Born at Saint-Laurent-en-Royans, (Drôme), December 3, 1825.
Taking of the habit at N.-D. de Lumières, October 31, 1845.
Oblation at N.-D. de l’Osier, November 1, 1846 (no. 167)
Ordination to the priesthood at Marseilles, April 1, 1850
Dispensed from his vows and expelled from the Congregation, August 16, 1851
Died March 24, 1876.

François-Xavier Pourret was born at Saint-Laurent-en-Royans, in the diocese of Valence, on December 3, 1825, the son of Sophie Tezier and Joseph Pourret, farmer. He studied for a few years at the minor seminary of Notre-Dame de Lumières where he began his novitiate on October 31, 1845. After his oblation at Notre-Dame de l’Osier on November1, 1846, he studied theology at the major seminary of Marseilles until his ordination to the priesthood at the hands of Bishop de Mazenod on April 1, 1850.

He was earmarked for Ceylon in June of 1848, but during the summer of 1850, he was sent to the United States and worked in Holy Angels’ parish in Buffalo, New York in 1850-1851. In the August 16, 1851, entry in the Register of the General Council we read that Father Pourret, “having received orders from his superior to go from Montreal to Saguenay, had, on the road, departed from the direction laid out for him and, after having thus wilfully infringed upon his obedience, withdrew to the United States from where he notified his superiors that he was leaving the Congregation and was categorically determined to never again set foot in one of our houses. In spite of his being served notice more than once, he had persisted in his apostasy and had even celebrated Mass from time to time, ignoring the canonical censures that he had incurred.” He subsequently requested a dispensation from his vows. The members of the Council “were unanimous in their decision that he had to be released from his vows and cast out of the Congregation. That is what was done.”

As a diocesan priest, François-Xavier Pourret subsequently worked in several parishes in Canada and the United States and died March 24, 1876.

Yvon Beaudoin
and Gaston Carrière, o.m.i.