Pierre Chanel (1803–1841)

Biography

Since then he was very devoted to the Virgin. The local priest helped him enter the diocesan seminary. In the year 1836, his wish was fulfilled to be able to go out with the Marist brothers and some priests to the islands of Oceania, where paganism, fetishism and superstition still reigned. He encountered numerous difficulties, however, achieving some conversions, which was the cause of his being murdered, out of hatred for the faith, on Fortuna Island. The French army, from Tahiti, wanted to undertake military action in retaliation. The ecclesiastical authorities opposed it and, precisely because of this noble gesture, paganism was defeated forever on Fortuna Island. Two years after the martyrdom of Father Chanel, certainly due to the merits of this holy martyr of Oceania, the entire island of Fortuna had converted to Catholicism. He died in 1841 and was beatified by Pope Leo XIII and in June 1954, he was canonized by Pope Pius XII, who declared him "Patron of all the islands of the Pacific Ocean."