but also a
complete conversion to God. For a time he meditated
the Carthusian life, visiting monasteries in Southern
Italy; the news of his father's death (16.31) recalled
him to Paris. Refusing a court chaplaincy, with the
prospect of high honours, he began to gat her the beggars
and the poor and catechize them in his home; at Paris
he collected the poor and the outcast on the streets for
instruction, a practice at first derided but soon widely
imitated and productive of much good. Under St.
Vincent de Paul's guidance, he assisted his mission-
aries in Paris and the provinces, prepared for the
priesthood, and was ordained 21 May, 1633. He
became a leader in the revival of religion in France, as-
sociating himself with the followers first of St. Vincent
and then of Pere de Condren, Superior of the Oratory,
under whose direction he passed, though he continued
to retain St. Vincent as his friend and ad\'isor. To de
Condren, more even, it appears, than to St. Vincent,
Olier owed the deepest spiritual influence and many
of his leading ideas. The work de Condren had most
at heart was the foundation of seminaries after the
model laid down at the Council of Trent. The hope
of reUgion lay in the formation of a new clergy through
the seminaries. The attempts in France to carry out
the designs of the council having failed, de Condren,
unable to succeed through the medium of the Oratory,
gathered a few young ecclesiastics around him for that
purpose, Olier among them. The missions in which he
employed them were meant to impress on their minds
the religious needs of the country; his ulterior purpose
was not disclosed till shortly before his death in 1640.
A first attempt to found a seminary at Chartres
failed. On 29 Dec, 1641, Olier and two others, de
Foix and du Ferrier, entered upon a community life at
Vaugirard, a suburb of Paris. Others soon joined
them, and before long there were eight seminarians,
who followed with the priests the same rule of life and
were instructed in ecclesiastical sciences, M. Olier
teaching Holy Scripture. The pastor of Vaugirard
profited by the presence of the priests to take an ex-
tended vacation, during which time they reformed his
parish. Impressed by the fame of this reform, the
cure of St-Sulpice, disheartened by the deplorable
state of his parish, offered it in exchange for some of
M. Oiler's benefices. In August, 1641, M. Olier took
charge of St-Sulpice. His aims were to reform the
parish, establish a seminary, and Christianize the Sor-
bonne, then very worldly, through the piety and holi-
ness of the seminarians who should attend its courses.
The parish embraced the whole Faubourg-St-Germain,
with a population as numerous and varied as a large
city. It was commonly reputed the largest and most
vicious parish, not only in the French capital, but in
all Christendom. The enormity of the evils had
killed all hope of reformation. Father Olier organ-
ized his priests in community life. Those who found
the life too strict separated from the work. The par-
ish was divided into eight districts, each under the
charge of a head priest and associates, whose duty it
was to know individually all the souls under their care,
with their spiritual and corporal needs, especially the
poor, the uninstructed, the vicious, and those bound
in irregular unions. Thirteen catechetical centres
were established, for the instruction not only of chil-
dren but of many adults who were almost equally ig-
norant of religion. Special instructions were provided
for every class of persons, for the beggars, the poor,
domestic servants, lackeys, midwives, workingmen,
the aged etc. Instructions and debates on Catholic
XI.— 16
doctrine were organized for the benefit of Calvinists,
hundreds of whom were converted. A vigorous cam-
paign was waged against immoral and heretical hter-
ature and obscene pictures; leaflets, holy pictures, and
prayer books were distributed to those who could not
or would not come to church, and a bookstore was
opened at the church to supply good literature. The
poor were cared for according to methods of relief in-
spired by the practical genius of St. Vincent de Paul.
During the five or six years of the Fronde, the terrible
civil war that reduced Paris to widespread misery,
and often to the verge of famine, M. Olier supported
hundreds of families and prov-ided many with clothing
and shelter. None were refused. His rules of relief,
adopted in other parishes, became the accepted meth-
ods and are still followed at St-Sulpice. Orphans,
verj- numerous during the war, were placed in good
parishes, and a house of refuge established for orphan
girls. A home was open to shelter and reform the
many women rescued from evil lives, and another for
young girls exposed to danger. Many free schools
for poor girls were founded by Father Olier, and he
laboured also at the reform of the teachers in boys'
schools, not however, with great success. He per-
ceived that the reform of boys' schools could be ac-
complished only through a new congregation; which
in fact came about after his death through Saint John
Baptist de la Salle, a pupil of St-Sulpice, who founded
his first school in Father Olier's parish. Free legal aid
was provided for the poor. He gathered under one
roof the sisters of many communities, who had been
driven out of their convents in the country and fled to
Paris for refuge, and cared for them till the close of the
war. In fine, there was no misery among the people,
spiritual or corporal, for which the pastor did not seek
a remedy.
His work for the rich and high-placed was no less thorough and remarkable. He led the movement against duelling, formed a society for its suppression, and enlisted the active aid of military men of renown, including the marshals of France and some famous duel- lists. He converted many of noble and royal blood, both men and women. He combated the idea that Christian perfection was only for priests and religious, and inspired many to the practices of a devout life, in- cluding daily meditation, spiritual reading and other exercises of piety, and to a more exact fulfilment of their duties at court and at home. His influence was power- ful with the Queen Regent, Anne of Austria, to whom he spoke with great plainness, yet with great respect, denouncing her prime minister. Cardinal Mazarin, as responsible for simoniacal and sacrilegious nomina- tions to the episcopate. He persuaded the rich — • royalty, nobles, and others — to a great generosity, without which his unbounded charities would have been impossible. The foundation of the present church of St-Sulpice was laid by him. At times as many as sixty or even eighty priests were ministering together in the parish, of whom the most illustrious, a little after Olier's time, was Fenelon, later Arch- bishop of Cambrai. This was one of the best effects of OUer's work, for it sent trained, enlightened zealous priests into all parts of France. From being the most vicious in France, the parish became one of the most devout, and it has remained such to this day. Olier was always the missionary. His outlook was world- wide; his zeal led to the foundation of the Sulpician missions at Montreal and enabled him to effect the conversion of the Enghsh King, Charles II, to the Catholic faith, though not to perseverance in a Chris- tian life.
The second great work of Olier was the estabUsh- ment of the seminary of St-Sulpice. By his parish, which he intended to serve as a model to the parochial clergy, as well as by his seminary, he hoped to help give France a worthy secular priesthood, through which alone, he felt, the revival of religion could come.
