By CAROLE BRESLIN
There are a number of small islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean, many of them predominantly Catholic. About 2,000 miles east of Australia is a tiny island nation for which one man paid the ultimate price for its conversion from paganism to Catholicism. St. Peter Chanel left his home in France to fulfill a lifelong desire to be a missionary for the Kingdom of God.
As the late historian Warren Carroll informed his readers, France became known as the First Daughter of the Church because she was the first of the countries established by barbarians after the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 to become Christian and Catholic. From there, her Catholic children were instrumental in spreading Catholicism to Africa, Asia, and Oceania.
Peter Chanel was born on July 12, 1803 in the hamlet of La Potière near Montrevel-en-Bresse, France. He was the fifth of eight children born to Claude Francois Chanel and Marie-Anne Sibellas.
When Peter was eight years old he began working as a shepherd on his parents’ small farm. He worked faithfully and diligently until age 12, when the parish priest persuaded his parents to let Peter attend the new school that the parish was opening.
The school, Saint-Didier-d’Aussiat, had a priest visit to meet and speak to the students. Fr. Trompier from Cras quickly noticed the great holiness and intelligence of Peter and recommended that the Chanel boy be placed in a Church-sponsored school in Cras.
Peter went to the school in Cras in the autumn of 1814. After three years of formation, Peter made his First Holy Communion on March 22, 1817. About this time, Peter began reading letters from the missionaries in America that Bishop Louis DuBourg, SS, had sent back. These letters made a lasting impact on Peter, as his love for missionary work blossomed. When reflecting on his vocation years later, he remarked, “It was that year that I formed the idea of going to the foreign missions.”
In pursuit of this objective, Peter entered the minor seminary at Meximieux in 1819. He won several honors, including prizes in Latin, Christian doctrine, and speech.
In 1823 he went to Belley for more study and then to Brou in 1824 where there was a major seminary. Peter was ordained on July 15, 1827, beginning his priesthood as assistant priest at Amberieu-en-Bugey. While there he found more missionary letters — these from India — which increased his desire to serve the Church in foreign lands.
He also met Claude Bret, who became a dear friend. With Chanel, Bret would become one of the first Marist priests. (The Marists were founded in 1816 in Lyons, France, with a special devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Their formation and rules are very similar to those of the Jesuits who were suppressed until 1814).
With zealous fervor, Fr. Chanel applied to the bishop of Belley to send him to the missions. His request was denied and he spent the next three years assigned as parish priest of the church in Crozet. Filled with love and piety, he quickly became highly respected for his success in revitalizing the parish and for the care he gave to the sick and poor.
In 1831, Fr. Chanel joined the Society of Mary, better known as the Marists.
Although the Marists were primarily focused on local and foreign missionary work, Peter was assigned to the Seminary of Belley to be a spiritual director. He spent the next five years in guiding the spiritual formation of the seminarians.
During this time, the budding Society of Mary was seeking formal approval from Rome. In 1833, Peter went with Fr. Jean Claude Colin to Rome to obtain this approval. It was finally granted in 1836 when Pope Gregory XVI requested that they send missionaries to the southwest Pacific.
Shortly thereafter, Fr. Chanel professed his permanent vows as a Marist, on September 24, 1836. Three months later, he and seven other Marists left on Christmas Eve from Le Havre. Fr. Chanel was their superior and they traveled with Jean-Baptiste Pompallier, who would become the first bishop of New Zealand.
On June 28, he landed in Valparaiso and spent time with the French Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary — sometimes called the Picpus Fathers. They served the Vicariate of Eastern Oceania.
From there, Fr. Chanel went to the Gambier Islands, arriving on September 13, and then on to Tahiti where he landed on September 21. For the last leg of the long journey to the opposite side of the Earth, the Marists embarked on the Raiatea, leaving Tahiti on October 23, 1837. Two of the Marist missionaries stayed at the next stop in Wallis, the main mission in Tonga.
Although they were to end the sojourn at Vava’u, they were not welcome there. So, they continued on to Futuna with a French lay brother, Marie-Nizier Delorme. Fr. Peter Chanel and the remaining Marists landed on November 8, 1837, ten months after they set sail from France.
The natives and their king, Niuliki, welcomed the Marists to their distant South Pacific Island. The natives were curious about the strange men but willingly taught the priests their language and customs. The food, traditions, clothing, even the smells were so different that the priests had a great challenge adjusting to them.
The progress Fr. Chanel and his brother priests made in learning the language was slow and difficult, but they persevered. Likewise, their progress in evangelizing the gentle souls was also slow.
Perhaps that is why King Niuliki tolerated their presence as they taught the people about God. Niuliki was not only a king; he was also a high priest for the Futuna people.
A few of the people were baptized and then a few more asked for instruction. King Niuliki then felt threatened by the conversions and became less tolerant of the priests. When the king’s son, Meitala, sought permission to be baptized, the king decided it was time to do something.
The king instructed a messenger, Musumusu, to go to his son and resolve the problem. The two argued and came to blows, injuring the king’s messenger. Angered and humiliated, Musumusu went to Fr. Chanel under the pretense of seeking medical attention. While the priest tended to his superficial wounds, Musumusu’s men went to the priest’s house and ransacked it. Then Musumusu took an axe and clubbed the priest to death. Fr. Peter Chanel died on April 28, 1841.
The blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church. Less than two years after St. Peter’s death, the entire island had become Catholic. His feast is celebrated on April 28.
Dear St. Peter, for love of God and for His wayward people, you gave your life in martyrdom. Help us to die to self in order to live for Christ. Help us to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Christ wherever He leads, knowing that He will reward us in the next life. Amen.
+ + +
(Carole Breslin home-schooled her four daughters and served as treasurer of the Michigan Catholic Home Educators for eight years. For over ten years, she was national coordinator for the Marian Catechists, founded by Fr. John A. Hardon, SJ.)
Powered by WPtouch Mobile Suite for WordPress