Born at Monistrol (Haute-Loire), January 3, 1826
Taking of the habit at Notre-Dame de l’Osier, February 24, 1847
Oblation at Nancy on February 25, 1848 (no. 182)
Ordination to the priesthood at Marseilles, December 22, 1849.

Jacques Saby was born in Monistrol, diocese of Puy, on January 3, 1826. He began his novitiate at Notre-Dame de l’Osier on February 24, 1847 and made his oblation at Nancy on February 25, 1848. After two years of theological studies at the major seminary of Marseilles, he was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop de Mazenod on December 22, 1849. From 1850 to 1856, he worked at Le Calvaire at Marseilles as treasurer for the Oblate community, as confessor of the Sisters of St. Charles, in charge of the religious circle, etc. Having fallen ill, he returned to take some rest at his family home, but remained in epistolary contact, especially with Father Tempier. In an August 31, 1856 letter, Bishop de Mazenod wrote to Father Tempier that sick Oblates should not go home to be taken care of: “Father Telmon has applied it and Father Saby wanted to profit therefrom. I have managed to have the former return, but Father Saby finds it very hard to persuade himself that he is in duty bound not to remain outside of our communities. This Father is a conceited man whose vocation, I think, is more than a little compromised.” (Letters to the Oblates of France, 1856-1861, Oblate Writings I, vol. XII, no. 1328, p. 25)

Without asking to be dispensed from his vows, Father Saby never returned to live in an Oblate community. In 1865, Father Fabre wrote him ordering him to return to community life or to leave definitively. In the Registry of the General Council under the entry of May 8, 1865, we read this: “Father Saby responded “in very respectful and submissive terms that, in view of his fragile health which would not permit him to observe the day to day living and exercises of community life, he felt compelled to ask to be dispensed from his vows.” He was granted the dispensation. In the old personnel registers, we read after his name: “Dispensed honourably”.

Yvon Beaudoin, o.m.i.