Monsieur Olier

BY THE

Rev. JAMES BELLORD

LONDON

CATHOLIC

TRUTH

SOCIETY

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BIOGRAPHICAL SERIES.
St. Aloysius. By the Rev. F. Goldie, S.J.
St. Alphonsus Liguori. By a Redemptorist Father.
B. Juvenal Ancina. By the Rev. John Morris, S.J.
St. Anselm. By Mrs. Ward.
St. Antoninus, Archbishop of Florence. By the Rev. B. Wilberforce, Ο.1
St. Antony of Padua. By C. Kegan Paul, M.A.
St. Thomas Aquinas.
Ven. Edmund Arrowsmith. By the Rev. F. Goldie, S.J.
St. Augustine. By the Rev. A. J. Saxton.
St. Bede, Monk and Mass-Priest.
St. Benedict. By the Right Rev. Abbot Snow, O.S.B.
St. John Berchmans. By the Rev. F. Goldie, S.J.
Ven. Julie Billiart.
Don Bosco. By Mrs Raymond Barker.
Dame Marion Boyd. By the Archbishop of Glasgow.
Father Thomas Burke, O.P.
B. Edmund Campion. By the Rev. F. Goldie, S.J.
The Carthusian Martyrs. By Dom Lawrence Hendriks.
St. Catherine of Siena.
Bishop Challoner. By the Rev. E. H. Burton.
Dom Maurice Chauncy and Brother Hugh Taylor. By Dom Lawrence
Hendriks.
St. Peter Claver. By the Rev. Fr. Sola, S.J.
Alexis de Clerc. By Lady Amabel Kerr.
Ven. Margaret Clitheroe. By the Rev. A. B. Gurdon.
St. Columba. By the Rev. John Golden.
St. Columbanus. By the same.
The Curé d’Ars. By Lady Herbert.
St. Cuthbert. By Mrs. Francis Kerr.
Father Damien, the Apostle of the Lepers.
St. Dominic. By the Rev. W. Lescher, O.P.
The Five Dominican Martyrs in China.
Mother Mary Teresa Dubouche. By Miss Kenouf.
St. Edmund of Canterbury. By Rev. W Le Grave.
St. Edmund, King and Martyr. By J. A. Floyd, B.A.
St. Elizabeth of Hungary. By Mrs John Dillon
The English Martyrs. By the Rev. J Morris, S.J.
St Vincent Ferrer. By the Rev. B. Wilberforce, O.P.
B. John Fisher. By the Rev. W. H. Cologan.
St. Peter Fourier. By the Very Rev. A. Allana.
St. Frances of Rome.
c „
St. Francis of Assisi. By the Rev. J Prendergast, O.S.F.
St. Francis of Sales. By Very Rev. Canon Mackey.
St Francis Xavier.
St. George. By the Rev. J. W. Reeks.
Brother Giles and Brother Juniper.
St. Gregory the Great By the Rev A. J. Saxton.
Mother Margaret Hallahan. By Lady A. Kerr.
St. Helen. By Μ. E. James.
Father Hermann. By Mrs. Liebich.

69 Southwark Bridge Road, London, S.E.

MONSIEUR OLIER
(1608-1657.)
By

the

Rev. JAMES BELLORD.

INTRODUCTORY.

The Church of Jesus Christ has received from Him a
life that can never fail, but not by any means a life that
is absolutely invulnerable. There is an ebb and flow in
her affairs ; she has seasons of progress and seasons of
decline. In her field there are tares as well as wheat,
subjects of scandal as well as of edification. She has an
immensity to glory in, but not a little to be ashamed of,
in the human element that is combined in her with the
divine. Persecution, heresy, atheism, moral corruption,
have by turns raged against her and wrought havoc in
her ranks ; but when the crisis of her fate has arrived,
the hand of the Almighty has been stretched forth, and
she has renewed her youth like the eagle : “ She has
come forth bearing the marks of cruel wounds, but with
the principle of life still strong within her ”—(Macaulay).
There are times when hope itself seems dead. Then it
is that God raises up the providential man, prepares him
in humility and suffering, fills him with the Divine Spirit,
and makes of him a great founder or reformer, whose
influence will work for generations through his disciples.
Such were St. Gregory the Great and St. Gregory VII.,
SS. Basil and Benedict, SS. Francis and Dominic, St.
Ignatius, St. Theresa, St. Vincent de Paul, and Don
Bosco. Even among names so great may be written the
A

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Monsieur O lier

name of one, untitled in the hierarchy of heaven as in
the hierarchy of the Church militant, Monsieur Jean
Jacques Olier, a parish priest, the founder of ecclesi­
astical education, and the regenerator of the secular
clergy.
The Council of Trent was a great culminating point in
the life of the Church. One epoch was ending, and the
modern period was opening. The Church had to adjust
her action to totally new conditions, and to devise new
methods of procedure. Reform and reorganization alike
were necessary. The incessant turmoil of the middle
ages, foreign wars and internal dissensions, a revival of
the old spirit of paganism, and the insurgençe of new
heresies, scandals in high places, unbridled luxury and
unfathomable misery, had resulted in relaxing the bonds
of discipline, extinguishing the earlier enthusiasm, and
disorganising the system of the Church. The people
were plunged in ignorance, the clergy to a great extent
in indolence and incapacity. The priesthood was often a
mere means of livelihood, monasteries sometimes kept up
only the external forms of the religious life, abbacies and
bishoprics had become family livings for the younger
sons of the nobility. As in the Anglican Establishment
of the present day there are lay-rectors of parishes and
lay-impropriators of tithes belonging to the Church, so
was it formerly in France. The Abbots and Priors of
great monasteries were often mere boys, tonsured in
order that they might be in some sense ecclesiastics,
distinguished from laymen only by the prelatial purple
of their silken doublet and cloak, who disported them­
selves at Court, fought duels, and gambled away the
patrimony of the poor in the royal antechambers. Of
anything like professional training for the priestly state
there was almost none. The candidate simply pre­
sented himself and was ordained ; a Bishop of rigid
views might perhaps send him to a religious house to be
trained to priestly virtues and priestly duties during a
week’s retreat. This calamitous state of things had
come about by degrees ; it was guarded by the passions
and personal interests of King, and Aristocracy, and

Monsieur Olier

3

Churchmen themselves ; it had woven itself into the life
and habits of the French nation. At the same time the
central authority of the Church was distant, communica­
tion was restricted, and Governments were jealous of
interference. When there was thus no control of the
Holy See over the Episcopate, of Bishops over the
clergy, of clergy over their flocks, of Abbots over
monasteries, there could be no other result but the
gradual dissolution of religious and moral bonds.
The Council of Trent had recognised the only
adequate remedy, and ordered its adoption. Every
Bishop was to establish an Ecclesiastical College for the
fostering of vocations, and the segregation of students
from the dangers of the world, and their training in
virtue and science. Nothing could have seemed easier
of accomplishment, granting a serious and united effort
on the part of the Bishops, and a sufficiency of funds.
Yet eighty years had elapsed, and except for the
seminaries of Rome, and that of Milan established by
St. Charles, all the efforts of Bishops and Governments,
of religious congregations, and even of Saints, had ended
in failure. St. Francis of Sales desired to form three
men so that they might inaugurate a seminary system :
after seventeen years of efforts he confessed that he had
trained only one and a half.
A holy priest, M.
Bourdoise, tried during thirty years, and only succeeded
in getting together a society of parish rectors, who gave
some pastoral instruction to young priests. The chief
object of Cardinal de Berulle in founding the French
Oratory was to provide seminaries for the kingdom and
a congregation of capable directors : but the three
establishments which were started soon degenerated into
ordinary schools, and came to an end. St. Vincent de
Paul wished his missionary priests to prepare students
for the priesthood, but they never got further than giving
ordination retreats. A seminary at Limoges struggled
on for twenty years without producing a single priest.
Bordeaux, Rouen, Rheims, Agen opened seminaries
that came to nothing. In 1625 the Bishops proposed to
establish four large seminaries for the whole country, but

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Monsieur O lier

they could not agree on any system, or find priests of
their own capable of organizing one ; and they hesitated
at employing the regular congregations, since these would
not be completely subject to their control. Thus all
the efforts of the best men had failed ; the command
of the Tridentine Council was considered to be an
impracticable ideal ; and evidently it could be carried
out only by the direct motion of God.

II.
THE PERIOD OF PREPARATION :

1608-1642.

Jean Jacques Olier, the third son of James and Mary

Olier de Verneuil, was born in Paris on September 20,
1608. The families of his parents belonged to the
highest official class, and filled distinguished positions
under Henry IV., Louis XIII., and Louis XIV. M. and
Mme. de Verneuil were excellent Catholics in that
corrupt age, but at the same time they were worldlyminded, and very ambitious for their children. The
infant was put out to nurse in the Rue St. Sulpice, and
even then he instinctively recognised the Sacred Presence
on the altar of the parish with which he is evermore
associated. However fractious he might be, it was
sufficient to take him inside the Church, and at once he
was pacified. One of his earliest impressions, and a
predominant one in his life, was of the exceeding holi­
ness that befits a priest standing in silence and alone in
the presence of God : he was then about seven years
old. The child learned from his father a most vivid
devotion to the Blessed Virgin, which ever grew with his
years. He could do nothing without first saying a Hail
Mary, and would confide all his troubles and joys to his
---- holy patroness.
At eight years of age Jean Jacques was tonsured, and
3

Special

^Ccuocuons

çi

Monsieur Olier

5

presented to a benefice, of which thenceforth he drew
the revenues. He was destined for the Church, and
gave early promise of a distinguished career by his
quickness in learning and retentive memory; but, on
the other hand, he was impetuous and unmanageable,
was for ever getting into dangerous scrapes, and risking
his life by his utter recklessness. Mme. de A'erneuil,
who never understood her son as child or as man,
aggravated him by incessant scoldings and beatings, till
she made his life a burthen to him. Meeting St. Francis
de Sales at Lyons, she expressed a fear that so wicked
a child would never be fit for the ecclesiastical state.
The holy Bishop, after praying to God for light, declared
that the wickedness was no more than the exuberance
of a strong nature, and that the boy was destined to
become a renowned servant of God.
Divine Provid­
ence in a manner compelled him to keep himself in a
state of grace ; for whenever he had fallen into sin, he
. found himself completely incapacitated for his studies.
In 1626, having finished his course at the Sorbonne
with great distinction, he was nominated Commendatory
Abbot of Pebrac, Prior of Bazainville and of the Bene­
dictines of Clisson, and Count-Canon of St. Julien.
He now set up an establishment of his own in Paris,
with horses and two carriages, several servants, and a
retinue to accompany him. He had the entry into the
best society, and was received with universal favour, on
account of his family connections, his handsome person,
his wealth and wit and charm of manner. Although
not in even minor orders, he was possessed, as Abbot,
of jurisdiction and the right to preach. His sermons,
most carefully composed, drew fashionable audiences,
and Mme. Olier de Verneuil was delighted with their
popularity, their ingenious conceits, their elegant de­
livery, and their complete lack of the unction of the
Holy Spirit. Monsieur the Abbot of Pebrac was in­
toxicated with his successes, and threw himself with
characteristic ardour into a life of worldliness, frivolity,
and extravagance. He was assured now of high position
in the Church, but his parents were sufficiently religious

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Monsieur Olier

not to desire it on such terms. They were as much
averse to a life of scandal as to a life of sanctity, and
they now sought, by prayers to God and remonstrances
with their son, to bring about his conversion. They
were more successful than they wished.
There was a person whose special vocation in life was,
by means of prayer, to obtain the sanctification of Olier,
and to guide him throughout his course in the path
appointed to him by God. In his twenty-first year,
returning one day with a party of gay young Abbots
from the Fair of St. Germain, he passed by the shop of
a humble widow, who stood at her door, and, looking
sadly at them, exclaimed : “ Oh, gentlemen, I have long
prayed for your conversion.” This was Marie Rousseau,
a woman of extraordinary sanctity and humility, who,
while yet a child, had the inspiration to pray that she
might help to form holy men to labour in God’s service.
Her constant petitions were for the conversion of her
own district of St. Sulpice, and the reform of the secular
clergy. Earlier than any of the holy men who guided
M. Olier, she seems to have recognised him as God’s
instrument for those purposes. She was supernaturally
enlightened by God ; her words, though simple, pos­
sessed great power, and she was consulted by the highest
in Church and State. From the moment that she spoke,
a change began to take place in M. Olier. Some time
later he went to Rome to prosecute his studies, and
while there he went in pilgrimage to Loreto. As he
entered the basilica, attired as a layman, an unknown
woman addressed him: “French Abbot, be converted
and live to God, or woe betide you.” Here he received
health of soul and body; he was suddenly cured of fever
and a painful affection of the eyes ; and he first felt the
hand of God drawing him to a life of perfection.
The death of his father soon recalled M. Olier to
Paris. His mother was negotiating for his appointment
to a Court Chaplaincy; but he refused it, and after
spending almost a year in retirement and prayer, he
came forth to active life ; and, to his mother’s unutter­
able disgust, gave himself to the service of the most

Monsieur Olier

!

miserable and degraded among the poor of Paris. He
would gather them in the streets, or at Church doors, or
in his own apartments, to instruct them in the faith and
relieve their distress, and often he would prostrate him­
self and kiss their feet. As a matter of course, he was
accounted to be mad.
M. Olier now placed himself under the direction of
St. Vincent de Paul, and devoted himself to helping his
priests in their missions throughout the country, and
especially in the districts where his benefices or the
family estates were situated. Guided by the Saint, he
concluded that his vocation was to the secular clergy
and not to a religious order, and accordingly he was
ordained priest in May 1633.
The next nine years are a record of zealous work for
souls, of gradual sanctification, of the manifestation of
God’s will, and of experience, gathered in every part of
France, of the needs of the people and of the clergy.
At that time God had raised up holy men to undertake
a new form of apostolic labour, as missionaries not
connected with any diocese, but going hither and
thither to instruct the ignorant populations and revive
the practice of religion. M. Olier joined with some
other zealous young priests, Commendatory Abbots and
Priors like himself, and began a series of missions, some
of which lasted for months. The poor people thronged
to hear the word of God, which they had seldom heard
before ; the Sacraments began to be frequented, abuses
were corrected, associations were formed for various
good works, the face of the country was renewed. St.
Vincent de Paul remarked : “ I know not how it is,
but a benediction seems to follow you everywhere.”
It was not the lay-folk only, but the clergy as well,
who were like sheep without a shepherd. They were
ignorant, untrained in priestly functions, and there was
none to teach them better. But the example of a few
men of energy and self-sacrifice was a revelation to
them, and revived their dormant zeal. Canons and
parish priests began to preach and catechise, to visit
the poor, the sick, the galley-slaves ; they beautified

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Monsieur Olier

their Churches, gave missions took measures for pro­
perly recruiting their ranks, and thus perpetuated the
good which had been done transiently by the mission­
aries.
One very important means devised by St. Vincent de
Paul for the development of the apostolic spirit, for
mutual edification, and for stimulating works of zeal,
was the Clerical Conference. Among the parish clergy
this had much the same utility as General Councils in
the Church, or as National, Provincial, and Diocesan
Synods, each in its own sphere. It was, in fact, an
almost necessary supplement to them ; it brought in­
dividual priests into a union of combined action with
others; and although this assembly was deliberative
only and not legislative, it was the means of discovering
what legislation was needed, and suggesting it to the
chief authority in the diocese. The use of professional
congresses was known in the Church long before the
idea had been adopted by any other body of men ; but
the lapse of time and the prevalence of civil disorder
had either put an end to these assemblies, or had re­
duced them to an empty form, without any of the reality
or the utility of deliberative councils. M. Olier and his
priests took every opportunity of introducing these con­
ferences, with the result that the clergy ceased to be
isolated and inarticulate atoms, and were enabled to
ventilate new ideas, and profit by one another’s ex­
perience.
Many of the Religious Houses of France had fallen
into a state of relaxation that was lamentable and even
scandalous. The difficulties of reforming them were
very great. The members had a vested interest in their
monasteries, and could not be dispossessed; their con­
tract with the Order was to observe a relaxed rule, and
they had a legal right to refuse any further obligations.
The task of monastic reform fell to the lot of these
secular priests. M. Olier’s zeal had no result as to his
own Abbey of Pebrac, but had remarkable success in
several other cases.
A man possessed of such qualifications as M. Olier

Monsieur Olier

9

seemed designed by Providence to be a great Bishop of
the Church. Few men have escaped that burthen so
many times as he. But he was reserved by God for a
position, which, though far less dignified, proved in his
case to be one of much greater importance and more
enduring influence. Two years after his ordination, he
was asked for by some Bishop, probably of Puy or
Rodez, as his coadjutor; and in 1639 he was actually
nominated as Coadjutor of Chalons. Even St. Vincent
de Paul, man of God as he was, was mistaken about M.
Olier’s vocation, and strongly urged him to accept.
Just before this time, however, he had by a kind of
inspiration taken Father· de Condren as his director;
and this holy man was enlightened by God to declare to
him that he was reserved for some other function in the
Church. Father Charles de Condren, Superior of the
French Oratory, was one of the many great but uncanon­
ized saints who flourished then. His particular calling
was direction, especially of the clergy ; he never wrote ;
his gift was exercised in conversation. He had long
known the designs of Providence as to M. Olier, and his
own duty in preparing the way ; but he kept “the secret
of the King ” rigidly till the day before his death.
Another divine intimation as to his future had already
been conveyed to M. Olier, again by means of a holy
woman, this time a nun. While in his room at the
Monastery of St. Lazare, shortly after his ordination, he
twice had a vision of a venerable religious weeping
and praying for him. At first he thought it was the
Blessed Virgin, but soon concluded that it must be some
living person. A few months later, while engaged in
missions, he heard a great deal about the high sanctity
of Mother Agnes of Jesus, Superior of the Convent of
Langeac. Proceeding there, he recognised in her his
preternatural visitant. She told him that the Blessed
Virgin had ordered her to pray for him, and that he was
chosen to found a seminary, which should be the model
of all others in France. The work of her life was to
promote that object by her prayers and mortifications.
Having delivered her message, she pronounced her

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Monsieur Οlier

Nunc dimittis, and died on October 19, 1634. She had
promised to bequeath to M. Olier her Guardian Angel,
one of the highest in that Celestial Choir, to be a special
additional protector to him in doing the work of God.
At the moment of her death, M. Olier saw the Angel
descending on him from heaven to take up his new
charge.
Suffering is a necessary element in the training of
God’s greatest servants. M. Olier was seldom free from
pain ; he had several grievous illnesses, and some of
these were cured suddenly on his making a pilgrimage
to some shrine of Our Lady, or invoking her assistance.
In addition to all this, he suffered the agonies of spiritual
desolation. He lived in constant dread of proving to be
a second .Judas, and losing his soul. His nerves were
shattered, all his faculties were impaired, he became
almost incapable of priestly duty, he found no consola­
tion in prayer. To his companions he became an object
of pity and contempt, as one fallen from high estate and
abandoned by God. Thus did God humble before
exalting him, and show him his own insufficiency, that
he might have no temptation to glory in his subsequent
success. It was, no doubt, necessary for the formation
of his character. He was naturally liable to temptations
of vanity, his manner was unconsciously somewhat domi­
neering, and he showed a precipitancy which needed to
be controlled. This state of humiliation began about
1638, and culminated in 1640. He was still enduring
this trial when Father de Condren died in January 1641.
Marie Rousseau knew that the desire of her life was on
the point of accomplishment ; and she was urged by the
Holy Spirit to co-operate, by encouraging the priests who
were the chief agents in it. Like Moses, she hesitated,
but at last consented. Father de Condren now sought
an interview with her : she told him his days were
numbered, and begged him to speak out what was in
his mind. Two days before his death, he met M. du
Ferrier, one of M. Olier’s principal associates, and at
great length set before him the method to be followed as
to the proposed seminary. A few days after his death,

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11

he appeared in glory to M. Olier, and declared that he
left him, with two other priests, the heirs of his spirit,
and bade him give up mission work in order to start a
community of secular priests to organise the seminary.
From this moment M. Olier recovered his balance of
mind, and resumed his old position among his com­
panions.
The society of priests, numbering eight, now betook
themselves to Chartres, bought a house, expended large
sums upon it, and invited candidates for ordination to
make their retreats there. By this means they had
hoped to attract both priests and students as the nucleus
of a seminary. For eight months they continued :
nothing came of it ; opposition and troubles arose ; their
faith was tempted by the thought that God had aban­
doned His own work, and finally the society broke up
and was dispersed. A new opening now offered at
Vaugirard, immediately outside Paris. At first opposed
to it, finally M. Olier and two other priests accepted the
proposal. The general opinion in Paris was very un­
favourable; so many previous failures on the part of
great communities made everyone think it impossible
that three secular priests could do any better. God
made known to them, however, through Marie Rousseau,
that this attempt would succeed. She sought out several
priests who had strong prejudices against the scheme,
convinced them, and even gained them as members for
the new community. The priest-directors soon numbered
twenty; young men who had finished their preliminary
studies presented themselves in quick succession ; a com­
munity was formed, and a rule of life was drawn up,
which remains substantially the same to this day.
Following in the footsteps of M. Failion, the bio­
grapher of Abbot Olier, we must treat the next period of
ten years in two parts, according to the double position
filled by this great priest, as Rector of the parish of St.
Sulpice, and as President of the Seminary.

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Monsieur Olier

ΙΠ.
THE PARISH OF ST. SULPICE :

1642-1652.

On the southern side of the Seine lay a great suburb,
extending from the Palace of the Luxembourg to beyond
the Hôtel des Invalides, known as the City of St. Ger­
main. It depended for its civil and ecclesiastical ad­
ministration on the head of the royal Abbey of St.
Germain-des-Prés, and was not considered as part of
Paris. Then, as now, the “ Faubourg ” was the chosen
residence of the French nobility, and, with its 450,000
inhabitants, it ranked as the second city of the kingdom.
The ruler of this independent quasi-principality was
Henry de Bourbon, a natural son of King Henry IV.,
possibly tonsured, certainly married ; he was Abbot of
St. Germain and Bishop of Metz, and did his duty to
the Church by receiving the revenues and spending them
on himself. The Rector of St. Sulpice was parish priest
of the whole of the vast suburb, which is now divided
into at least seven parishes, and he had as his chief
churchwardens the Duke of Orleans and his sons. St.
Germain in 1640 was a very sink of all abominations,
the plague-spot of Paris and the kingdom, the refuge of
every criminal, the home of immorality, heresy, atheism,
violence, and devil-worship even. In 1641 a great
mission had been given by St. Vincent’s priests, but its
very success in one quarter only served to make the
general prospect seem more desperate. The Parish
Church was small and dilapidated, and very sparsely
attended. The services were few, slovenly, unpunctual ;
the accessories of divine worship were disgraceful when
they were not deficient. The clergy limited their zeal to
the duties of necessary routine. Of the hangers-on in
sacristy and choir, it is enough to say that their conduct
was such as to give disedification.

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13

The Rector of the parish, M. de Fiesque, moved by
the dread of his great responsibility and his incapacity,
and by the wish to retire to the peaceful enjoyment of
some fat benefice in the country, took the opportunity of
the annual pilgrimage of his parish to Vaugirard, to offer
his living to the new community, in exchange for M,
Olier’s Priory of Clisson and an annuity in addition.
As was most natural, such a proposal was promptly re­
jected by all ; the conduct of a seminary was difficult
enough in a decent locality, without adding to it the
incongruous duties of such a parish. But the obscure
widow, whom God had made His mouthpiece, received
supernatural knowledge of the proposition, and declared
to M. Olier that it was in accordance with the will of
God, and that it was, moreover, necessary for the success
of the seminary that he himself should take charge of the
parish. He hesitated no longer at a step condemned by
human prudence, and Opposed by all except two of his
community ; he concluded the business arrangements,
took possession of the Church on August 9, 1642, and
transferred his seminary on the Feast of Our Lady’s
Assumption. Madame de Verneuil was furious that her
son, who might have been Bishop, Peer of France, and
Cardinal even, should disgrace his family by becoming a
common curé, and wasting his life in saving the souls of
people who had never been presented at Court.
The chief administrative measure of the new Rector
was prayer. He spent hours before the Tabernacle,
often the whole night ; there he found the energy, the
wisdom, the courage, the patience, which he needed in
such abundance during his ten years of struggle. The
next thing was to organise the parochial clergy by bring­
ing them to live in common under a rule. The former
curates objected to this change in their habits of life,
and also to the abolition of certain fees which they had
enjoyed. The Rector compensated some,· pensioned
others, brought forward some of his own priests, and soon
formed a community of fifty for parish work. He also
made arrangements with the numerous religious orders
in the parish for joint action in the one great cause.

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Monsieur Olier

His next care was for the house of God. Every altar
had to be destroyed and replaced, a sacristy was built,
all the appointments were renewed on a magnificent
scale, the attendance of the students added dignity to
the services. The ministry of the Word had fallen into
profound neglect, and consequently the faithful, even in
the upper classes, were plunged in an ignorance which
led to an utter indifference to religion. M. Olier arranged
for frequent sermons : they were not to be rhetorical
compositions on abstract subjects, but were simply to
make know'n Christ Incarnate, His life, His virtues, His
sufferings, devotion to Him in the Blessed Sacrament,
and devotion to His holy Mother. There was a short
discourse at daybreak for those who were going to work,
and at night a spiritual reading and instruction. Three
times a week in Lent he assembled the servants from the
mansions of the Faubourg for practical instructions, and
thrice again the beggars and cripples, to whom he also
distributed alms. Controversial lectures were delivered
for the benefit of Protestants.
Devotion to Our Lord in the Holy Eucharist, long
forgotten, now rapidly revived. Daily Mass was well
attended, communions became frequent, general monthly
communions were established and the practice of visit­
ing the Blessed Sacrament. The Holy Viaticum was
carried with due honours to the sick. Benediction was
given twice in the month. A lady wished to give an
endowment for High Mass and Benediction every Thurs­
day. But M. Olier’s fervour was not the less prudent
for being intense. He knew that a good thing can be
overdone, and that solemnity is destroyed when it is
made too common. By degrees a circle of faithful souls
began the Perpetual Adoration, at first for the day hours,
and afterwards for all the twenty-four. There was Expo­
sition on two days in the year, and the Forty Hours
before Lent. Love of the Mother cannot be separated
from love of the Son. This was made the second great
devotion. M. Olier dedicated his parish from the first
to the Blessed Virgin, and had a procession in her honour
once a month for the young people.

Monsieur Olier

15

In order to secure the religious training of the children,
the Rector appointed fourteen centres, to each of which
several of the students were sent every day to teach some
thousands of children who there assembled. He drew
up a Catechism for their use, which was not too full or
too technical to be understood by them ; and he was
careful that they should be educated in the practice of
their religion, as well as in the repetition of its formulas.
This care for the children led to the conversion of many
of their parents.
The Church soon proved too small for the increasing
attendance. M. Olier proposed to replace it with another
of about four times the size. The first stone of the pre­
sent magnificent edifice was laid in 1646, and the walls
were raised to their full height before his death; then
interruptions occurred, and the works, resumed in 1718,
were only completed in 1745.
This holy priest’s love for the poor of Jesus Christ
made him most prodigal in almsgiving. The wretched
and destitute always had free access to him. Twice a
week there was a distribution of food, sometimes to as
many as nine hundred persons. A census was made of
the parish, and from this was compiled a list of fifteen
hundred respectable poor, who were to be relieved
secretly. His charity extended also to the fallen creat­
ures who abounded in that city of vice ; trustworthy
women were appointed to seek them out and offer them
an asylum and a livelihood. Failures and relapses were
numerous : but when anyone raised this objection the
holy man replied, “ No labour done for Jesus Christ can
be called lost. Life would be profitably spent in saving
only one soul.” When gentler means had failed, he ap­
pealed to the civil power to enforce the laws against dis­
orderly houses. The trade-guilds were an old-established
source of debauchery and superstitious practices. The
vigilant pastor, after much trouble, reformed them into
devotional and charitable confraternities.
The incessant activity of three years was making its
mark, when a storm arose which threatened to undo
all. It was the necessary tribulation which must test

16

Monsieur Olier

every great work of God. M. de Fiesque led the way by
putting forward exorbitant demands, either for a larger
income or for the restoration of the parish to him. The
Duke of Orleans and other churchwardens combined
with some of the discontented curates of the earlier time,
and all the profligates and bravos made ready to take
their revenge. The excitement spread, insults and threats
prepared the way for violence, and it was resolved to
expel M. Olier. On June 8, 1645, a mob forced the
Presbytery door, dragged the Rector forth, overwhelmed
him with blows, as well as St. Vincent de Paul who had
hastened to his assistance, and left him half dead, while
they returned to sack his house. For three days the
mob remained in possession, the seminary stood empty,
the offices ceased in the Church, all men thought that
the end had come ; none but Marie Rousseau and a few
pious souls shared M. Olier’s confidence in the protection
of God. After a few days he was reinstated by order of
the King ; but this was the signal for a further outbreak.
Three hundred women of evil life, decked in all their
finery, approached the Duke of Orleans to ask his good
offices against the turbulent priest who was ruining St.
Germain. A detachment of the Royal Guards now ap­
peared to maintain order during the solemnities of
Corpus Christi. Some of the ringleaders were impri­
soned ; M. de Fiesque was arrested. Now, for the first
time, M. Olier, who had maintained his calmness un­
ruffled throughout, was disturbed. He did not rest
until he had secured from the Queen the release of the
malefactors. His subsequent kindness to all of them,
and especially in attending some who died prematurely
within a short time, caused it to be currently said that
the surest way to the favour of M. le Curé was to do him
some serious injury.
The Queen and M. Olier’s friends now wished him to
retire from a position so arduous and so dangerous, and
to accept the Bishopric of Rodez, where he would find
peace, and at the same time a wider field of action.
Again Marie Rousseau determined him to remain at the
post where God had placed him. M. de Fiesque was

Monsieur Olier

17

now bought off by the sacrifice of other benefices belong­
ing to members of the community. Things resumed
their ordinary course, hostility was soon replaced by an
unbounded veneration for M. Olier and his priests, and
the grace of God was poured forth most abundantly on
their undertakings. An immense revival of religion took
place in every class. Communions ran up to 200,000 a
year in the Parish Church alone. Many persons began
to lead lives of Christian perfection, regulating their day
by rule, and practising mental prayer and mortification.
The heads of households awoke to their responsibility
for the instruction and the morals of their dependents.
Whatever good work was proposed by M. Olier, he found
men and women ready to second him with their purses
and their services. The charity bestowed by them must
have been enormous to meet all his wants. Associations
of ladies were formed to visit the poor and wait upon
them. Schools of instruction in needlework and domestic
duties were opened for grown-up girls ; these afterwards
developed into a Sisterhood, under the direction of Marie
Rousseau, which she carried on till her death in 1680.
There were some who took charge of orphans, others
instructed converts from Protestantism and provided for
them, others made vestments for the Church. Each
association had a day for its meeting, and monthly devo­
tions at St. Sulpice. The most extraordinary of M.
Olier’s helpers were two working tradesmen of no par­
ticular education—a cutler named Clement, and a draper
named Beaumais. An eminent controversialist, Father
Veron, had been invited to hold discussions with the
Protestants of the parish. He was a man of acute intel­
ligence and caustic wit, and never failed to silence and
humiliate his opponents, but he made no conversions.
The two tradesmen had received powers which no learned
doctor of the Sorbonne could rival—a gift of explaining
controverted doctrines, and a persuasiveness that went to
the heart. They engaged in conversation with Protest­
ants, and then in informal discussions ; and at a later date
Beaumais went on a controversial mission through the
districts infected with heresy. The conversions due to

18

Monsieur Oner

these humble apostles were to be numbered by thou­
sands.
M. Olier’s extraordinary influence is shown by two
great triumphs which he won over the tyranny of fashion
and human respect among the nobility, a tyranny which
generally is irresistible. In an age when the slaughter of
men in public or private warfare was one of the few occu­
pations considered worthy of a gentleman, duelling was
a most important and valued institution. The duel was
not the pompous farce that it is in France at the present
day. Life was then the stake ; and high physical courage
and address were needed in the presence of a real danger.
During one week, in the parish of St. Sulpice alone,
seventeen men met their death in single combat ; and
throughout the kingdom it is estimated that thousands
perished annually. The custom, viewed in its merely
natural aspect, was perhaps beneficial to the country, as
being a check on the multiplication of a turbulent and
unproductive class that preyed upon the industry of
others ; but it was an uncivilized and unchristian fashion,
and doubtless brought many souls to perdition, who
otherwise might possibly have escaped it. M. Olier
founded the Company of the Passion, and managed to
enlist as its first members some distinguished officers
and noblemen of proved valour, men who dared to face
ridicule, and who could venture to refuse a challenge
without suspicion as to their motives. After one or two
exhibitions by them of Christian courage, the conscience
of Court society awoke, and stamped the new move­
ment with its approval. One of the great obstacles to
Christian living was removed, and many followed the few.
Courtiers, officers, a hundred or so in the year, were now
to be found making retreats at the seminary ; and at a
later date a number of the Companions formed them­
selves into a quasi-religious community, without vows, and
gave themselves to a life of prayer and beneficence.
A second tyranny of fashion, equally hard to over­
throw, was that exercised over the ladies of the Court
by their milliners. M. Olier first inculcated great rever­
ence for the presence of God and the Guardian Angels.

Monsieur Olier

19

He required those who attended the worship of God to
clothe themselves with decency, and he did not hesitate
to humiliate in public some great ladies who deserved it.
It came about that, even at Court, the fashions of dress
were accommodated to the requirements of the Sixth
Commandment.
The decay of religious feeling and the moral anarchy
of the times had directed the aspirations of the sur­
viving good Christians towards reform. The spirit of
wickedness took advantage of this wholesome impulse to
make it the vehicle of another form of evil. A specious
and insidious heresy, which sapped the moral life under
the pretence of austerity, now sprang into being, and
diffused itself widely. It enjoined a severity which
made Christian living seem unattainable; it alienated
souls from Holy Communion, and left them a prey to
temptation ; resting on some refined distinctions con­
cerning the recondite operations of grace, it cast the
responsibility for men’s sins on God, and dispensed them
from all efforts after virtue and holiness. Some most
estimable persons remained long in suspense as to the
true character of Jansenism ; many Bishops were more
or less infected by it ; the -oratory of Cardinal de Berulle
and Father de Condren lapsed completely ; one or two
of the Sulpicians, including M. de Foix, Bishop of
Pamiers, fell away. It is one of the great glories of
M. Olier, and a testimony to the divine source of his
spiritual insight, that he was never for a moment hood­
winked, and that he kept his seminary, and, on the
whole, his parish, free from the taint of this heresy, and
loyal to the Church in its hierarchical centre. The
saintly Fénelon was able to write in 1705 that the
Jesuits and the Sulpicians were the only communities
in France that had remained absolutely sound.
In 1648 began the civil wars of the Fronde, a period
of trial that tested to the utmost the vigour and charity
of the heroic priest. The mixed tyranny and imbecility
of Mazarin’s administration divided the royal house
against itself, drove the people to revolt, and led the
way to social anarchy throughout the realm. The

20

Monsieur Olier

various heresies, including Jansenism, did their best
to embitter the strife. The country was devastated,
food ran short, prices rose, extensive inundations fol­
lowed, tens of thousands were ruined and brought to
a state of starvation. The Rector of St. Sulpice was
more than equal to the occasion. He first united his
parishioners in prayer and penance, with as much fer­
vour as if supernatural remedies were the only ones ;
and then employed all the resources of natural energy,
as if they alone were of any use. He formed a “ Council
of Charity ” from the leading people among his acquaint­
ance to collect and distribute funds. Fifteen hundred
families in his own immediate neighbourhood were ab­
solutely destitute; many orphans had to be provided
for ; a number of religious women from convents near
Paris fled to the capital for safety from the savagery of
the contending armies. M. Olier took on himself to
support all these, and afterwards to give them a new
start in life. When he had exhausted all his own re­
sources, he sold his private property, parted with his
benefices, solicited aid from his wealthy friends in Paris ;
and when all this proved insufficient, he left Paris by
night, crossed the lines of the besiegers through deep
snow, sought out the Queen, and obtained from her a
large subsidy, with which he returned safely through a
thousand imminent perils, protected by a special pro­
vidence of God. Peace being restored, he prevailed on
the Queen to prevent a recurrence of disorder by dis­
missing her Prime Minister, the evil genius of State and
Church alike, Cardinal Mazarin.
It happened once during this time of stress that for
two or three days M. Olier could find no time for the
additional devotions which he had imposed on himself.
The Blessed Virgin appeared and rebuked him for his
negligence. It was evident that the success of his
undertakings was due rather to his prayers than to his
physical and mental exertions. As a further effect of his
prayers, he had the satisfaction of converting many who
had been leaders in the troubles ; some turned to lives
of holiness ; others he assisted to die as true penitents.

Monsiezir Olier

21

Like a candle set in the midst of the house, the light
of M. Olier’s sanctity, as parish priest, illumined the
whole of France, The organisations, and institutions,
and devotions of St. Sulpice were copied first in neigh­
bouring parishes, and then in other dioceses. Many
Bishops asked for the services of priests trained as his
curates, to reform distant parishes, and make them a
standard for others. The despised office of pastor of
souls came to be held in honour, and many men of high
birth and distinguished talents were contented to serve
God as simple rectors of parishes. Even the illnesses
and enforced rests of the holy man from his labour were
new means of extending his beneficial influence. His
holidays were seasons of devotion, prayer, and charity.
In 1647 he had so broken down that he had no alter­
native but to resign his parish or take three months’
leave of absence. He took the opportunity to make a
long-contemplated pilgrimage to the tomb of St. Francis
de Sales at Annecy. Instead of recreating himself with
scenery and sights, he spent the days in meditation, and
paid long visits to the Churches at the stopping-places ;
he would stop the carriage to talk to beggars by the
way, to give them alms, and to instruct them if they
were ignorant of their religion. Whenever occasion
offered he addressed assemblies of priests, urging them
to sanctify themselves and their people. He visited the
convents, and made the acquaintance of many holy
recluses ; he renewed their fervour, and continued to
direct some of them by letter. A contemporary wrote :
“ God brought him among us to make innumerable
conquests of souls.” In this way was the sweet odour
of his virtues diffused throughout almost every province
of France.
Such was the life of M. Olier as Rector of the parish
of St. Sulpice. In ten years he had wrought an in­
credible change in it. From a very Sodom of iniquity
it had become a Promised Land, filled with holy and
fervent souls, the centre of every good work, a model of
organisation, regularity, and Christian living.

22

Monsieur Olier

IV.
THE SEMINARY OF ST. SULPICE:

1642-1652.

Wonderful as was the work of Jean Jacques Olier in
the parish of St. Sulpice, his chief title to renown is that
he was the originator of the seminary system, which,
beginning in St. Sulpice, spread to the rest of France,
and has moulded the education of ecclesiastics, and
raised the status of the clergy throughout the world.
On this account, he, though a simple secular priest,
takes his place in the ranks of a select few, the great
founders and reformers. The rector of a parish is an
individual ; the mark that he makes fades away in the
course of time : but a founder’s spirit lives in all the
members of his community; he sees a long-lived pro­
geny; “he leaves many disciples as successors of his
priesthood”—(St. Maximus). M. Olierwas endowed by
God with both characters. It was most fitting that he
who founded the educational system of secular priests
should have experience of their special duties, and be
himself the model of their active life.
After the transference of the seminary from Vaugirard
to St. Sulpice, the community lived for some years in
temporary quarters, occupying the Presbytery and some
adjacent houses which they hired. For a long time
their circumstances were very straitened. They had
no fixed income beyond the private fortunes of the
wealthier members, and the pensions paid by the others.
Their revenues had been seriously reduced by the earlier
expenses of conducting missions, by their previous
attempts to establish colleges, and by the sacrifices
required to satisfy the demands of M. de Fiesque. The
community lived simply from hand to mouth, and were

Monsietir Olier

23

sometimes in absolute want. M. Olier, nevertheless,
would allow none of his companions to solicit external
assistance ; for he knew that God would provide for His
own work in proper measure, and he was ready to limit
the extension of the seminary accordingly.
After three years a site was purchased adjoining the
Church, and temporary buildings were put up to accom­
modate the rapidly increasing numbers. At this time
the two communities, the seminary and the parish
staff, which had hitherto had a common lodging and a
common table, were separated. It was not long before
the new buildings proved to be insufficient, and M. Olier
had to take thought for the erection of a permanent
edifice. He was, however, utterly destitute of means,
and could not determine what kind of building would
best suit the special requirements of his institute. One
day in 1649, while he was praying fervently in Notre
Dame, the.Most Hdly Virgin appeared, and showed him
the plan of a college, with a character of its own, unlike
any existing schools or monasteries or asylums. Just
at this time, several large legacies fell to one of his
principal disciples. The seminary was at once begun,
and was ready for occupation at the end of 1651.
The attention of the French Bishops had been drawn
from the first to the new venture at St. Sulpice, and they
recognised that now a solution might be expected of the
important question of the education of the clergy. Some
Bishops applied to M. Olier for information as to his
methods, and opened seminaries in imitation of his.
Still their attempts were not successful ; besides the
method, they needed properly trained priests to carry it
out, and these were not to be created by an Episcopal
decree. Applications then began to pour in, asking M.
Olier to take over the diocesan seminaries, and unite
them to St. Sulpice ; or to lend some of his seminary
directors to remain for a term of years, and raise up a
body of diocesan priests who should ultimately succeed
to their place. The requests of the Bishops were so
numerous and pressing, that M. Olier was quite unable
to comply with them ; he often had to refrain from

24

Monsieur Olier

calling on Bishops when travelling, for fear of their
importunities and his own shorthandedness. The most
necessitous dioceses were first attended to, and the
others by degrees. The earliest records now remaining
speak of seminaries established by the aid of the Sulpicians at St. Flour, Amiens, Nantes, Aix, Avignon,
Viviers, Puy, Clermont ; but there were certainly many
others of which no records survive. During a century
and a half, no less than one hundred and thirty applica­
tions for the foundation of seminaries were received from
various dioceses. When the Sulpicians found them­
selves unable to fulfil all the demands made on them,
the Bishops resorted to other means. They tried to
establish a few seminaries at great centres to supply the
wants of a number of dioceses ; but this plan failed
on account of difficulties about joint control, and the
necessary limitation of each Bishop’s authority to his
own subjects. Different religious 'congregations were
again called in, St. Vincent de Paul’s missionary priests,
the Eudists, and, in one or two cases, the Jesuits. Now
that the true method of management had been exhibited
at St. Sulpice, these new enterprises succeeded much
better than the earlier ones.
Evil followed close upon the steps of good. The
Jansenists had failed at an earlier date to found a centre
in the parish of St. Sulpice. They now endeavoured to
introduce their doctrines into the seminary ; but here,
too, they failed. This singular immunity was probably
due to the intense devotion to the Blessed Virgin always
cultivated by M. Olier’s disciples. “Thou alone hast
slain all heresies in the whole world.” The sectarians
next proceeded to establish a seminary of their own,
where they gave a free education to poorer students.
These were known as Gillotins, from their first superior,
M. Gillot, during whose tenure of office five or six
hundred were ordained priests. “ It is incredible what
harm they have done,” says Fénelon. They were to be
found everywhere throughout France—as Canons, Pro­
fessors of the Sorbonne, and even on Episcopal thrones.
The Sulpicians were their providential adversaries every­

Monsieur Olier

25

where; they held Jansenism in check, extirpated it in
some dioceses, and finally outlived it.
The effect of the new education was immediate and
marvellous. The next generation of priests were all
pupils of the seminaries. It was no longer possible to
secure ordination after a training of one week in a
Lazarist community. Many older priests retired for a
while from their incumbencies to go through a course of
instruction in the spirit and duties of their state. The
Queen resolved to nominate none as Bishops but those
who had passed through a seminary. There was a
revival of religion, and the whole face of the country
was changed. The former irreverence, insubordination,
incapacity, idleness, became things of the past; and a
body of well-educated, earnest, and often saintly priests
renewed religion, faith, and virtue throughout the land.
One thing that is distinctive in the Sulpician reform
in France is that a religious congregation was not created
by God for the purpose, as were on similar occasions the
Franciscans, Dominicans, or Jesuits ; and that the light
of the secular priesthood was not removed for a while
from their candlestick, as once before by the Benedic­
tines ; but that the rehabilitation of the clergy first, and
then of the people, was carried out by the secular clergy
themselves. According to their founder’s idea, the Sulpicians remain always a voluntary association of secular
priests—without vows, without the title of Father, with­
out any distinctive name but that of the parish of their
origin. Their object, as laid down for them by God
through His servants Father de Condren, Mother Agnes of
Jesus, and Marie Rousseau, was not to control the educa­
tion of the clergy by acquiring numerous colleges of their
own, but to trace the lines on which ecclesiastical educa­
tion was to be conducted, and aid the Bishops in the
formation of their own seminaries. M. Olier, therefore,
did not desire any very great extension of his community
or of their work. He wished only to have a select body
of twelve men, like to the Apostles, not the subjects of
any particular diocese, and liable to be transferred to
other duties, but devoted exclusively to the training of a

26

Monsieur Olier

number of priest-coadjutors, who should remain subject
to their own Bishops, and who might ultimately take
charge of the diocesan seminaries, and perpetuate in
them the traditional spirit of the Sulpicians.
The first principle of M. Olier’s teaching to his
seminarists was that the secular priesthood is an order
instituted directly by Jesus Christ Himself to be the
great element of activity in saving souls, and the model
of the perfect life. He could not endure to hear a
secular priest commended as being almost the equal of
a religious ; if things were as they should be, he said,
the seminary would be a place of more fervour than any
novitiate, and the regulars would rejoice to be esteemed
like to the secular clergy. He would have the priest to
be a man of cultivation, so as not to be in any way
inferior to the souls he might have to guide, or to the
enemies with whom he might measure swords. Without
knowledge, he said, a priest cannot do much good in
the Church. Science, however, should be subsidiary to
spirituality. Without holiness learning was useless, or
even dangerous, for it led men to act by human prud­
ence rather than by faith, and engendered pride of
intellect, the most incurable of all vices.
Self-abnegation, according to M. Olier, -was to be the
foundation of the priestly spirit; all that was of the
human and worldly spirit was to be eradicated by
humility and mortification. Upon this was to be built
up an interior life, formed according to the dispositions,
ideas, sentiments, and affections of Jesus Christ. Thus
should our Lord live in His faithful, according to the
Apostle. In His Blessed Mother, more than in all
others, Jesus lived, and energized, and was manifested.
She must be the model of priests in their imitation of
Christ, and their guide in approaching Him. All is
from Jesus through Mary, all therefore must be offered
to Him through her.
M. Olier dwelt very strongly on the subordination of
the clergy to their Bishops as appointed by God to rule
His Church. It was a most necessary thing, in order
that their action might have the efficiency that springs

Monsieur Olier

27

from unity. He practised his students constantly in the
catechizing of children, as being one of the most
important duties and the most fruitful of results. The
rule obliged them to make a daily meditation of an
hour; and also to read a chapter of the New Testament
on their knees, and then to examine themselves upon its
chief lessons.
In choosing aspirants to the priesthood, the holy man
was cautious in the extreme. He never sought out or
persuaded anyone, but waited for the grace of God to
indicate their vocation and guide them to it. He care­
fully inquired into their motives, and rejected any who
seemed to be anxious for position or comfort rather than
the glory of God. They commenced their course by
spending a year in a kind of novitiate at the “ Solitude ”
of Vaugirard or Avron. The influence of this training
showed itself in the extraordinary fervour of the
seminarists and the edification given by them, and the
abundant fruits of their subsequent labours.
The attitude of M. Olier towards those who were
associated with him in the government of the seminary
is particularly deserving of notice. Although he had
been promised special guidance from heaven, and had
been constantly favoured with supernatural communica­
tions, he was far from arrogating to himself a higher
decree of authority on that account. On the contrary,
he consulted his colleagues even on such matters as, in
accordance with the rule, fell within his competence as
president : and in cases of divergency of opinion, he
was always ready to waive his own. He was persuaded
that God was present rather with a number assembled
in His name than with any one of them separately, how­
ever eminent might be his gifts ; and he looked for the
revelation of the divine will through the natural channel
of human counsel rather than through any more extra­
ordinary means.
Early in the year 1652 the health of M. Olier showed
signs of failing. In June he spent a whole night in
prayer before the relics of St. Genevieve, and im­
mediately after he was attacked by fever, which soon

28

Monsieur Olier

reduced him to extremities. His physicians bade him
prepare for death. Although he knew by divine inspira­
tion that his end was not yet, still, according to his wont,
he would not allow supernatural influences of a private
character to interfere with the ordinary course of the
natural order. He received the last Sacraments, made
his will, and arranged about his funeral. This done, a
partial recovery took place ; but he recognised that his task
was finished, and retired from his parish. Not long
after he was overheard in the confessional of a Lyons
church accusing himself, in a loud voice and with many
tears, of having rashly undertaken a charge for which he
was not qualified, and of having failed to do it justice.

V.
CLOSING YEARS :

1652-1657.

For five years longer the servant of God remained on
earth, to be purified still more by infirmities, and to give
additional glory to God. Recovering from his fever, he
began to suffer the torments of the stone, and before
long he had a paralytic stroke, which deprived him of the
use of his left side, and rendered him completely helpless.
His cheerfulness and sweetness of disposition remained
unaltered, nevertheless, as well as his desire to suffer
for God. He submitted with pleasure to the horrible
tortures which in those days were dignified with the
name of surgery, and he sought permission to supple­
ment them by taking the discipline. After a while he
was enabled again to celebrate the Holy Sacrifice, and
to move about a little from place to place, scattering
benedictions wherever he appeared. During his con­
valescence in 1652, while in the South of France, he
seized the opportunity to give effect to a design he had

Monsietir Olier

29

long contemplated, by arranging a great mission to the
Protestant populations of Auvergne, Velay, the Vivarais,
and the Cevennes. Louis XIII., unmindful of Christian
methods, and imitating the usual procedure of the
Protestants themselves, had, years before, sought by force
of arms to reduce them to obedience at once to the
divine and the civil authority. M. Olier now proposed
an apostolic campaign to the clergy of the Dioceses of
Viviers and Puy ; the Conferences discussed the idea
and adopted it ; two of M. Olier’s ecclesiastics offered to
finance the undertaking ; one of them, M, de Queylus,
was established at Privas, the stronghold of the
Huguenots, in charge of the forty Catholics of the town.
The local missionaries, reinforced by eight Sulpicians
and some members of various congregations, commenced
preaching systematically throughout the districts, en­
countering the ministers in public disputations, and
gathering the children into schools. The Protestants
repelled the attacks with the usual Protestant weapons,
not fasting and prayer and the example of meekness and
charity, but with insults, threats, tumults, and bodily
violence. From the first, the virtues of the priests
gained respect from multitudes of the benighted people,
and many thousands returned to their true shepherd
before the death of M. Olier. In Privas itself all the
population, except a minute section, were restored to
the faith, and became eminent for their fervent
Catholicity. M. Olier could do no more than en­
courage and direct this movement. So great confidence
was felt in the effects of his mere presence that the
Bishop of Grenoble sought to have him appointed as his
coadjutor, and the Bishop of Puy wished to resign the
See in his favour.
The conversion of England was also near to M.
Olier’s heart. Unable to satisfy his desire of preaching
the faith there and suffering martyrdom, he sought the
acquaintance of Charles II., then an exile in France.
He made a strong impression on that very dissolute
person, and had sufficient confidence in his sincerity to
receive him into the Church (as there is much reason to

3°

Monsieur Olier

believe), and to expect that he would have risked a little
for the sake of carrying out his convictions when restored
to the throne.
No mention has yet been made of M. Olier’s interest
in foreign missions to the heathen. Here, too, his zeal
achieved results that have lasted to this present day.
This object shared his devotion equally with the labours
that have already been described ; to this were devoted
the latest efforts of his life; for this he was ready to
accept that which he had so many times refused—the
Episcopal dignity. Early in his career (the date is not
given), the Shah of Persia had requested the Sovereign
Pontiff to appoint a French Bishop to Ispahan, trans­
ferring the See from Babylon, which had fallen into the
hands of the Turks. The Papal Nuncio having men­
tioned this, M. Olier offered at once to give up the
parish and seminary, and accept the post ; he was
turned from his purpose only by the vigorous repre­
sentations of his united clergy. Again, probably just
after he had resigned the parish, he met Father de
Rhodes, a missionary of wonderful success, who had
returned to France to seek for additional priests to
labour among the 200,000 converts in Tonquin. M.
Olier entreated to be allowed to go, but Father de
Rhodes found it impossible to accept him, on account
of his shattered health. He consoled himself by send­
ing some young priests from his seminary, and they
were succeeded by other Sulpicians during forty years.
There is another mission which has met with remark­
able success, which flourishes at this date, and which
may be called the creation of M. Olier and the Sul­
picians. As early as 1635, he became associated with
M. Dauversière, a wealthy layman, who had been in­
spired with a great zeal for the newly established Colony
of Canada, and with Brother Claud, a humble man of
saintly life, whose prayers and efforts conduced greatly
to the success of that mission. M. Olier drew up a
plan for a Christian settlement, to be called Villa
Maria, on the island of Montreal. To promote this, he
formed the Association of Our Lady of Montreal, of

Monsieur Olier

31

which Marie Rousseau was an energetic member. An
expedition of forty men was sent out to begin operations.
In 1640, the Mercantile Company of Canada transferred
the island of Montreal to the religious association,
which dispatched a colony of thirty families in the follow­
ing year. Father de Condren, whose providential duty
was to point out M. Olier’s vocation and keep him to it,
would not allow his penitent to accompany these expedi­
tions. He obeyed, but he always hoped to end his days
in Canada, and by martyrdom, if God would so permit.
In 1646 the time seemed to be ripe for the establish­
ment of a Bishop’s See and a seminary in Montreal
M. Olier appointed M. de Queylus and several priests for
that task, but he did not live to see their departure.
One of his last acts on his death-bed was to commend
the Canadian mission to the special care of his Sulpicians, and to assure them that it was the work of God,
and would enjoy His blessing. Those words have been
amply verified. Montreal has been a city of divine
predilection, and, with the aid of Our Lady, has pre­
served intact the faith and the virtues of ancient France,
under the ægis of British liberty and justice.
At length the end of this energetic and saintly life
approached. The holy man became more and more de­
tached from this world and absorbed in God. He
deprived himself of the companionship of certain of his
priests with whom he was used to converse on divine
things, and secluded himself with God alone. He ap­
pointed his successor at the seminary, instructed him
about its spirit and its management, and made known
to him some of the secrets of its future. His chief in­
junction was that his followers should never act in
accordance with worldly prudence, but always with
simple trust in the good Providence of God. He an­
nounced to several of his priests that they would speedily
follow him, and died, as he had predicted, on Easter Sun­
day, 1657, in his forty-ninth year. A few days later he
was seen in vision by one of his friends, clothed in
purple and brilliant with glory, and a voice was heard
saying, “ This was a martyr, and more than a martyr.”

32

Monsieur Olier

For two centuries and a half Jean Jacques Olier has
remained uncanonized. Lowly and hidden during life,
he has so far been the same in death. Very little
indeed of him was known till M. Faillon, of St. Sul­
pice, examined the archives of the French Capital, and
compiled a masterly history of his life and times in three
octavo volumes. Mr Healy Thompson pruned this down,
and has published a very complete life of Olier in one
volume. After so many years that which was hidden has
now come to light, and God is exalting the lowly. Peti­
tions for the canonization of M. Olier have been sent to
Rome by the Provincial Council of Baltimore and the
Episcopate of Canada ; and reports upon the cause were
forwarded to Rome in 1866. It is to be hoped that the
saintly man who did so much for the faithful, the clergy,
and the Church, will one day be raised to the honours of
the altar, and that he will be numbered amongst the bril­
liant group of canonized Saints who illustrated the once
glorious, but now decadent, because unchristian, land of
France.

ONE PENNY EACH.

BIOGRAPHICAL SERIES—continued.
B. Clement Hofbauer. By the Rev. O. R. Vassal], C.SS.R.
Ven. Philip Howard. By G. A. Lee.
Mary Howitt. By James Britten, K.S.G.
Brother Juniper and Brother Giles.
Adolf Koiping. By Ellis Schreiber.
Augustus Henry Law, Sailor and Jesuit.
Leo XIII. By the Rev. Joseph Rickaby, S.J.
The Little Sisters of the Poor. By the Very Rev. Canon Connelly.
St. Ignatius of Loyola. By the Rev. F. Goldie, S.J.
Cardinal Manning.
Auguste Marceau. By Lady Amabel Kerr.
St. Margaret, the Penitent of Cortona.
St. Margaret of Scotland. By Mrs. Morgan Morgan.
Nine of our Martyrs recently Beatified. By Dom Gilbert Dolan, O.S.B.
Blessed Margaret Mary. By Lady Amabel Kerr.
Queen Mary. By G. Ambrose Lee.
Mary Queen of Scots. By Hon. Mrs Maxwell Scott.
Father Mathew. By the Rev. W. H. Cologan.
Bishop Milner. By the Rev. E. H. Burton.
B. Thomas More. By John O’Hagan, M.A.
Garcia Moreno, President of Ecuador. By T. J. Gerrard.
Cardinal Newman. By the Rev. Dr. Barry.
Ven. John Ogilvie, S.J. By Mrs. Francis Kerr.
Ven. Edward Oldcorne, S.J. By the Rev. J. G. MacLeod, S.J.
Father Olivaint : a Martyr of the Commune.
The Last Retreat of Father Olivaint.
Frederick Ozanam. By B. F. C. Costelloe, M.A.
Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina.
St. Patrick. By the Rev. Canon Arthur Ryan.
St. Philip Neri. By G. Ambrose Lee.
St. Pius V.
Ven. Oliver Plunket. By Rev. O. R. Vassal], C.SS.R.
St. Alphcnsus Rodriguez. By the Rev. F. Goldie, S.J.
Sœur Rosalie. By Lady Herbert.
St. Rose of Lima.
St. Stanislaus Kostka.
A Siberian Priest. By Lady Herbert.
The Seven Holy Founders of the Servite Order. By C. Kegan Paul,
M.A.
„
Brother Hugh Taylor and Dom Maurice Chauncy. By Dom Lawrence
Hendriks.
St. Teresa. By David Lewis, M.A.
St. Thomas of Canterbury. By the Rev. F. Goldie, S.J.
Archbishop Ullathorne.
Theophane Venard. By Lady Herbert.
St. Vincent de Paul. By the Rev. F. Goldie, S.J.
St. Wilfrid. By the Rev. Wilfrid Dallow.
Franz Witt. By H. S. Butterfield.
St. Zita. By Lady Herbert.

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