Remembering St Peter Chanel

In yesterday's Sunday Gospel, the union that Jesus desires between himself and us is described as the closeness between a vine and its branches. Today we remember two saints who lived out that union with Jesus in their lives. While most countries will celebrate the feast of the devout lay woman and church reformer, St Catherine of Siena, here in Aotearoa and Oceania we celebrate our patron, St Peter Chanel. He was born in France in 1803 an from an early age wished to become an overseas missionary. He was ordained in 1827 and worked in a run down parish which he built up due to his zeal and especially his care of the sick. He joined a group of priests who were forming the Society of Mary and went with the Fr Colin to seek approval from Rome . Permission was granted and the new Marist Society were asked to send missionaries to the Pacific. However Peter was named as spritual director in the new seminary and it was only in 1836, that he was named leader of the group of seven who sailed via Chile to the Pacific. Peter and a lay brother were dropped off at Futuna on 1837. After struggling to learn the language, he attracted some converts but when Meitala , the son of the chief, asked for baptism, the chief became angry and sent a warrior who clubbed Peter to death in 1841. Bishop Pompallier arranged for a French naval boat from Akaroa to reclaim his body which then spent 7 years in Aotearoa before going on to France and then back to Futuna in 1977. Two years after his death, all of the people in Futuna became catholics and remain so today. May Peter Chanel, the first martyr of Oceania, inspire us to live as closely to Jesus as he did.