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Rev Jean Breheret SM

Title:

Rev

First Name:

Jean

Middle Names:

Baptiste

Preferred Name:

Surname:

Breheret

Order:

SM

Date of Birth:

14-Jun-1815

Place of Birth:

Maine-et-Loire

Country of Birth:

France

Date of Ordination:

Place of Ordination:

Country of Ordination:

Ordination Diocese:

Seminary:

Date of Death:

12-Aug-1898

Place of Death:

Country of Death:

Fiji

Date of Burial:

1898

Place of Burial:

Country of Burial:

Fiji

Find A Grave URL:


Appointments Table

Diocese
Place
Role
Start Day
Start Month
Start Year
End Day
End Month
End Year
Source
Sydney SydneyVisitor? 1860sLinane Vol 1
Items per page:
0 of 0


Biographical Notes

Fr T.J. Linane, From Abel to Zundolovich, Vol. 1, 1979, p 32:

Breheret, Jean Baptiste, SM, Very Rev., French, Visitor, Golden Jubilarian
Combination of a Jolly Good Sailor and a First Class Tailor

We could add to the caption - a zealous priest who believed in following an early rising routine and constant prayer. Space precludes a description of one of the most versatile men on this list. Anyhow his character and exploits can be learned from a rare book written by Fr. Bernard Hosie SM: 'More Savage than Tigers'. Just the essential life details are here recorded. b. La Vendee 1815; ord. '42. Served briefly on Wallis Is., and in '44 went to Fiji to stay for 54 years, the only break being a missionising spell in Syd. with Father Monnier in the '60's. Known as 'The Sea Captain' he built his own boat, 'Vola Siga' (Star of the Morning) to bring supplies to the 250 islands that formed part of the whole Fiji Mission. Cook, ship-builder, maker of sails, 'Jack of all trades'. No wonder a fellow Marist, Fr. Charles Mathieu, could claim: "He is the most extraordinary man who has appeared under the skies in Oceania". Responsible as well for new missions, new churches, new purchases of land, thus paving the way for an expansion in a region that had long been hostile to the Catholic Faith. He died on 12.8.1898 at the age of 83.
(Footprints, Vol. 1, No. 7)
Ref.: Fr. Bernard Hosie SM: 'More Savage than Tigers'.

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Fr. Michael Fitzgerald, SM and Fr. François Grossin, SM, Alive in Memory: A Biographic Necrology of Oceania Marist Province 1836-2011, 4th edition, Suva, 2011, pp 173, 294:

Fr. Jean-Baptiste Bréhéret, d. 1898
Pioneer - Fiji Mission
Fiji
He was born in Maine-et-Loire, France in 1815, the youngest of a family of five orphans. He was brought up by his elder brother. After studying philosophy he joined the Society being professed in 1842. He left Europe the following year on the same ship with Bishop Douarre and Blaise Marmoiton, at the age of 28. After a few months on Wallis, he was in the first Marist community posted to Fiji. He never left it for the next 54 years. His first mission at Lakeba was a difficult one, as the Methodists had been there first. Still, he developed there the first small Catholic community. Although he came from a farming area in France, he made his own boat, sewed his own sails, and spent much of the rest of his life on the sea. He became known as Captain Bréhéret. In 1863 he was appointed Prefect Apostolic for Fiji. Until the day of his death he rose every morning at 3.30 a.m. for Mass and prayers before a full day's work. He died there aged 83.

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