Born at Saint-Pierre-Montlimart (Maine and Loire), October 21, 1821.
Taking of the habit at Nancy, March 16, 1848.
Oblation at Nancy, March 17, 1849. (no. 246)
Ordination to the priesthood at Nancy, August 26, 1849.
Expelled from the Congregation, January 15, 1864.
Alexandre Chauviré was born at Saint-Pierre-Montlimart in the diocese of Angers, October 21, 1821. he entered the novitiate of Nancy on March 16, 1848 and made his oblation on March 17, 1849. While on a trip to Nancy, Bishop de Mazenod ordained him to the priesthood on August 26, 1849. Shortly after his ordination, Father Chauviré asked to leave the Congregation to help his parents. Father Dassy, the superior at Nancy, seemed to support this request and gave as the reason the fact that this individual should never have been ordained to the priesthood since he was “not fervent enough and did not sufficiently love the Rule.” The Founder wrote to the superior on September 26 and rebuked him for not having put forward this judgment before accepting this individual for profession, a person who apparently only joined the Congregation in order to get ordained.
As a result, Father Chauviré remained an Oblate. In 1850-1851, he was in residence at Le Calvaire in Marseilles, where he was in charge of the sacristy. He subsequently taught Sacred Scripture and history at the major seminary of Fréjus from 1852 to 1858. During the summer of 1858, Father Magnan, the superior, wrote to Father Casimir Aubert, the provincial of Midi, to ask him to recall as soon as possible this priest who was the cause of “inexcusable conduct with regard to one of the students who was his penitent.” Father Chauviré was sent to the major seminary of Ajaccio where he taught Sacred Scripture and history until 1863. He then asked to be employed in a ministry outside the seminary. During the summer, he was sent as a mission preacher to the Oblate house in Angers. There, he met Father Burfin, provincial of Nord, and made a bad impression on him. On October 17 Father Burfin wrote to Father Fabre that Father Chauviré was saying: “among other things, that you consider him the most capable man in the whole Congregation, a claim that I do not in the least believe as being true. Chauviré is a man who rates himself too highly…”
At the beginning of 1864, a priest from Angers accused him of seducing a young person. In the January 15, 1862 session of the General Council the decision was taken to expel him “in consideration of the fact that the abovementioned priest had, several times already and in almost all the places he had been posted, been subject to the same grave accusation and we no longer expect that this wretch will mend his ways.” By a February 9, 1864 letter to Father Fabre, Father Chauviré categorically denied any accusation of solicitation at Angers and in the other houses where he had resided. It was with regret that he left the Congregation and he requested a letter of recommendation to his bishop, the bishop of Angers.
Yvon Beaudoin, o.m.i.
