A MISSIONARY MARTYR.

Te Aroha News, Volume VIII, Issue 485, 5 July 1890, Page 6

A MISSIONARY MARTYR.

A Martyr of the Marist Order. There has arrived in San Francisco a statue of the Blessed Peter Aloysius Maria Chanel, a missionary of the Order, who became a martyr to the Catholic faith at the Fortuna Islands, in the South Pacific, on April 28th, 1841. He had been landed by Bishop Pompallier on the Islands and w as killed by the savages while endeavouring to convert them to Christianity. He was only 39 years old at the time of his martyrdom, and in recognition of his struggles in behalf of the church and his self-sacrifice in the performance of his duties, the Pope was pleased on May 30,1889 (Ascension Day), to declare him ‘ blessed.’ The anniversary of his death will probably be fixed as a feast day to be observed in tho Catholic Church, and particularly at the churches of the Marist order. The statue in San Francisco is a copy of the statue of the blessed missionary sent to the Marist Bishop of the Samoan Islands, to be erected upon the island where Chanel met his death for his faith. Both statues wera made at Paris. The statue will be placed in a chapel at the French Church, San Francisco, in which will also bo placed a portion of the body of the missionary. The Marist order is a French brotherhood of the Roman Catholic Church, whoso members devote themselves particularly to missionary work. The mother house is at Lyons, France, where are the headquarters of Rev. Fr. R. Martin, the superior-general. There is a mission house and a procurer of the order at Rome. In Oceanica there are seven vicarates-apostolic, stations of the order being at the Samoan Islands, the Fiji, New Caledonia, New Hebrides, the Tonga Islands, New Zealand and other islands of the South Pacific. Very Rev. Francis Redwood, the Archbishop of Wellington, N.Z., is a Marist, as is Bishop Thomas Grimes, of Christchurch diocese, New Zealand. There are three mission houses of the order at Sydney. The order has its greatest strength in France, where it had its origin. It has colleges at Senlis, near Paris; at St. Charnound, near Lyons ; at La Seyne-sur-Mer, near Toulon; at Riom (Puy de Doipe), Montlucon (AUiar), Limoges (Vienne),. Aubenas (Ardeche), and at other places. At Notre Dame des Vicboires, on Bushstreet. the chapel is now, being prepared for the reception of the relics and statue of the blessed martyr.