Collectivité

Oceania Marist Province Archives

1898-

The Marist Order (Society of Mary) was canonically approved in April 1836 after the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith in Rome had sought means of evangelising the western half of the Pacific. The eastern half had been entrusted to the Sacred Heart (Picpus) Order in 1833. The Marists, originally an informal group of diocesan priests, accepted the task in the Western Pacific, provided they were recognised as an independent religious order. The first Marists sailed for the Pacific in December 1836 under the leadership of Bishop Jean-Baptiste Pompallier. The Bishop established his headquarters in New Zealand while some of his missionaries were left on the islands of Wallis and Futuna. However, the huge vicariate under Pompallier’s care soon proved too large to be practicable and in 1842 part of it was carved off to form the Vicariate of Central Oceania. This new vicariate comprised the islands of Wallis, Futuna, New Caledonia, New Hebrides, Samoa, Tokelau, Fiji, Rotuma, Niue and the Gilbert Islands. A few years later, before any Marist missionaries had set foot there, the Gilbert Islands were made part of a new vicariate of Micronesia. In 1898, the Marists working in Wallis & Futuna, Tonga, Samoa, Fiji, New Caledonia, New Hebrides, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and Bougainville were formally constituted into the Province of Oceania. The provincial administration was established in Sydney and remained there until 1971, when the headquarters was transferred to Suva, Fiji.