Jean-Simon Bernard

Fr JEAN-SIMON BERNARD, aged 35 (on arrival in New Zealand in Group VII on 18 Feb 1843).

He went to Hokianga to begin learning Maori and by 1844 was at Tauranga from where he followed the Viard Marist exodus to Wellington, arriving there on 15 August 1850. On 23 September Viard sent him to Akaroa, but by the end of June 1851 he returned to Wellington when the mission lost its land. He was sent to Otaki and, in early 1852, to Wanganui. Before the year was out he abandoned this posting, declaring he needed a mission that was not complicated by Protestant missionaries. He was re-assigned to New Caledonia, and was drowned there on 11 May 1876, aged 68.

Back to Biographical Notes