Peter Chanel was born in France in 1803. He worked as a shepherd as a young by. He became a parish priest, but was intrigued by the letters sent home by missionaries to places like India and the Americas since he was a young boy. He joined the society of Mary, known as the Marists, as a young priest. That order was in the early stages of its formation. He spent his first years as a Marist serving as a spiritual director at their seminary. He traveled as a missionary to the Canary Islands, Chile, and the South Pacific Islands, establishing Marist mission sites at those places. He served as a missionary on the island of Futuna in the South Pacific near Fiji. He was killed there in 1841 in a dispute and is considered to be a martyr of the faith. He was canonized by Pope Pius XII in 1954. He is one of the patron saints of the Oceania area of the South Pacific.
In the Acts of the Apostles today, we hear how news reaches the Church in Jerusalem about how the Gospel was preached to the Gentiles in Antioch. This was quite startling news, since to this point, the Gospel message was just being presented to the Jews. Barnabas was sent to Antioch to investigate what was going on. When he recognized God’s grace at work, he encouraged the evangelizers in their efforts to spread Christ’s Gospel message.
Missionary efforts continue in different ways. We heard about Peter Chanel’s missionary work in the South Pacific in the 19th century. I find that many of the men whom I serve in the prison have not been introduced to a lot of the basic concepts of Christianity. We here in the Church in modern America have a lot of missionary work to do as well. May we hear God calling us to be missionary in spirit and to be evangelizers for our faith.
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