Today we celebrate the memorial of Saint Peter Chanel, the Patron Saint of Oceania.

Peter, a French native, first became interested in missions when reading letters missionaries to America wrote at home in school. Peter, a young priest, revitalized a parish in a “bad” neighborhood by demonstrating great devotion to the ill. At age 28, he joined the Society of Mary, the Marists, because he wanted to be a missionary. Peter spent five years submissively instructing in the seminary. Then he went to Western Oceania, in his capacity as the superior of seven Marists. With a promise to return in six months, the bishop who was with the missionaries abandoned Peter and a brother on Futuna Island, northeast of Fiji. He was absent for five years.

Peter, meantime, worked hard to learn this new language and eventually became fluent in it while adjusting to life among the whalers, traders, and hostile natives. He maintained a calm and peaceful spirit and unending patience and courage despite having little outward success and being in great need. Some indigenous had received baptism, and some more were receiving instruction. The chieftain’s campaign of persecution culminated when his son requested baptism.

The island converted to Catholicism within two years of his passing and has remained thus ever since. In 1954, Pope Pius XII canonized him. Oceania’s first martyr and patron are Peter Chanel.

Source:franciscanmedia.org