Olibanum. See Frankincexse.
Olier, Jean Jacques, a distinguished French Ro- man Catholic theologian, noted as a Lazarist, was born at Paris Sept. 20, 1608. He studied in his native city, and in the Jesuit college of Lyons, the College of Har- court, and the Sorbonne. He became successively prior of the Trinity of Clisson, in the diocese of Nantes, abbot of Pebrac, and honorary canon of Brioude in 1626 ; and finally prior of Bazainville, in the diocese of Chartres. On his return from a journey to Rome he became inti- mately acquainted with Vincent de Paul. Ordained priest, March 21, 1633, Olier associated himself with other priests, and they went as missionaries through the provinces of Auvergne and Velay. While he was travelling through Brittany, his reputation was so great that Louis XIII, at the request of cardinal Richelieu, appointed him coadjutor of Henry Clausse, bishop of Chalons-sur-Marne; but Olier, who contem- plated forming a seminary for the education of priests, declined the office. Guided by the advice of Coudren, he founded a first establishment at Vaugirard, near Paris, in Jan., 1642, in which he was assisted by able clerical teachers. This little community, numbering at first but three members, soon increased to twenty, and many of these associates rose in due time to the highest stations in the Church. But this was not his only la- bor. The parish of St. Sulpice, in Paris, subject to the abbot of St. Germain des Pres, was then a centre of im- morality and licentiousness ; Olier was chosen to reform it, and, although he had but little hope of success, he assumed the charge Aug. 10, 1642, still continuing to direct the seminary. Aided by some of his priests from Vaugirard, he succeeded in Ids undertaking in Paris, and his parish became one of the most regular in the city. Duelling was then a common practice. Olier undertook to form an association of the bravest among the nobles who would bind themselves never to give or accept a challenge, and never to act as seconds in an en- counter. This bold plan succeeded, and at the head of those who took the vow on the day of Pentecost, 1651, were marshal de Fabert and the marquis of Fc'nelon, both renowned duellists. This step created great excitement, and was warmlj' approved by marshals d'Estrees, Schom- berg, de Plessis-Praslin, and de Villeroy. In the mean time the number of priests in his seminary having great- ly increased, Olier divided them into two societies — the Congregation of St. Sulpice, who retained charge of the
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seminary, for wliich they received a charter in Nov.. 11)45. and the Community of the Priests of the Parish, who governed the Church aflfairs; the two divisions, however, continued to form but one bodj'. In IGo.t Olier, together with his successor, Le Eagois de Breton- viUiers, laid the corner-stone of the church of St, Sul- pice, which still exists. Besides this chief establish- ment of his, Olier became the founder of provincial seminaries at Clermont, Le Puy, Viviers, and Bourg St, Andeol ; and an oifshoot of his congregation was planted even in the French colony of Montreal, in Canada. He also organized a number of charitable societies, schools, and orphan asylums. His labors and austerities brought on severe infirmities, which abridged his life. He died April 2, 1657. Bossuet calls him '• virum pra;- stantissimum ac sanctitatis odore fiorentem." He is eu- logized by Fenelon as " vir traditus grati.-e Dei, et plane apostolicus ;" and in a letter from tlie assembly of the clergy to pope Clement XII we tind him extolled as " eximium sacerdotem, insigne cleri nostri decus et or- namentum." Olier left a number of writings, chiefly practical, which have often been reprinted. See Vie de M. Olier, Fondatenr du Seininaire de St. Siilpice (Paris, 1853, 8vo) ; Jervis, flist. of the Church of France, i, 330- 332; Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, xxxviii, 615-617. (J. H.W.)
Olin, Stephen, D.D., LL.D., one of the most not- ed of American divines, and an educator highly es- teemed in his day, was a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He was born in Leicester, Vermont, March 2, 1797. and was the oldest son of Henry Olin, who was at different times judge of the supreme court of Vermont, meinber of Congress, and lieutenant-gover- nor. Stephen Olin graduated at Middlebury College, the valedictorian of his class, and was pronounced by one of the professors " the ripest scholar who had ever come before him to be examined for a degree." As his health was injured by severe study, he was advised to go to South Carolina, where he was elected principal of Tab- ernacle Academy, Abbeville District. There he was converted, and soon after began to preach the Gospel. In 1824 he was admitted to the South Carolina Confer- ence of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and stationed in Charleston, where he ministered during the summer months, in connection with another preacher, to four large congregations, including three thousand slaves. He had the happiness of receiving two hundred of these into the Church, and between forty and fifty white per- sons. His coadjutor being absent, these excessive la- bors proved too exhausting, and he was obliged to go to the North. In July, 1826, he was appointed professor of English literature in the University of CJeorgia. He entered upon the duties of his chair .Jan. 1, 1827, and re- tained his position for seven years, in bad health most of the time ; " nevertheless he was a brilliant professor, and has left the impress of his mode of instruction on the institution to this day." In 1827 he was married to Miss Bostick, of Milledgeville, Ga., who died in Naples, Italy, in 1839. In 1832 he was elected president of Randolph Macon College, Virginia. He at first declined, but was subsequently induced to accept the position, upon which he entered March 5, 1834, when he delivered his inau- gural address, and it was said that the prosperity the college enjoyed during his administration was mainly due to his exertions and controlling influence. The years from 1837 to 1841 he passed in an extended tour in Europe and the East; and the fruits of his observa- tion in the latter region have appeared in two excellent volumes. Travels in Egypt, Petrea, and the Holy Land (N. Y. 1843), and a posthumous work, entitled Greece and the Golden Horn. This account of Egypt was said to be "the best, on the whole, in the language." In Petra he discovered some verj' interesting monuments of the ancient civilization of that wonderful city, which had been overlooked by all previous travellers.