The funeral of Father Olivier Maire, found dead on Monday in Saint-Laurent-sur-Sèvre (Vendée), will be held this Friday, August 13 in the basilica of the town, announced this Wednesday the congregation of missionaries of Monfort, of which he was part.
The ceremony will take place from 2:30 p.m., says a sign from the Company of Mary (the official name of the congregation). The family of the priest, religious and some officials will be present. The municipality also wants to install a screen outside the building, for people who wish to attend and meditate.
The priest was “assassinated”, in the words of Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, on the night of Sunday to Monday. The suspect in the murder is Emmanuel A., a 40-year-old clandestine Rwandan who accused himself of the crime to the police. It was presented by the Montfort Fathers as part of a judicial review in relation to the Nantes Cathedral fire in July 2020, an act of which Emmanuel A. is also the main suspect.
The autopsy, made public on Tuesday night, revealed that “the victim had six injuries, all located on the head, caused by violent blows,” according to the Prosecutor’s Office. “These major brain injuries resulted in internal and external bleeding, with death, according to the forensic pathologist’s conclusions, occurring rapidly after the blows.” However, the examination did not “determine the nature of the murder weapon.”
The murder of Father Olivier Maire aroused great emotion in France and sparked a great controversy over the presence in France for nine years of the alleged murderer, while he is undocumented, such as his release after his preventive detention as part of the investigation of the Nantes fire . .
The truth is that if Emmanuel A. has been obliged to leave French territory since 2019, the ongoing judicial review for his involvement in the Nantes cathedral fire has prevented his expulsion.