April 28 is the feast of St. Peter Chanel (1803-1841), the first martyr of Oceania. Born at Cuet, near Lyon, he was ordained priest in 1827 and served as a parish priest before joining the Society of Mary (the Marists) in 1831. In 1836 he was sent with the first Marist missionaries to the Pacific, and in 1837 he landed on the island of Futuna, in the Wallis and Futuna archipelago.
Chanel lived alone among the Futunans for four years, learning the language, baptising the sick, and slowly gaining converts. The chief's son Meletula, after his conversion, refused to take part in the pagan rituals of his father's household; the chief, jealous of the missionary's influence, ordered his murder. Peter was clubbed to death on April 28, 1841. The whole island converted within two years of his death, and Meletula became a catechist.
Peter Chanel was beatified in 1889 and canonized in 1954 by Pope Pius XII — the first saint of the Pacific. His body lies in the Cathedral of Poi, on Futuna. From Lyon, where he was ordained, to Futuna, where he died, the April 28 feast is the feast of the first martyr of Oceania and the patron of the Pacific churches.
