Today April 28

Today is the feast of St. Peter Mary Chanel, (1803-1841), one of the patrons of Oceania. He was for jealousy killed by the king of the island of Fortuna in the New Hebrides when the king found out that his son had been converted to Christianity by this Marist missionary. Up to that point he had been treated with friendship and welcome by the natives. Much of that was due, it must be noted, to Peter's natural gift with the sick, which he had cultivated in his little parish in Crozet, France, in which he showed great gifts of healing. But after the business with the prince, a band of the king's warriors set upon him with a club and machetes and hacked him to death. His blood proved indeed the seed of the faith for within a year's time the whole island was Christian. His feat is celebrated in the all dioceses of Australia and New Zealand.