Biographical Notes
From Marist Studies
Summary information about some of the early Marists, taken from THE FIRST WAVE OF FRENCH MARISTS by Michael O'Meeghan SM, informally published in 2008.
The First Wave
Group I
- They sailed with Pompallier on 24 December 1836 from Le Havre for Valparaiso on the Delphine, with no fixed destination beyond there. Fr CLAUDE BRET died at sea on 20 March 1837, from fever contracted during a stop for repairs at Teneriffe. At Valparaiso the difficulty of finding a ship to take the group directly to New Guinea ruled that country out as a possible base in the western Pacific. Instead, the Europa took them via the Gambier Islands to Tahiti. There Pompallier chartered the Raiatea to take them further west into his designated territory. He abandoned an idea of making his base at Ponape (Ascension Is) in favour of heading for Tonga which refused him permanent access. So he moved on to Wallis which made him welcome and he left Fr PIERRE BATAILLON and Br JOSEPH-XAVIER LUZY there.
- With a similar encouraging reception at Futuna, 170km to the southwest, he left Fr PIERRE CHANEL and Br MARIE NIZIER there. By then he had decided to make his base in New Zealand, and to sail there via Sydney which he reached on 9 December 1837. On learning that a group of Catholics in Northland had been asking Sydney's bishop for a priest, he sailed for the Hokianga River harbour on 30 December, assured of a welcome from the Thomas Poynton family when he landed on 10 January 1838. To assist him in his mission he had two Marists remaining:
Group II
- This group sailed from Bordeaux on the Basque on 9 September 1838. Because word had not yet been received in France of where Pompallier had established his base, they followed the same route as Group I. At Valparaiso they negotiated the use of the Reine de Paix which took them to Wallis and Futuna to visit for ten days and restock the four Marists left there by Pompallier a year and a half previously. They arrived at the Bay of Islands on 14 June 1839.
