Pierre Olivaint (1816–1871) was a French Jesuit who was killed by the Paris Commune.
Early life
Pierre Olivaint was born in 1816 of parents who were not religious.
At twenty, he left home, and the College of Charlemagne, where he had studied, imbued him with the doctrines of Voltaire. He wrote at the time, "I desire, if by any possibility I should become a priest, to be a missionary, and if I am a missionary to be a martyr". In 1836, he entered the École Normale. Led at first by Philippe Buchez's neo-Catholicism and then won by the sermons of Lacordaire, he made his profession of faith to Father Ravignan (1837). At the École Normale, he formed a Catholic group.
The Conferences of St. Vincent de Paul attracted the élite of the schools, and Olivaint with twelve of his companions established them in the parish of Saint Ménard. In 1836, Olivaint heard that Lacordaire was going to restore the Dominican Order in France. Several of his friends had already decided to follow Lacordaire, but Olivant had the duty of supporting his mother.
