THE FIEBT MISBIONARY;rRIEBTS(

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXIX, Issue 26, 27 June 1901, Page 4

THE FIEBT MISBIONARY;rRIEBTS (

Father Colin, founder of the Society of Mary, was truly a man raised up by God to accomplish His merciful designs. Born in 1792, his early years were passed amid the harrowing scenes of suffering and persecution to which the Church in France was subjected at the hands of wioked men. Promoted to the priesthood in 1816, among his fellow-levites were two holy men, Father Vanney and Father Ohampagnat. whose causes of canonisation were already being considered in Rome, and who have formally received tho title of Venerable. lam confident that the day is not far distant, when the same formal title shall be awarded to Father Colin, preparatory to the aureola of Blessed, with which undoubtedly his sanctity t-hall in due oonrse be crowned by the Holy See. To Father Colin in 1836 came two briefs from Rome. One of them was the approval of the Sooiety of Mary, of which he was founder ; the other conveyed a special commission from the Vicar of Christ to evangelise the islands of the Southern Pacific. Before the close of the year the first missionaries had set sail for the mission field appointed to them. The islands of Wallis and Futuna were the first to receive the glad tiding of Redemption from the missionary band. It would seem for some reason as if the spirit of God refused to rest upon those inhospitable shores, but the brave soldier of the Cro^s — Father Battailon, by the Rosary, overcame every difficulty in Wallis, and the Blessed Chanel, privileged to be the first proto-martyr of the Pacific, shedding his blood for the Faith, fertilised the arid soil of Futuna and adorned that island with the choicest flowers of Christian piety.