OLIER, Jean-Jacques (1608–57), founder of the Society and seminary of Saint-Sulpice (q.v.). He studied philosophy and theology in his native Paris and was provided with ecclesiastical benefices at an early age. He went to Rome in 1630 to study Hebrew, but was threatened with the loss of his eyesight. On a pilgrimage to Loreto he was cured and converted to a deeply religious life. In Paris he was ordained priest in 1633 and came under the influence of St Vincent de Paul and then of C. de Condren; he conducted missions in various parts of France. His main vocation, however, was the training of priests. After an unsuccessful attempt at Chartres in 1641, he established a seminary at Vaugirard. When he became parish priest of Saint-Sulpice in Paris in 1642, he transferred the seminary there. He was responsible for the building of a new parish church as well as the seminary buildings; on the pattern of his seminary others were started. He sought to reform his parish which had a large population of libertines, atheists, Huguenots, and Jansenists. He also wanted to rid it of actors, including Molière who left for the provinces. The parish was divided into eight districts with a priest in charge of each; schools, catechism classes, homes for women, and charitable organizations for the poor (‘Compagnie de charité’) were established. Among the rich he led the movement against duelling.

Both in his seminary and in the Society of Saint-Sulpice Olier adhered to the Tridentine conception of the priesthood as totally dedicated and to the value of informed catechetical teaching. His was a community of secular priests, pursuing a common aim, but without religious vows. In 1657 he sent priests to start a seminary in Montreal.

Olier’s spirituality was centered on the need for self-abasement, turning from a devotion to Christ’s humanity to His divinity. His teaching owed much to St Vincent de Paul and to Condren. His published writings include La Journée chrétienne (1655; ed. F. Amiot, 1954); Catéchisme chrétien pour la vie intérieure (1656; ed. F. Amiot, 1954); Explication des cérémonies de la grande messe de paroisse selon l’usage romain (‘1656’; really 1657); Introduction dà la vie et aux vertus chrétiennes (1658; ed. F. Amiot, 1954); Lettres spirituelles (1672; ed. E. Levesque, 2 vols., 1935); and Pietas Seminarii Sancti Sulpitii (1815). His authorship of the Traité des saints ordres, published under his name in 1676, has recently been challenged.

Œuvres ed. J. P. Migne (Paris, 1856). Modern Lives by E. M. Faillon (2 vols., ibid., 1841; Eng. Life by E. H. Thompson based entirely on that of Faillon, London, 1861), L. A. F. Monier, PSS (vol. 1 only; posthumously pub. by E. L[evesque], Paris, 1914), P. Pourrat, PSS (ibid., 1932), and A. Portaluppi (Milan, 1947). C. Letourneau, La Mission de Jean-Jacques Olier et la fondation des grands séminaires en France (1906). M. Dupuy, Se Laisser à l’Esprit: Itinéraire spirituel de Jean-Jacques Olier (1982). C. Chaillot, P. Cochois, and I. Noye, all PSS, Traité des Saints Ordres (1676) comparé aux écrits authentiques de Jean-Jacques Olier (†1657) (1984), incl. text. Bremond, 3 (1921), pp. 419–507; L. Cognet, La Spiritualité Moderne, 1 (1966), pp. 399–406. E. Levesque in DTC 11 (pt. 1; 1931), cols. 963–82; I. Noye and M. Dupuy in Dict. Sp. 11 (1982), cols. 737–51, s.v., both with detailed bibl.

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