Ericus Olai was the author of the chronicle Chronica regni Gothorum and was an early proponent of Gothicismus.
After working as canon in Uppsala, he attended the University of Siena (Magister de Sacra Theologia.
His tomb was the center of a substantial local tradition of veneration of the "holy doctor Ericius".
Chronica was first edited in 1615 by historian John Messenius (1579–1636) and became influential in early modern Swedish historiography.
Chronica has been preserved in three medieval manuscript copies from the first decades of the sixteenth century at the Uppsala University Library in Uppsala, the National Library of Sweden in Stockholm and in the National Archives of Sweden at Stockholm.