Born: Castanet (Hautes-Alpes), May 12, 1835.
Took the habit: N.-D. de l’Osier, October 25, 1858.
Vows: Montolivet, May 27, 1860 (N.511).
Priestly ordination: Marseilles, December 26, 1860.
Died in San Antonio, Texas, January 18, 1900.

Jean Maurel was born in Castanet, diocese of Toulouse, France, on May 12, 1835. He studied in the minor seminary of Toulouse and did one year of theology in the major seminary. He entered the novitiate of Notre-Dame de l’Osier on October 25, 1858 and took vows in Montolivet on May 27, 1860. The novice master, Father Vandenberghe, found him to “have piety and education” but to be “somewhat lacking in will power and even in action”. He spent some months in Montolivet in 1860 and was ordained priest on December 26, 1860, the last Oblate to be ordained by Bishop de Mazenod. He left for Texas in January 1861.

According to a list of obediences kept in his dossier in the General archives, he worked mainly in Brownsville where he was superior in 1894. However, he also ministered in Aqualeguas in 1881, and he was superior in Eagle Pass in 1892 and 1899. In some letters to the General Administration, he defended the missions of Texas, which they had planned to abandon. Reporting on the Brownsville mission, on February 22, 1885, Father Parisot wrote: “Father Maurel has special responsibility for the Mexicans of the city. He knows his sheep and his sheep know him. He is sufficiently observant to discover the weaker side of each one and to outmanoeuvre their tricks. His life is a continual round of preaching, catechism and visits to the sick. He is head sacristan and, on occasion, organist” (Missions OMI, 23 (1885) p. 161. He died in San Antonio, Texas, on January 18, 1900.

Yvon Beaudoin, o.m.i.