St. Peter Chanel Medal and Necklace for Oceania

Sterling Silver St. Peter Chanel Medal and Necklace

14KT Gold Filled St. Peter Chanel Medal and Necklace

14KT Gold St Peter Chanel Medal

St. Peter Chanel

On September 24, 1836, Peter Chanel was one of the first of a group of seminarians, under the leadership of Father Jean Claude Marie Colin, to be professed in the religious institute which was founded in Lyons, France, in 1816, known as the “Priests of the Society of Mary”. They are popularly called the Marist Fathers, and are dedicated to the Mother of God to do missionary work.

Ministry in the South Pacific

Peter’s parents were poor, humble, devout Catholics. From early youth he desired to consecrate his life to the service of God and the salvation of souls. When the new Order of Priests of the Society of Mary was proposed, he was one of the first to express a desire to join. For their special mission, Pope Gregory XVI assigned them the difficult, new missionary field of the Oceanic Islands. Peter Chanel was the first Christian missionary to land on that far-away isle of Futuna in the South Pacific.

Only three short years of extreme hardships and zealous labor were allotted to Father Chanel on Futuna. The tribes of the islands, many of them cannibals, had no apparent interest in the white man’s Faith, but they liked Father Chanel personally. They called him “the kind man from afar”. After living by example, the evangelization prevailed. It was on the eve of Peter Chanel’s martyrdom, and the cause of it.

Martyrdom of St. Peter Chanel

A chief’s son had asked to be baptized, and it seemed as if the whole tribe would prepare for Baptism and renounce their pagan way of life and their worship of idols. The chieftain, however, refused to risk this radical change among his people, and ordered the massacre of the few Christians and the death of Peter Chanel. At daybreak on April 28, 1841, the aborigines of the island of Futuna, bore down upon Peter Chanel at the door of his hut, beat him with war clubs and shattered his bones.

As they were about to split open his skull, he cried out, using the language of his assassins-Malie fuai, “It is good for me that you are doing this”. Thus did Peter Chanel, at the age of thirty-seven, join the red-robed company of martyrs. Within a short time the number of baptisms was incredible, not only on Futuna, but on Wallis, Tonga and all the other islands. Futuna, itself, has the extraordinary reputation of an all-Catholic population. St. Peter Chanel was canonized by Pope Pius XII, in 1954.

St. Peter Chanel Rosary
UPC: 617759576061
Brand: Bliss