Pierre Marie Bataillon

Religious Superior of the Missionaries 1847 – 1857

Pierre Bataillon was born on January 6th, 1810, at St. Cyr-les-Vignes in the archdiocese of Lyons in eastern France. He chose an ecclesiastical career, and after studying at the preparatory school of St. Polycarp in Lyons, he entered the minor seminary at L'Argentière in 1827, and finished his studies at the major seminary in Lyons. He was ordained a priest in 1834, served for some time in a country parish, and made his profession in the Society of Mary with the first group of twenty on September 24th 1836. He was one of the first group of missionaries whom the Society sent to Oceania.

Bishop Pompallier of the secular clergy, with seven Marist missionaries, including Fr Bataillon, left Le Havre for Oceania on 24th December 1836. The ship sailed westward around South America and, on September 13th, 1837, reached the Gambier Islands, where the Picpus Fathers who had travelled with them, landed and joined their Vicar Apostolic.

Bishop Pompallier and the Marists continued on until, on 1st November 1837, they were admitted by the king to the island of Wallis. Fr. Bataillon and Br. Joseph Xavier Luzy were assigned to this post. Father (now Saint) Peter Chanel and Br. Marie-Nizier Delorme were left on the island of Futuna. Bishop Pompallier, Fr. Catherin Servant, and Br. Michel Colombon sailed to New Zealand. Fr. Claude Bret, the remaining member of the original group, did not reach the Pacific: he had died on board ship near the Canary Islands and had been buried at sea.

Soon, forced to face opposition, to endure many hardships and terrible privations, but armed with a precarious permission from the king to remain on the island and favoured by the heroic self-sacrifice practised during an epidemic, Fr. Bataillon in a few years brought about the permanent conversion of Wallis Island, also called Uvea.

When the Holy See in 1842 established Central Oceania as a new vicariate taken from the territory of Western Oceania, it named him the Vicar Apostolic of Central Oceania and Titular Bishop of Enos in Greece. The news of his appointment was brought to him by his coadjutor, Bishop Guillaume Douarre. The latter landed on Wallis with the Bulls of appointment on 30th November 1843, and consecrated his superior on 3rd December. The co-consecrators were the Marist priests, Philippe Viard and Gilbert Roudaire.

Bishop Bataillon was a man of imposing presence, robust constitution, inexhaustible energy and an overwhelming zeal for spreading the Kingdom of God. He now continued in the immense expanse of this vicariate the indefatigable work which he had accomplished in Wallis. In 1844 he travelled to Tonga to visit his men and then, with three men, moved on to Fiji to establish the mission there. The following year he introduced the Catholic Faith to the Navigator Isles (Samoa & Tokelau). In 1846 he sent Frs. Pierre Verne and Grégoire Villien to found the mission at Rotuma. They were newly-arrived missionaries to Oceania but they were accompanied by a few Wallisian catechists among whom was Filipo who spoke English, French and many dialects of the Pacific. They faced many difficulties until they eventually returned to Futuna in 1853; Bataillon visited the island in 1859 and 1861 and left catechists from Futuna there to minister to the people. He returned in 1868 with Frs. Dezest and Trouillet who were eventually more successful.

Bishop Bataillon was a tenacious believer in the immediate need of a native clergy to establish the Catholic religion on a firmer basis and so made constant efforts to find ways to train native young men for the priesthood in Europe, in Australia as well as in his own vicariate. Bataillon initially tried to get the use of the procure at Villa Maria as a school for his seminarians. In 1856 he travelled to Europe with three Polynesian students for the priesthood. When he returned in 1859 he purchased a large property (1000 acres) at Clydesdale, outside Sydney where he tried to establish his seminary for Pacific Islanders, but it faced many problems and the land was eventually sold in 1871, The first Polynesian priest was ordained in his lifetime and the seminary of Lano, Wallis Island, owes its foundation to him, although he did not live to see the first graduates being ordained.

He made two journeys to Europe, and on both visits discussed his administrative policies with the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda and with the general administration of the Society of Mary. These policies were unduly patterned on his own ardent zeal and insufficiently adapted to the weaker vessels that worked under him. Furthermore, he was for his clergy simultaneously their Bishop, the representative of the Holy Father, and, although he had made at most only a two-months novitiate, their religious Superior, that is, the representative of the Superior General.

On his first visit to Europe, 1856-1858, he and the Very Reverend Father Favre, the Superior General, spent nearly two months in Rome in negotiations with the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda regarding the administration of the foreign missions entrusted to the Society of Mary. These negotiations resulted in the drafting of a set of regulations which was approved by the Sacred Congregation. These directives were of general and permanent value, as they became a sort of charter according to which the Marist and some other missions were governed from then on.

His second visit ad limina occurred much later. He arrived in Europe in 1872. His strength was then much reduced and his appearance indicated the hardships which he had endured for many years. It was suggested to him that he give up the idea of returning to his vicariate. His answer, given at the audience which Pope Pius IX granted him, was that he had but one request to make, namely, that he be granted permission to return to his dear people in the missions. The request was of course granted. He returned, zealously continued his work, and died at Wallis, 11th April, 1877.

End notes

A fuller description of the life and work of Bishop Bataillon is found in the following works of P. MANGERET SM

• Mgr Bataillon et les missions de l’Oceanie Centrale par le R.P.Mangeret de la Soc.de Marie. Lyons. Vitte et Perrussel: Paris: Lecoffre [usw], 1984

• La Croix dans les isles du Pacifique; vie de Mgr Bataillon de la Société de Marie, êvêque d’Enos, premier Apostolique de l’Océanie central (1810-1877) . Mangeret. Lyons, Annales de Marie, 1932

• Mgr Bataillon et les Missions de l’Océanie centrale, Tome 1 and Tome 2. Mangeret. [S.I.]: Hachette Livre-BNF. 2018

Of interest also are two chapters in John Hosie, Challenge. The Marists in Colonial Australia. (Sydney, Allen and Unwin,1987)

• Chapter 12. "Bataillon, bishop and autocrat" (pp.105-112)
• Chapter 17. "Clydesdale and an islander priesthood" (pp.69-185)