Oceania Marist Province Archives Series (OMPA) : [395]

The Oceania Marist Province Archives Series (OMPA) is the result of a special project during which records of the Catholic Church in islands of the Western Pacific were copied onto 396 reels of microfilm (noting that reels 75-79 were not used). The project was carried out by the Oceania Marist Province Archives, under the direction of Father Theo B. Cook, SM, and the microfilms were distributed by the Pacific Manuscripts Bureau. Individual indexes were prepared for each of the six dioceses and for material copied in Rome. These were prepared by the Pacific Manuscripts Bureau from material supplied by Father Cook and published collectively as The Catholic Church in the Western Pacific: a guide to records on microfilm, (Robert Langdon, ed.), Canberra, 1986.

The Marist Order (Society of Mary) which was canonically approved in April 1836 after the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith in Rome had sought means of evangelising the western half of the Pacific. The eastern half had been entrusted to the Sacred Heart (Picpus) Order in 1833. The Marists, originally an informal grouping of diocesan priests, accepted the task in the Western Pacific provided they were recognised as an independent religious order.

The first Marists sailed for the Pacific in December 1836 under the leadership of Bishop Jean-Baptiste Pompallier. The Bishop established his headquarters in New Zealand while some of his missionaries were left on the islands of Wallis and Futuna. However, the huge vicariate under Pompallier's care soon proved too large to be practicable and in 1842 part of it was carved off to form the Vicariate of Central Oceania. This new vicariate comprised the islands of Wallis, Futuna, New Caledonia, New Hebrides, Samoa, Tokelau, Fiji, Rotuma, Niue and the Gilbert Islands. A few years later, before any Marist missionaries had set foot there, the Gilbert Islands were made part of a new vicariate of Micronesia. The records described in this catalogue cover the islands embraced by the Vicariate of Central Oceania excluding the Gilbert Islands, plus the North and South Solomons which were reinstated as Marist responsibilities in 1897-98.

This project was a collaboration between The Australian National University and The Pacific Manuscripts Bureau. Detailed inventories are available at https://pambu.anu.edu.au/collections-0 All enquiries should be forwarded to pambu@anu.edu.au