Oliver Maillard


Oliver Maillard was a Breton Franciscan preacher.
He was celebrated as forceful and popular, for his Lenten sermons in both churches and public places. His manner and style were rather blunt and plebeian. Fearless, he attacked the abuses of his time, and the cruelties of Louis XI. He also espoused the cause of Jeanne de Valois, the repudiated wife of the Duke of Orléans.
He confirmed Charles VIII of France in his plan of restoring Roussillon and Cerdagne to Aragon. Pope Innocent VIII asked Maillard in 1488 to use his best endeavours with the French king for abolishing the Pragmatic Sanction.

Life

He took the Franciscan habit with the Observants, apparently in the province of Aquitaine. He was there the vicar Provincial of the Observants, when on 2 June 1487, he was elected Vicar General of the Ultramontane Observants at the general chapter of the Observants at Toulouse. After his first term of office, he was twice re-elected.
Retiring from office at the General Chapter of 15 May 1502, he went to Toulouse, where he died at the monastery of St. Mary of the Angela. As miracles soon were reported at his grave, the General Chapter of Barcelona in 1508 ordered that his remains should be translated to a chapel built specially for them, where for some time he enjoyed a certain amount of public veneration.

Works

Of his works, nearly all of which are sermons, the most important are: