Born at Mauron (Morbihan), April 18, 1833.
Taking of the habit at Notre-Dame de l’Osier, September 27, 1856.
Oblation at Montolivet, February 17, 1858. (no. 447)
Ordination to the priesthood at Marseilles, September 8, 1858.
Left the Congregation, April 12, 1869.

Yves Piraud was born at Mauron in the diocese of Vannes on April 18, 1833. When he had completed his seminary studies at the major seminary of Vannes, he entered the novitiate on January 12, 1856. He left in springtime, made a trip to Rome and began again his novitiate on September 27. At the end of this second novitiate on September 27, 1857, he was sent to Montolivet. In his notes on the novices, Father Vandenberghe wrote that he always feared being deceived by this novice. In March, for example, he noticed in him “a great obsequiousness, which,” he said, “I am inclined to mistrust.” In September, before sending the novice to Montolivet, he added: “My confidence in him is non-existent. He conceals his thoughts and his faults.”

He spent one year at the Montolivet scholasticate. Father Mouchette, the moderator of scholastics, only wrote a few lines about him; he said he was “regular in his observance and assiduous in his duties. I do not share,” he confided, “in the doubts about his sincerity.” In spite of these doubts, the novice made his oblation on February 17, 1858 and was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop de Mazenod on September 8 of that same year.

He was immediately sent to teach at the Vico church school. Father Audric wrote that Father Piraud was liked by the students in 1858-1859, but was no longer esteemed by them in 1859-1860. On July 24, 1860, Father Audric asked Father Vincens, the provincial, to recall Father Piraud to Marseilles. In a long letter, he states that this priest converses too freely with the young ladies and eagerly seeks to converse with them. “I have had occasion,” he specified, “to see with my own eyes some happenings which profoundly astounded me and which explain to some extent the evil rumours circulating about him, either in Vico or even among the students themselves. […] He has become a kind of byword in the house.”

Father Piraud was subsequently a professor at the major seminary of Fréjus from 1860 to 1863, a member of the house at Notre-Dame de la Garde in 1864, at Rennes in 1866, at Notre-Dame de Lumières in 1867, at Ajaccio in 1868, then in Aix in 1868 and 1869. He was a great source of worry for the General Administration, which from 1865 to 1869, examined his case in nine council sessions.

At Rennes, in October of 1866, the priests of the house denounced him to Father Fabre because he entertained a lady in his room. Father de L’Hermite, the superior, found himself obliged to send him as soon as possible to the General House in Paris. In 1867, Father Piraud wanted to be sent to Notre-Dame de la Garde and to have his faculties to hear confessions restored to him. Both of these requests were refused. As a result, he asked to be dispensed from his vows. At the August 20, 1867 session of the General Council, it was stated that he was guilty once again of rash actions. No reason was seen to keep him, but for his dispensation he was referred to Rome.

In March of 1869, his dispensation was granted by Rome. It was a dispensation that could be granted by the bishop who would accept him into his diocese. But, in the meantime, Father Piraud had changed his mind and from now on insisted on remaining in the Congregation. In the General Council session of April 12, 1869, he was enjoined to leave the Congregation because of the complaints about his conduct which “have arisen from various quarters” and because we no longer know in what Oblate house he could be of use. The name of this priest no longer appeared in Oblate sources from this time on.

Yvon Beaudoin, o.m.i.