1636.] JEAN JACQUES OLIER. . 189 



than twelve hundred sharp points, and invented for 

 himself other torments, which filled his confessor 

 with admiration.^ One day, while at his devotions, 

 he heard an inward voice commanding him to he- 

 come the founder of a new Order of hospital nuns ; 

 and he was further ordered to establish, on the 

 island called Montreal, in Canada, a hospital, or 

 Hotel-Dieu, to be conducted by these nuns. But 

 Montreal was a wilderness, and the hospital would 

 have no patients. Therefore, in order to supply 

 them, the island must first be colonized. Dauver- 

 siere was greatly perplexed. On the one hand, 

 the voice of Heaven must be obeyed ; on the other, 

 he had a wife, six children, and a very moderate 

 fortune.^ 



Again : there was at Paris a young priest, about 

 twenty-eight years of age, — Jean Jacques Olier, 

 afterwards widely known as founder of the Semi- 

 nary of St. Sulpice. Judged by his engraved por- 

 trait, his countenance, though marked both with 

 energy and intellect, was anything but prepossess- 

 ing. Every lineament proclaims the priest. Yet 

 the Abbe Olier has high titles to esteem. He 

 signalized his piety, it is true, by the most dis- 

 gusting exploits of self-mortification; but, at the 

 same time, he was strenuous in his efibrts to re- 

 form the people and the clergy. So zealous was 

 he for good morals, that he drew upon himself the 

 imputation of a leaning to the heresy of the Jan- 



1 Fancamp in Faillon, Vie de M^^^ Mance. Introduction. 



2 Faillon, Vie de M^^ Mance, Introduction; Dollier de Casson, Hist, 

 de Montreal, MS. ; Les V&itables Motifs des Messieurs et Dames de Montreal, 

 26 ; Juchereau, 33. 



