Notes

Some 175 years ago, the first Marist Brothers arrived in the Pacific, members of a French Marist missionary team headed by Bishop Pompallier. One of them stepped ashore in the Hokianga in January 1838 with the Bishop and a Marist priest as the Catholic mission to New Zealand. He was the first in the long line of Brothers of various nationalities who went on to build up an influential network of schools thoughout New Zealand, Samoa, Fiji, Tonga and Kiribati. But, as this story will show, their influence extended far beyond the schools and the Catholic Church.