Honoré Laval, SS.CC., (born ''Louis-Jacques Laval''; 5/6 February 1808 – 1 November 1880) was a

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

Catholic priest The priesthood is the office of the ministers of religion, who have been commissioned ("ordained") with the holy orders of the Catholic Church. Technically, bishops are a priestly order as well; however, in common English usage ''priest'' refe ...

of the

Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary The Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary () abbreviated SS.CC., is a Catholic clerical religious congregation of Pontifical Right for priests and brothers. The congregation is also known as the Picpus because their first house w ...

(also known as the Picpus Fathers), a

religious institute In the Catholic Church, a religious institute is "a society in which members, according to proper law, pronounce public religious vows, vows, either perpetual or temporary which are to be renewed, however, when the period of time has elapsed, a ...

of the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

, who evangelized the

Gambier Islands The Gambier Islands ( or ) are an archipelago in French Polynesia, located at the southeast terminus of the Tuamotu archipelago. They cover an area of , and are made up of the Mangareva Islands, a group of high islands remnants of a caldera alo ...

Life

Louis-Jacques Laval was born 6 January 6, 1807, in the small hamlet of Joimpy, Saint-Léger-des-Aubées in

Eure-et-Loir Eure-et-Loir (, locally: ) is a French department, named after the Eure and Loir rivers. It is located in the region of Centre-Val de Loire. In 2019, Eure-et-Loir had a population of 431,575.Mark, André. "La mission aux Îles Gambier"
/ref>

The Gambier Islands

Accompanied by Fathers

François Caret François d'Assise Caret, SS.CC., (born François Toussaint Caret; 4 July 1802 – 26 October 1844) was a French Catholic priest of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, a religious institute of the Roman Catholic Church. Life ...

, Chrysostome Liausu, and Brother Columba Murphy, he travelled by coach from Paris via Tours and Poitiers to Bordeaux, where they boarded the ''Sylphide'', which sailed on 1 February 1834 for

Valparaíso Valparaíso () is a major city, Communes of Chile, commune, Port, seaport, and naval base facility in the Valparaíso Region of Chile. Valparaíso was originally named after Valparaíso de Arriba, in Castilla–La Mancha, Castile-La Mancha, Spain ...

, arriving on 13 May. Taking passage on Captain Sweetwood's ship, the ''Peruvian'', out of Boston, Caret and Laval arrived 8 August on Akamaru in the Gambier Islands. From the 10th to the 15th centuries, the Gambiers hosted a population of several thousand people and traded with other island groups including the Marquesas, the Society Islands and Pitcairn Islands. However, excessive logging by the islanders resulted in almost complete deforestation on Mangareva, with disastrous results for the islands' environment and economy. The folklore of the islands records a slide into civil war and even cannibalism as trade links with the outside world broke down, and archaeological studies have confirmed this tragic story. When Laval and Caret arrived the population of the Gambiers was estimated at 800 to 1,000.Wiltgen, Ralph M., "The Picpus Missionaries Reach the Gambier Islands", ''The Founding of the Roman Catholic Church in Oceania, 1825 to 1850'', Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2010
Karl Rensch says they counted 2,124 souls.Rencsh, Karl. "Early European Influence on the languages of Polynesia: The Gambier Islands", ''Language Contact and Change in the Austronesian World'', (Tom Dutton and Darrell T. Tryon, eds.), p. 484, Walter de Gruyter, 1994
The Gambiers were fairly isolated. Captain Arnaud Mauruc advised the Apostolic Prefect of Southern Oceania, Chrysostome Liausu, that ships only sailed there every five or seven years for pearl fishing as the area had no other commercial value. Liausu remained in Valparaiso to maintain communications between the scattered missions and the Congregation in France. He died there in September 1839, having contracted typhus. In August 1834 Caret and Laval arrived on Akamaru and found shelter with a French fisherman. King Maputeoa's uncle, Matua, helped them learn the Mangareva language. Maputeoa himself was converted and baptized in August 1836, perhaps under a suspicion that his uncle may have been planning to usurp the throne. Maputeoa took the name "Gregory" in honor of the Pope at that time. Lal, Brij V. and Fortune, Kate. "Honoré Laval", ''The Pacific Islands: An Encyclopedia'', Vol. 1, University of Hawaii Press, 2000
The mission thrived. The

marae A ' (in Māori language, New Zealand Māori, Cook Islands Māori, Tahitian language, Tahitian), ' (in Tongan language, Tongan), ' (in Marquesan language, Marquesan) or ' (in Samoan language, Samoan) is a communal or sacred place that serves reli ...

s, (sacred places) were destroyed and shrines erected in the sites. The largely unclothed people were given clothing and cloth. On Caret's return from Europe in December 1838 2,157 items of clothing donated by the ladies of France were distributed. The

London Missionary Society The London Missionary Society was an interdenominational evangelical missionary society formed in England in 1795 at the instigation of Welsh Congregationalist minister Edward Williams. It was largely Reformed tradition, Reformed in outlook, with ...

, which had been based in Tahiti for thirty years, had established schools in the Gambiers, but subsequently withdrew from the Gambiers in early 1835. Bishop

Étienne Jérôme Rouchouze Étienne, a French analog of Stephen or Steven, is a masculine given name. An archaic variant of the name, prevalent up to the mid-17th century, is Estienne. Étienne, Etienne, Ettiene or Ettienne may refer to: People Artists and entertainers * ...

, Laval's immediate superior, arrived in the Gambiers in May 1835, with two lay brothers, Brother Gilbert Soulié and Fabien Costes; a lay missionary, and two priests who were also medical doctors. During an epidemic that year Father Cyprien Liausu set up a hospital in a former temple at Rikitea. Lay brothers Costes and Soulie trained the local people in the building trades. They gained experience in the construction of chapels and houses. Together they built St. Michael's Cathedral, Rikitea. In 1856 Soulie and sixty workers travelled to Tahiti to work on

Notre Dame Cathedral Notre-Dame de Paris ( ; meaning "Cathedral of Our Lady of Paris"), often referred to simply as Notre-Dame, is a medieval Catholic cathedral on the Île de la Cité (an island in the River Seine), in the 4th arrondissement of Paris, France. It ...

Papeete Papeete (Tahitian language, Tahitian: ''Papeʻetē'', pronounced ; old name: ''Vaiʻetē''Personal communication with Michael Koch in ) is the capital city of French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of the France, French Republic in the Pacific ...

. Ten years later, skilled Mangareva workers constructed the beacon at Point Venus in Tahiti.Hodeé, Paul. "Catholic Influence in the Islands", ''Tahiti 1834-1984''
/ref> Caret and Laval hoped to expand their work to Tahiti, where they arrived in the

Kingdom of Tahiti The Kingdom of Tahiti or the Tahitian Kingdom was a Polynesian monarchy founded by paramount chief Pōmare I, who, with the aid of British missionaries and traders, and European weaponry, unified the islands of Tahiti, Moʻorea, Teti‘aroa, ...

in February 1836. They found a place to stay in a house on the property of the American consul M. Moerenhout, a Belgian by birth, whom the British considered to be in the pay of King

Louis Philippe I Louis Philippe I (6 October 1773 – 26 August 1850), nicknamed the Citizen King, was King of the French from 1830 to 1848, the penultimate monarch of France, and the last French monarch to bear the title "King". He abdicated from his throne ...

of France. Although the priests were received courteously at court, they were expelled by the Protestant queen

Pōmare IV Pōmare IV (28 February 1813 – 17 September 1877), more properly ʻAimata Pōmare IV Vahine-o-Punuateraʻitua (otherwise known as ʻAimata – "eye-eater", after an old custom of the ruler to eat the eye of the defeated foe), was the Queen of ...

on advice of British missionary (and soon to be consul) George Pritchard. Also expelled was a civilian French carpenter, named Vincent, who had accompanied the priests from Gambiers. These expulsions are the origin of the French intervention in Polynesia. As a result, in 1838 France sent Admiral

Abel Aubert du Petit-Thouars __NOTOC__ Abel Aubert du Petit-Thouars (3 August 1793 – 16 March 1864) was a French naval officer important in France's annexation of French Polynesia. Early life He was born at the castle of La Fessardière, near Saumur. His uncle Aristide Aub ...

to get reparation. Shortly before the Admiral's arrival, Madame Moerenhout was murdered during a robbery, which the French believed was instigated by the British.Scott, L., "French Aggressions in the Pacific", ''The Foreign Quarterly Review'', Vol. 34, 1844
/ref> Once his mission had been completed, Admiral DupetitThouars sailed towards the Marquesas Islands, which he annexed in 1842. Caret and Laval then returned to the Gambiers. Caret returned to France in 1837 in search of additional resources; Bishop Rouchouze left for Europe in 1841. On his return in 1843, Rouchouze, 7 priests, seven lay brothers and 10 religious perished when their ship, the ''Marie-Joseph'' was lost at sea near the Falklands. Cyprien Liausu became superior of the mission of Our Lady of Peace in the Gambiers, where he remained until 1855. In 1848, Bishop Jaussen, sent Laval to the

Tuamotu Archipelago The Tuamotu Archipelago or the Tuamotu Islands (, officially ) are a French Polynesian chain of just under 80 islands and atolls in the southern Pacific Ocean. They constitute the largest chain of atolls in the world, extending (from northwest to ...

, where he remained for three years. He returned to the Gambiers in 1851.

Political conflicts

Blackbirders

King Maputeoa died in 1857, and Queen Maria Eutokia became regent on behalf of her ten-year-old son

Joseph Gregorio II Joseph Gregorio II (; born 26 April 1847 – 21 November 1868) was the last List of monarchs of Mangareva, King or ''ʻAkariki'' (paramount chief) of the island of Mangareva, and other Gambier Islands including Akamaru Island, Akamaru, Aukena, T ...

. Slave ships began to appear starting in 1862. In a practice known as

blackbirding Blackbirding was the trade in indentured labourers from the Pacific in the 19th and early 20th centuries. It is often described as a form of slavery, despite the British Slavery Abolition Act 1833 banning slavery throughout the British Empire, ...

, Peruvian and Chilean ships combed the smaller islands of

Polynesia Polynesia ( , ) is a subregion of Oceania, made up of more than 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean. The indigenous people who inhabit the islands of Polynesia are called Polynesians. They have many things in ...

seeking workers to fill the extreme labour shortage in Peru. The ''Serpiente Marina'' out of

Lima Lima ( ; ), founded in 1535 as the Ciudad de los Reyes (, Spanish for "City of Biblical Magi, Kings"), is the capital and largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón River, Chillón, Rímac River, Rímac and Lurín Rive ...

, anchored off Mangareva Island on 28 October, ostensibly on a scientific voyage. When local beachcomber-trader Jacques Guilloux went aboard and notice certain peculiarities such as iron grilles on the hatches and concealed daggers on the Captain and supercargo, he told Father Laval that he thought the ship was a slaver, and Laval advised the Queen. When the captain and two others paid a visit to the Queen, she had them arrested. Fearing repercussions from the French authorities in Tahiti, Laval had them released and ordered them to leave the Gambiers. Captain Martinez advised Laval that he intended to file a formal complaint against Guillous, Laval, and the Queen with the French authorities in Peru. Nonetheless, the exodus of young men on transient ships further reduced the population.

Pearl traders

Traders were also attracted to the islands in search of mother of pearl. By 1838 they are complaining that with the presence of the missionaries, they are no longer able to exchange useless items for pearls. As the missionaries made the people aware of the value of their

nacre Nacre ( , ), also known as mother-of-pearl, is an organicinorganic composite material produced by some molluscs as an inner shell layer. It is also the material of which pearls are composed. It is strong, resilient, and iridescent. Nacre is ...

, the Mangarevans monitored more closely the operations in their lagoon. Increased contact with the outside brought exposure to infectious disease. The islands began to be slowly depopulated by pulmonary illnesses, smallpox, and dysentery.Scarr, Deryck. ''A History of the Pacific Islands'', Routledge, 2013
An 1871 census by a French army doctor listed the population as 936.

Pignon-Dupuy incident

A conflict arose between a French businessman, Jean Pignon, and the Mangareva local court. Pignon, a former sailor, moved to Mangareva to trade in nacre. His nephew, Jean Dupuy, joined him in 1858. Dupuy refused to sign the recognition of local laws, and was subsequently convicted of adultery and theft. Sentenced to fifteen months, he served two and returned to Valparaiso. Pignon, who was heavily in debt in Tahiti, began to have difficulties with his landlord in Mangareva. The Mangareva Joint Council authorized the landlord to evict Pignon, and after re-locating his goods, demolish his hut. Pignon complained to M. Roncière, Governor in Tahiti since 1864, who imposed a fine of 160,000 francs on the Regent Maria-Eutokia Toaputeitou, for having ruined Pignon by expropriating and demolishing the hut. The governor then installed the anti-clerical Caillet and twenty soldiers in the Gambiers to collect the fine. Garrett describes the conflict between Laval and the French troops as "a duel between barracks behavior and conventual customs". Governor Roncière told Laval, "Your population is too religious; your people are stupid." The dispute became an excuse to enhance French power in the archipelago and limit the influence of Laval and the mission. Peace was restored when, at the suggestion of Admiral Rigault de Genouilly, Bishop

Florentin-Étienne Jaussen Florentin-Étienne Jaussen, SS.CC., (2 April 1815 – 9 September 1891) was the first Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Papeete, bishop of Tahiti and the man who brought the rongorongo script of Easter Island to the world's attention. In the 1860s ...

, Apostolic Vicar of Tahiti offered to pay the fine on condition that the soldiers be withdrawn. Jaussen negotiated the amount with Roncière, who agreed to accept 4,300 francs, which "curiously corresponded exactly to the amount that Pignon owed creditors Daniel Guilloux and Augustin Rapamoa.

The Protectorate

As early as 1842 Laval protested French occupation of the Marquesas. As Queen Maria Eutokia's chief advisor, he fought to preserve Mangarevan autonomy against colonists. In early 1870,

Arone Teikatoara Arone Teikatoara (died 30 October 1881) was the penultimate Prince Regent of the island of Mangareva, and other Gambier Islands including Akamaru, Aukena, Taravai and Temoe from 1869 to 1873. He served as regent and de facto monarch during the ...

, the penultimate Prince Regent of Mangareva, asks the French government to end the protectorate, (which, due to a change in policy, had never received formal approval by the French government). The government attributed the request to the influence of Laval, who was viewed as "isolated from the world for thirty-six years and carried away by exaggerated religious ideas". French officials sought his removal. Following the visit of the Commander-Motte Rouge in February 1871 and upon the intervention of Admiral Lapelin, in March 1871, in order to appease Paris and "still this storm", Bishop Jaussen transferred Laval to

, Tahiti and named him his pro-vicar, later making him Vice Provincial.

Final years and death

Around the 1870s, Laval collobrated with Father Tiripone Mama Taira Putairi, the first indigenous Mangarevan ordained a Catholic priest, to write a traditional history of Mangareva. The work titled ''E atoga no te ao eteni no Magareva'' (An Account of the Heathen Times of Mangareva) was deposited in the archives at the Congregation of the Sacred Heart at

Braine-le-Comte Braine-le-Comte (; ; ) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. On January 1, 2018, Braine-le-Comte had a total population of 21,649. The total area is which gives a population density of 260 inhabi ...

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

. Laval returned to the Gambier Islands, in July 1876, for one last time during a jubilee. His visit was the occasion of a great demonstration of esteem and gratitude. His last years were rather lonely, isolated by increasing deafness. "I can no longer preach, hear confessions anymore, nor enjoy the conversation of others." Father Honoré Laval died on 1 November 1880, and his body rests in the cemetery of the Catholic mission in Papeete.

Character

Laval did not have the diplomacy of Bishop Florentin-Étienne Jaussen. Fr. Caret found him too "impatient" in their tour of Tahiti in 1836. Fr. Liausu regretted he seemed too severe. Laval was both paternalistic and very strict towards his flock, but equally zealous to protect them from exploitation, both economic and physical, on the part of the traders and sailors who came to frequent the area. A company could lose its contract for pearl-shell if a captain sailed off with a woman without first marrying her. According to John Garrett, "Laval incarnated the role of guardian, loved by many of the faithful, loathed by his irate opponents."Garrett, John. ''To Live Among the Stars: Christian Origins in Oceania'', World Council of Churches

Legacy

Laval lived in the Gambier Islands for almost forty years and compiled a detailed account of the indigenous peoples, including a grammar of the Mangarevan language, written between 1844 and 1846. He also recorded a local process for determining the solstice. "His grammar, dictionary, and description of Mangareva's pre-Christian culture reveal a classically trained observer affectionately at work." Laval is recognized as a noted ethnologist for his work in recording the Mangarevan customs and practices. However, at the same time he was documenting their culture the missionaries were drastically changing it. The Picpus priests not only introduced a new religion, but European crops, and trained the people in new trades such as carpentry, masonry, and weaving. The first use of the name of

Rapa Nui Easter Island (, ; , ) is an island and special territory of Chile in the southeastern Pacific Ocean, at the southeasternmost point of the Polynesian Triangle in Oceania. The island is renowned for its nearly 1,000 extant monumental statues, ...

is in an 1863 letter of Father Laval. Laval's life was fictionalized in the 1948 novel ''The Witch of Manga Reva'' by Garland Roark.

Works

* ''Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire de Mangareva, ère chrétienne, 1834-1871'' * ''Mangareva : l'histoire ancienne d'un peuple polynésien'' * ''Essai de grammaire Mangarevienne''

Controversy

In 1870 an article was published in the ''Pall Mall Gazette'' severely criticizing Laval and his fellow priests working in the Gambiers and Tahiti. The story was picked up by other papers, including the ''Wellington Independent'', which on 10 May 1870 ran a story under the title ''Theocracy in the Pacific''. The original account was apparently based on an 1869 pamphlet written by a French former judge in Tahiti, one M. Louis Jacolliot, in defense of the former Governor Count de la Ronciere, who had been accused of abuse of his authority. The pamphlet "La verité sur Tahiti" (The Truth about Tahiti), accused Laval, among other things, of being a poisoner and a murderer."Father Honore Laval and His Fellow-Laborers in the Pacific", ''Wellington Independent'', Volume XXVII, Issue 3692, 31 December 1872, p. 3
/ref> It also apparently made various accusations against Queen Maria Eutokia of Mangareva. On 31 December 1872, the ''Independent'' published a letter referencing a story in the Parisian newspaper ''

Le Figaro () is a French daily morning newspaper founded in 1826. It was named after Figaro, a character in several plays by polymath Pierre Beaumarchais, Beaumarchais (1732–1799): ''Le Barbier de Séville'', ''The Guilty Mother, La Mère coupable'', ...

'' reporting that Laval had taken the matter to the Supreme Court of the State of the Protectorate of the Society Islands. The court found Jacolliot guilty of defamation, and ordered him to pay 15,000 francs in damages. It ordered the suppression of those portions of the pamphlet deemed defamatory, and further ordered that the judgement be printed in the official journal of the Protectorate in French, English, and Tahitian, as well as, in three newspapers of the French colonies, three journals of Paris, and four gazettes of provinces of Laval's choosing. Among the accusations levelled by Jacolliot against Laval were: *that the priests of the Gambiers held a monopoly of the nacre trade and forced the local people to work for them. However, Jean Paul Chopard, in his rebuttal, produced statements from five respected traders who had worked the area for twenty-five years, declaring that they had never observed any of the missionaries engaged in trade.Chopard, Jean Paul. ''Les Iles Gambier et la brochure de M. L. Jacolliot'', Brest,France: J.B. Lefournier Ainé, 1871
/ref> *that anonymous sources had informed him that Laval had poisoned, (among others), the young King Gregorio, although the king had in fact died of phthisis after a long illness. *that the Mangarevans wanted a French warship to come and remove Laval, but Chopard presented a document signed by fifteen residents to the contrary. *that Laval refused to allow shipwrecked Chilean sailors to land, thus forcing them to spend another twenty days at sea in a boat to get to Tahiti. According to Chopard's account, this was Captain W. Clark's ''Gleaner'', which wrecked off Akamaru on the evening of 18 April 1859. The people of the island managed to rescue the crew, passengers, much of their effects, and attempted to right the vessel. Laval offered them the hospitality of the rectory and the sacramental wine for their fatigue. They returned to Tahiti aboard the Queen's schooner ''Marie-Louise''.

Louis Jacolliot

Jacolliot was a French barrister, colonial judge, prolific author and lecturer with an interest in occultism, who lived for several years in

Tahiti Tahiti (; Tahitian language, Tahitian , ; ) is the largest island of the Windward Islands (Society Islands), Windward group of the Society Islands in French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France. It is located in the central part of t ...

and

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

during the period 1865–1869. He believed that the account in the Gospels is a myth based on the mythology of ancient India. His writings on the "Indian roots of western occultism" make reference to an otherwise unknown Sanskrit text he called ''Agrouchada-Parikchai'', which is apparently Jacolliot's personal invention, a "pastiche" of elements taken from

Upanishads The Upanishads (; , , ) are late Vedic and post-Vedic Sanskrit texts that "document the transition from the archaic ritualism of the Veda into new religious ideas and institutions" and the emergence of the central religious concepts of Hind ...

, Dharmashastras and "a bit of

Freemasonry Freemasonry (sometimes spelled Free-Masonry) consists of fraternal groups that trace their origins to the medieval guilds of stonemasons. Freemasonry is the oldest secular fraternity in the world and among the oldest still-existing organizati ...

".Introduction to Occult Science in India by Louis Jacolliot

919 __NOTOC__ Year 919 ( CMXIX) was a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar. Events By Place Byzantine Empire * March 25 – Romanos Lekapenos, admiral (''droungarios'') of the Byzantine navy, seizes the Boukoleon Pal ...

at sacred-texts.com by J. B. Hare, June 21, 2008. Jacolliot also believed in a lost Pacific continent, and was quoted on this by

Madame Blavatsky Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (; – 8 May 1891), often known as Madame Blavatsky, was a Russian-born mystic and writer who emigrated to the United States where she co-founded the Theosophical Society in 1875. She gained an international foll ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Laval, Honore 1807 births 1880 deaths 19th-century French Roman Catholic priests French Roman Catholic missionaries French Polynesian Roman Catholics Roman Catholic missionaries in French Polynesia Picpus Fathers People from Eure-et-Loir People from the Gambier Islands