Euloge Reignier

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Euloge Reignier (* 1810 or 1811; † October 28, 1888 ) was a French Roman Catholic priest and missionary in New Zealand . He belonged to the Marist Fathers ("Marists").

Life

The then 31-year-old belonged to the sixth group of Marist missionaries who left London on November 16, 1841 for New Zealand. The group had a stopover in Wellington between April 16 and 11, 1842 and arrived in the Bay of Islands on May 4 .

After a first stay in Kororareka (now Russell ), in which the Church Missionary Society operated a mission station, he was sent to Opotiki to learn the Māori language . Later Carl Sylvius Völkner was head of the mission station there. Reignier baptized Kereopa Te Rau in the 1840s , later a "prophet" of the Māori religion Pai Marire and involved in the murder of Völkner.

In July 1843, he began rebuilding the Maketu Mission . At the end of the year he moved to Ohinemutu ( Rotorua ). On July 11, 1851, he arrived in Wellington. In September of the same year he was sent to Pakowhai on Hawke Bay to replace Jean Lampila .

In 1856 Reignier bought property near Meeanee for the Society of Mary . From 1857 the mission station was moved to the new location. On February 28, 1858 Reignier moved here. The Marist brothers Basil and John accompanied him. The Pakowhai Mission home was dismantled and taken to Meeanee to serve as a home and first church.

In November 1862 a new church was put out to tender for the growing congregation. This was consecrated as St Mary of the Assumption in December 1863 by Bishop Philip Viard of Wellington .

Reignier traveled through the Hawkes Bay area, occasionally to Gisborne and Taupo . He served as a priest to both the settlers and the Māori.

In 1867 he founded a school that continued as St Joseph's Maori Girls' College after the mission station moved to Greenmeadows in 1910 . In 1872 he founded another school, which was supposed to be the counterpart as a boys' school, but which developed into a co-educational institution.

He recognized the potential of the nun and later founder of the order, Suzanne Aubert , who worked in Meeanee from 1871 to 1883. The process for her canonization has been ongoing since 2010 .

Reignier died in Meeanee on October 28, 1888, at the age of 77. He is buried in the Taradale cemetery. His grave monument was funded by a public fundraising campaign.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g Euloge Reignier . Marist Studies , January 4, 2010, accessed April 1, 2018 .
  2. ^ Biographical Notes . Marist Studies , December 5, 2012, accessed April 1, 2018 .
  3. ↑ a b c Doreen Keogh : History of The Old Church . The Old Church Restaurant , accessed April 9, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Reignier, owloge
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French Roman Catholic priest and missionary in New Zealand
DATE OF BIRTH 1810 or 1811
DATE OF DEATH October 28, 1888
Place of death Meeanee