Guide to the Records of the Marist Fathers (Society of Mary) (as filmed by the AJCP), 1844-1946

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Summary

Collection number:

M425-M432

Extent:

99 items

Language:

French and French

Preferred citation:

Acknowledgement of use of this material should refer to the location of the original material and to the Australian Joint Copying Project.

Items from this collection should include references to the location of the original material and to the AJCP nla.obj number, which serves as the online identifier for the digital copy.

Example:- M Series: Journal of Capt. James Cook, 18 February-23 September 1770, British Library Add. MS 27885 (AJCP ref: http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1234)

Availability:

Available

Access conditions:

Available for reference.

Background

Content Summary:

The records consist predominantly of letters written by Marist fathers, brothers and nuns in Fiji and Rotuma in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In addition, there are some journals covering the early years of the Mission and extracts from published works on the history of the Marist missionaries in the Pacific.

With occasional exceptions, all the letters and other documents are in French.

Biographical / Historical:

The idea of a Society of Mary originated with a group of Catholic seminarians at Lyon, France, in 1816. One of the group, Jean-Claude Colin (1790-1875), was subsequently given permission by the Bishop of Belley to form a missionary group to work in the rural districts of the diocese. In 1836 Pope Gregory XVI, who was looking for missionaries for Oceania, approved the formation of a religious institute, the Priests of the Society of Mary, or Marist Fathers. Colin was elected as the first Superior General and held the office until 1854. He was succeeded by Julien Favre (1854-1885), Antoine Martin (1886-1905) and Jean-Claude Raffin (1905-1922). Lyon was the seat of administration from 1839 until 1925, when it moved to Rome.

The Pope created the Vicariate General of Apostolic of Western Oceania in 1835. It covered a vast area, including New Zealand, Tonga, Samoa, Fiji, New Caledonia, the Solomon Islands, the Gilbert Islands and New Guinea. Jean-Baptiste Pompallier (1802-1871) was appointed the Vicar Apostolic and, together with a group of Marist missionaries, he sailed for the Pacific in 1837. Pompallier made New Zealand the centre of his operations and he was to become the first Bishop of Auckland in 1848. The Marists quickly spread through the western Pacific, reaching Wallis and Futuna islands in 1837, Tonga in 1842, New Caledonia in 1843, Fiji in 1844 and Samoa in 1845. The large vicariate was soon divided into a number of dioceses and vicariates. The Vicariate of Central Oceania was created in 1842 under Bishop Pierre Bataillon.

The first Marist missionaries in Fiji were Jean-Baptiste Breheret and Joseph-Francois Roulleaux. They first worked at Lakeba in Llau and in 1855 moved to Levuka. Breheret became the first Prefect Apostolic of Fiji in 1863. In 1887 the Vicariate Apostolic of Fiji was established and Bishop Julien Vidal (1846-1922) was appointed Vicar Apostolic. He held the office until his death. He was also Prefect Apostolic of the southern Solomon Islands from 1897 to 1903. By the early twentieth century there were 30 priests (Marist Fathers) working in Fiji, together with 11 Little Brothers of Mary (Marist Brothers) in charge of schools and 24 European and 31 Fijian Sisters of the Third Order of Mary.

Access and use

Conditions Governing Access:: Available for Access.
Conditions Governing Use:: Many of the records digitised as part of the AJCP are still in copyright. Readers wishing to publish or reproduce documents should seek permission, in the first instance, from the owner of the original material.