Peter Chanel

"Peter Chanel, born Pierre Louis Marie Chanel, was a Catholic priest, missionary, and martyr. He was a member of the Society of Mary or ,Marists, and was sent as a missionary to Oceania. He arrived on the island of Futuna in November 1837. He was clubbed to death in April 1841 at the instigation of a chief upset because his son converted. His zeal was respected, and his care, particularly of the sick in the parish, won the hearts of the locals. During this time, Chanel heard of a group of diocesan priests who were hopeful of starting a religious order to be dedicated to Mary, the Mother of Jesus. It was from that time that Chanel's attraction for the missions abroad began. His interest began when he read letters from missionaries to America sent back by Bishop Louis William Valentine Dubourg. He later said, "It was that year that I formed the idea of going to the foreign missions." In 1819 he entered the minor seminary at Meximieux where he won several awards and class prizes in Latin, Christian doctrine, and oratory. He attended the Belley diocesan college in 1823, and the major seminary at Brou in 1824.[2] Chanel was ordained on 15 July 1827[3] and spent a brief time as an assistant priest at Ambérieu-en-Bugey. At Ambérieu he also read letters from a former curate from that parish who was at that time a missionary in India. There he met Claude Bret, who was to become his friend and also one of the first Marist Missionaries. The following year, Chanel applied to the Bishop of Belley for permission to go to the missions. His application was not accepted and instead, he was appointed for the next three years as parish priest of Crozet.[1] Chanel found his new parish in a deplorable state. On Sundays and feast days, the church was almost empty. The children, idle and left to themselves. The priest went on a pilgrimage to Annecy, to the tomb of Francis de Sales who had once visited his parish. Chanel's zeal was respected, and his care, particularly of the sick in the parish,[4] won the hearts of the locals. During this time, Chanel heard of a group of diocesan priests who were hopeful of starting a religious order to be dedicated to Mary, the Mother of Jesus In 1831, at the age of 28, Chanel joined the nascent Society of Mary (Marists),[1] who would concentrate on local missions and foreign missionary work. Instead of selecting him as a missionary, however, the Marists appointed him as the spiritual director at the seminary of Belley, where he stayed for five years.[4] In 1833, he accompanied Jean-Claude Colin to Rome to seek approval of the nascent Society. In 1836, the Marists were asked to send missionaries to the territory of the southwest Pacific.[5] In return for eventual acceptance, the group were promised formal approbation, granted by Pope Gregory XVI. Chanel, professed with the other aspirants as Marist on 24 September 1836, was made the superior of the band of seven Marist missionaries that set out on 24 December from Le Havre on the Delphine accompanied by the new Bishop of Maronea (Western Oceania), Jean-Baptiste Pompallier .[6] Chanel was not deterred by the dangers of such a long sea voyage. Chanel traveled first to the Canary Islands (8 January 1837), where his friend, Claude Bret, caught a flu-like virus which led to his death at sea (20 March 1837). Next, Chanel traveled to Valparaíso, Chile (28 June), where the French Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary ("Picpus Fathers"), who had care of the Apostolic Vicariate of Eastern Oceania, had their base. His third and fourth stops were in the Gambier Islands (13 September) and in Tahiti (21 September), where the group transferred to the ship Raiatea. In that ship, they set sail (23 October) to drop off two missionaries at Wallis, the main seat of the mission in Tonga. The missionaries arrived at Vava’u but were not welcome, and thus continued their journey to Futuna. Chanel went to neighboring Futuna, accompanied by a French lay brother Marie-Nizier Delorme. They arrived on 8 November 1837 with an English Protestant layman named Thomas Boag, who had been resident on the island and had joined them at Tonga seeking passage to Futuna.