POMPALLIER, JEAN BAPTISTE FRANCOIS (1801-71) was born in Lyons, France, on 11 Dec 1801, the son of Peter Pompallier, a landowner and member of the lesser nobility. He was educated for the priesthood at the Seminary of Lyons, receiving the tonsure in 1827 and being ordained a priest two years later. He was appointed parish priest of St Madeline de Tarare, and in 1832 chaplain to the school of La Favorite, Lyons. While there he undertook the establishment and direction of the Third Order of Mary, but his rule had to be considerably modified as 'demanding too much of people living in the world.' It was Father Cholleton, Vicar-general of Lyons, who recommended Pompallier to the Apostolic administrator for the office of first vicar-apostolic of Western Oceania, to which he was appointed by a papal brief of Gregory XVI in 1836. He was consecrated as titular Bishop of Maronee in Rome on 30 Jun 1836. On Christmas Eve he sailed from Havre in the Delphine with four priests and three catechists (nearly all Marists, who were the nucleus of a special congregation approved by papal brief of 29 Apr 1836 and entrusted with the new vicariate). After an eventful voyage, in which one of the priests died, the ship lost her rudder and the water ran short, they reached Valparaiso. Two months later they sailed in the American ship Europa for Tahiti, calling at Gambier island. The first fruits of the mission was the baptism at Tahiti of the New Zealand-born child of a sailor. Chartering the schooner Raiatea, Pompallier then proceeded to Tonga, where he found the Protestants established. The first Catholic mission was established on Wallis island, with Fathers Bataillon and Luzy. Two others were set down at Futuna, and, declining an invitation to station a priest at Rotuma, Pompallier arrived at Sydney on 9 Dec 1837. Setting sail again, the schooner reached Hokianga harbour on 10 Jan 1838.

The vicar apostolic was received by Thomas Poynton (q.v.) and other Irish Catholics; and on 13 Jan celebrated what was probably the first Mass in New Zealand. Pompallier took up his residence in a house placed at his disposal by Poynton and, sending the schooner back to her owner in Tahiti, devoted himself to studying the Maori and English languages, both essential in the prosecution of a mission which embraced so many islands in which English was the most common foreign tongue. He had intended establishing missions only in countries where Christianity had not already been introduced; and was not prepared to find so many Protestant missions within a short distance of Hokianga. His first success was with the Wirinaki tribe, on the Hokianga river. The tense relations existing between Britain and France at the time and the hostility of the majority of the British settlers made the position of the French mission precarious. The arrival of French warships served to heighten the impression that the mission had a political significance. The corvette Héroine, which spent some days in the Bay of Islands, offered every hospitality and deference to the vicar, thus greatly strengthening the position of the new mission. The new residence at Papakauwau, Hokianga, having been completed by Jun 1838, Pompallier celebrated Mass and for the first time preached in Maori. Having no printing press, he laboriously wrote out short instructions on the faith and morning and evening prayers for use in the widely scattered villages. For seventeen months after his arrival in New Zealand Pompallier received neither reinforcements nor funds from France, and was unable to pay visits to the stations he had established in the Pacific. In Oct 1838 he paid a fruitful visit to the tribe at Mangakahia, on the Kaipara.

In Jun 1839 three priests and three catechists of the Society arrived in the schooner Reine de Paix, 40 tons, which had been purchased for the mission but had already proved to be unsuitable for the work. Money which he received on this occasion enabled Pompallier to buy a house at Kororareka to establish the headquarters of the vicariate. Here also a printing press was set up. Having made a short voyage to Mangonui and Whangaroa in the Reine de Paix, Pompallier was convinced of her unsuitability and sold her. In Jun 1839 a mission was established under Father Epalle at Whangaroa. In Dec 1839 another reinforcement of four priests (including Father Viard, q.v.) and one catechist arrived, which enabled him to strengthen the stations in the Pacific. On the arrival of Hobson to treat with the natives for the cession of sovereignty Pompallier paid his respects to the prospective Governor and attended the meeting of chiefs at Waitangi at which the Treaty was discussed. In view of the hostility to French and Catholic interests he intervened before the meeting closed to ask for an official assurance that the Catholic religion would have the same protection and freedom in New Zealand as all others. Hobson complied immediately. In Feb Pompallier extended his work to Tauranga, Opotiki and Whakatane, visiting also Coromandel, Hauraki, Matamata and Waikato. The arrival of further help in the frigate Aube (Jul 1840) enabled the bishop to purchase the topsail schooner Atlas, which he rechristened the Sancta Maria and first employed in a comprehensive cruise of the South Island, establishing Father Comte at Akaroa and making preliminary arrangements for the settlement of a priest at Port Nicholson in 1842. He returned to Bay of Islands by the East Coast in Mar 1841 after an absence of six months. In Jun a new reinforcement arrived and he commenced another visitation of the New Zealand missions. At Auckland, now the capital with 3,000 inhabitants, he was well received by Hobson, who granted him a site for church and cemetery. On this journey Pompallier visited coastal stations and penetrated inland as far as Rotorua and Matamata.

At Akaroa he heard from the corvettes Allier and Héroine of the martyrdom at Futuna (Apr 1841) of Father Pierre Chanel, who made the first Marist profession (24 Sep 1836). This distressing news made him anxious to visit at once the isolated missions in the Pacific, but it was not until Nov that he was able to sail in the Allier, his schooner in company. Finding the mission at Wallis in difficulties owing to the opposition of the chief, he stayed there for some months while the Allier proceeded to Futuna and received the remains of the murdered priest. Pompallier meanwhile baptised practically all of the Wallis islanders and, having received fresh supplies from New Zealand, went on to Futuna, where the catechist Sam was elected chief. Successful visits were paid to Fiji and Tonga, and the Bishop reached Kororareka in Aug 1842. The Sancta Maria was now sold and a schooner hired for the next visitation of New Zealand stations. In the course of his next tour Pompallier travelled overland to Rotorua, Waikato and Mokau. He directed the whole of the Pacific missions until 1843, when other bishops were created to share the burden. By that time it was claimed that 164 tribes in New Zealand, comprising 45,000 catechumens and 1,000 neophytes, had embraced the Catholic religion.

In 1846 Viard (q.v.) was consecrated in Sydney as his coadjutor and the Bishop left on his first ad limina visit to Rome. In 1850 he returned with French and Irish priests and a party of Sisters of Mercy from Carlow. In that year the see was divided into two bishoprics, Pompallier being made Bishop of Auckland, with the special charge of the northern portion of New Zealand, and Viard being made Bishop of Wellington, including the southern portion. Again in 1858 he visited Rome, returning early in 1860 with a new reinforcement of priests for work amongst both races. During the Maori wars many Irish soldiers served in New Zealand, and assisted in the building of churches where they were stationed.

Pompallier retired in 1868 and returned to France in the following year, taking up his residence in the village of Puteaux, in the suburbs of Paris. At the Vatican Council in 1870 he voluntarily took the place of the Archbishop of Paris and others in administering the sacraments, and he was honoured by being made titular Archbishop of Amasia. He was appointed canon of the Church of St Denis. Throughout the siege of Paris by the German armies he suffered much anguish and privation. He died on 21 Dec 1871. Pompallier's life was one of sanctity and missionary zeal. 'If he had a fault it was that he was over-zealous. It may be that he endeavoured to do too much in too short a time. He exchanged the ordered routine of parish and college life for the perils and sufferings of an apostle . . . with a grateful heart.'

Pompallier, Early History of the Catholic Church, 1888; Scholefield, Hobson; Larousse Illustré; Kennedy, New Zealand; Buick, Waitangi; New Zealand Catholic Centenary (programme and souvenir), 1937; Annales de la Propagation de la Foi; Southern Cross, 18 Feb 1868; 7 Dec 1868.

Reference: Volume 2, page 92

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