The Missionary Sisters of the Society of Mary (SMSM) are a congregation of pontifical right of Catholic religious women. They are part of the Marist family of congregations. The order is dedicated to evangelization. In its missionary activity it is within the ambit of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples in Rome.
The founders of the congregation were eleven lay-women who left France from the early nineteenth century to assist in the missions established by the Marist Fathers in the South Pacific. The first of those 11 women was Marie-Françoise Perroton (1796 - 1873) who went to the mission on Wallis Island in 1846. Alone during 12 years, she ministered especially to the women and children of the island. [1]
Between 1857 and 1862 ten more missionaries arrived in Oceania to help Perroton. They were all members of the "Third Order of Mary". They had a Rule, based on that of the Marist Fathers; a habit, a vow of obedience to the local Bishop, and were called "Sister", but not an official community of religious sisters. [2] In 1881 the members took vows as religious and were established as a diocesan congregation, Sisters of the Third Order Regular of Mary (TORM). That same year, two novitiates were established; one in Saint-Brieuc, France, and one on Wallis. [3]
The Sisters became very active in the Pacific. By 1931 they were staffing a hospital for leprosy on Makogai Island in Fiji. They were also working in missions in Bougainville Island and South Solomon Islands, New Hebrides, New Caledonia, Tonga, Samoa and Wallis and Futuna. [4] They later extended their ministry to New Zealand, and Boston, Massachusetts, USA as well as, Algeria, Senegal, Mauritania, Burundi, Rwanda, Bangladesh, Madagascar, Philippines, Germany, Tanzania and England. In 1931 the Sisters were reorganized into a Congregation of Pontifical Right. [2] and given the new name of Missionary Sisters of the Society of Mary. [4]
As of 2020, there are about 400 Missionary Sisters of the Society of Mary working in twenty-three countries mostly in the areas of education and religious communication. [5]
The Province of South Pacific is made up of the five island countries of New Zealand, Tonga, Samoa, Fiji and the Philippines. In Suva, the capital of Fiji, sisters teach at the Training College and at the Pacific Regional Seminary. [6]
The Region of the Americas includes Jamaica, Peru, and the United States. [5]
Peter Chanel, born Pierre Louis Marie Chanel, was a Catholic priest, missionary, and martyr. Chanel was a member of the Society of Mary or "Marists" and was sent as a missionary to Oceania. He arrived on the island of Futuna in November 1837. Chanel was clubbed to death in April 1841 at the instigation of a chief upset because his son converted.
Marist is a noun or adjective derived from the name Mary – in particular Mary the Mother of Jesus Christ. It may refer to:
The Society of Mary abbreviated SM, commonly known as the Marist Fathers, is a men's Roman Catholic clerical religious congregation of pontifical right. It was founded by Jean-Claude Colin and a group of seminarians in Lyon, France, in 1816. The society's name is derived from the Virgin Mary, whom the members attempt to imitate in their spirituality and daily work. Its members add the nominal letters S.M. after their names to indicate their membership in the congregation.
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Samoa–Apia consists of the Independent State of Samoa.
A missionary order is a Catholic religious order devoted to active missionary work. No Catholic religious order was founded for that purpose, but all the mendicant orders have been active in this field and others too, in particular the Jesuits, whose members include outstanding missionaries such as Saint Francis Xavier and Matteo Ricci. Even monastic orders have engaged and still engage in missionary endeavours, as did, for instance, the Benedictines whom Pope Gregory the Great sent to evangelize the Angles.
Jean-Baptiste François Pompallier was the first Roman Catholic bishop in New Zealand and, with priests and brothers of the Marist order, he organised the Roman Catholic Church throughout the country. He was born in Lyon, France. He arrived in New Zealand in 1838 as Vicar Apostolic of Western Oceania, but made New Zealand the Headquarters of His Catholic Mission.
The Vicariate Apostolic of Eastern Oceania was a Roman Catholic missionary jurisdiction for some of the South Sea (Pacific) islands from 1833 till 1848.
The Vicariate Apostolic of Central Oceania was a Roman Catholic missionary jurisdiction in the Southern Pacific.
John Atcherley Dew is a Roman Catholic bishop. He is the sixth Roman Catholic Archbishop of Wellington and the Metropolitan of New Zealand, serving since 2005. He was also created a cardinal by Pope Francis in 2015.
Philippe Joseph Viard was a French priest and the first Bishop of the Catholic diocese of Wellington, New Zealand.
The Mission Sui Iuris of Funafuti is a Catholic Latin mission sui juris in Tuvalu, Polynesia.
The Roman Catholic Mission Sui Iuris of Tokelau in Tokelau is a suffragan mission of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Samoa-Apia. It was formed in 1992 when the Archdiocese of Samoa-Apia and Tokelau was split into the Archdiocese of Samoa-Apia and the Mission Sui Iuris of Tokelau. The current Ecclesiastical Superior is Archbishop Alapati Lui Mata’eliga, appointed 22 December 2015.
Catholic Marian movements and societies have developed from the veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary by members of the Catholic Church. These societies form part of the fabric of Mariology in the Catholic Church. Popular membership in Marian organizations grew significantly in the 20th century, as apparitions such as Our Lady of Fátima gave rise to societies with millions of members, and today many Marian societies exist around the world. This article reviews the major Marian movements and organizations.
Chanel College, Masterton is a Catholic secondary school situated in Masterton, New Zealand. The school is named after St Peter Chanel, who was a French Marist priest killed on the Pacific island of Futuna in 1841. The school was established in 1978. It resulted from the amalgamation of two schools, St Joseph's College for Boys operated by the Marist Brothers and St Bride's College for Girls which had been established in 1898 by the Brigidine Sisters. The College, which is located on the old St Joseph's College site, became an Integrated School in November 1981. It is owned by the Wellington Archdiocese with the Archbishop of Wellington being named as its proprietor in the college's integration agreement with the New Zealand Government.
The Sisters of Saint Joseph of Nazareth, also called simply the Sisters of St Joseph or Josephites, are a religious congregation who have their main centre in Whanganui, New Zealand. The congregation was a member of the Federation of the Sisters of St. Joseph which disbanded in 2013. The Sisters of St Joseph Whanganui received the Decree of Fusion with the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart on 22 February 2013.
The Episcopal Conference of the Pacific (CEPAC) is the episcopal conference of the Catholic Church that includes the bishops of several islands in Oceania. The CEPAC is a member of the Federation of Catholic Bishops' Conferences of Oceania, FCBCO.
Soakimi Gatafahefa, also known as simply Soakimi Gata, a Polynesian transliteration of Joachim Gata, was the first Roman Catholic priest from Polynesia. He worked in several Oceanic countries including Tonga, Samoa, Fiji, Wallis and Futuna, and later Australia and New Zealand.
Marie Louise Françoise Briand, in religion Mother Mary Agnes was a French Catholic nun, Marist missionary in Fiji, born March 22, 1870 in La Prénessaye and died March 17, 1955 on the island of Makogai in Fiji. She was regional superior for the Fiji Islands of the Missionary Sisters of the Society of Mary from 1908 to 1946. Devoted to lepers in the Pacific, she was the director of the Makogai leper colony from 1916 to 1950, one of the largest in the world. She was awarded with the Order of the Legion of Honor and the Order of the British Empire.