Who is
St.
Peter Chanel
As
a young priest
St.
Peter Chanel
revived a failing parish by showing great devotion to the sick. He joined the
Marists to be a missionary but, taught in the seminary for five years.
Then, he was given an apostolic vicariate (term for a region that may later
become a diocese) in
Western Oceania .
The bishop accompanying the missionaries left Peter and a brother on Futuna
Island in the New Hebrides, promising to return in six months. He was gone five
years.
Meanwhile, Peter mastered
the new language and adjusted to a difficult life with whalers, traders and
warring natives. Accomplishing little and living in poverty, his gentle
spirit met life with endless patience and courage. He baptized a few natives,
but when the chief's son asked to be baptized, the chieftain had Father Chanel
clubbed to death, his body cut to pieces.
Grace, which is so often manifested with the
shed blood of martyrs, resulted,
within two years after his
death, with the whole island becoming Catholic and remaining so. Peter Chanel is
the first martyr of Oceania. |
A Prayer to St.
Peter Chanel
St Peter Chanel you left your homeland to proclaim
Jesus, Savior of the world, to the peoples of Oceania. Guided by the spirit of
God, who is the strength of the gentle, you bore witness to love, even laying
down your life. Grant that like you we may live our daily life in peace, joy,
and in love. May your prayer and example call forth from our midst many workers
for the Gospel so that God's kingdom may reach to the ends of the earth. Amen.
For more information about
St. Peter Chanel visit his
web site.
Comments
Anyone
who has worked in loneliness, with great adaptation required and with little
apparent success, will find a kindred spirit in Peter Chanel.
~Saint of the Day, Lives, Lessons and
Feast, By Leonard Foley, O.F.M.; revised by Pat McCloskey, O.F.M.
"No one is a martyr for a conclusion, no one
is a martyr for an opinion; it is faith that makes martyrs" ~Cardinal
Newman |