François d'Assise Caret, SS.CC., (born François Toussaint Caret; 4 July 1802 – 26 October 1844) was a French

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 layman's terms ''priest'' refers only ...

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 Roman Catholic clerical religious congregation of Pontifical Right for men priests and brothers. The congregation is also known as the Picpus because their firs ...

, a religious institute of the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

Life

François d'Assise Caret was born 4 July 1802 in Miniac-sous-Bécherel (

Ille-et-Vilaine Ille-et-Vilaine (; br, Il-ha-Gwilen) is a department of France, located in the region of Brittany in the northwest of the country. It is named after the two rivers of the Ille and the Vilaine. It had a population of 1,079,498 in 2019.

). He was already a priest by 1829, when he became a professed member of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary. In February 1834, he sailed from Bordeaux for Valparaiso with Father

Honoré Laval Honoré Laval, SS.CC., (born ''Louis-Jacques Laval''; 5/6 February 1808 – 1 November 1880) was a French Catholic priest of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary (also known as the Picpus Fathers), a religious institute of the ...

. Advised by one Captain Mauruc that Protestant missionaries had not yet reached the Gambier archipelago, they took passage on the ''Peruvian'', out of Boston, and arrived 8 August on Akamaru, where they found a representatives of 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 in outlook, with Congregational m ...

already established. Caret and Laval established a thriving mission and planned to expand their work to Tahiti. Lal, Brij V. and Fortune, Kate. "Honoré Laval", ''The Pacific Islands: An Encyclopedia'', Vol. 1, University of Hawaii Press, 2000
They arrived in the

Kingdom of Tahiti The Kingdom of Tahiti was a 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, and Mehetia. The kingdom eventually ...

in February 1836, where the American consul, Moerenhout provided them shelter. Born in Belgium, Moerenhout worked for a time in Valaparaiso for the Dutch consul, before taking ship for Tahiti as supercargo with the additional title of French consul. He arrived there in 1829 and made a fortune selling contraband run, gin, and brandy which 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 ...

had banned on the advice of British missionary George Pritchard. On his way back to France in 1834, Moerenhout stopped in Boston, and subsequently returned to Tahiti with the title Consul of the United States. The British considered him a secret agent for King

Louis Philippe I Louis Philippe (6 October 1773 – 26 August 1850) was King of the French from 1830 to 1848, and the penultimate monarch of France. As Louis Philippe, Duke of Chartres, he distinguished himself commanding troops during the Revolutionary Wa ...

and the Jesuits.Scott, L., "French Aggressions in the Pacific", ''The Foreign Quarterly Review'', Vol. 34, 1844
/ref> Although received courteously, by the Protestant Queen Pōmare IV, they were subsequently expelled on the advice of Pritchard. On 12 November the two missionaries and a civilian carpenter who had accompanied them, were forcibly deported. The French Foreign Office regarded this as an "unjustified violent act".
/ref> The three returned to the Gambiers. George Pritchard was appointed British Consul for Tahiti in 1837. That same year Caret returned to France in search of additional resources. On 30 May 1838, he embarked on the ''Zelima'' out of Bordeaux with four other priests, two catechists, and a shipment of clothes provided by the ladies of France. He left Valparaiso aboard ''The Eagle'', and arrived in Akamaru on 20 December. Caret and Bishop Rouchouze arrive in the Marquesas on 3 February 1839, but their efforts there met with little success. In 1840, Caret was appointed to succeed

Chrysostome Liausu Chrysostome Liausu, SS.CC., (born Charles-Auguste Liausu; 17 March 1807 – 5 September 1839) was a French Catholic priest of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, a religious institute of the Roman Catholic Church. He helped ...

as Prefect Apostolic of Southern Oceania. In December 1841, Caret was in Papeete, Tahiti, where he contracted smallpox during an epidemic. Efforts to establish a mission in Tahiti were hampered by the government, but by autumn 1842 Caret built a house out of dried brick, which

Herman Melville Herman Melville ( born Melvill; August 1, 1819 – September 28, 1891) was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the American Renaissance period. Among his best-known works are ''Moby-Dick'' (1851); ''Typee'' (1846), a rom ...

visited that same year. The house burned down on the evening of 30 June 1844. Caret was convinced the cause was arson. The small nearby chapel was also consumed, as well as manuscripts of all the work done on the language of Tahiti and the Marquesas, including a catechism, prayers and a Tahitian language dictionary. Karl Rensch points outs the language difficulties. When Caret sought to explain the Trinity, saying that there is one God; (but) there are three persons in God, he said, "''E atua ko tahi noti - E tora mea atua''". The people understood this as "There is one (Great) God - there are three small gods." As they took this as a reference to the three archangels, it did not apparently hamper their conversion. Caret died of

consumption Consumption may refer to: *Resource consumption *Tuberculosis, an infectious disease, historically * Consumption (ecology), receipt of energy by consuming other organisms * Consumption (economics), the purchasing of newly produced goods for curren ...

at the age of forty-two on 26 October 1844 in

Rikitea Rikitea is a small town on Mangareva, which is part of the Gambier Islands in French Polynesia. A majority of the islanders live in Rikitea. The island was a protectorate of France in 1871 and was annexed in 1881. History The town's history date ...

while making his way back to

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefect ...

. He was buried at the St. Michael's Cathedral in a crypt before the altar.

References

Bibliography

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Caret, Francois 1802 births 1844 deaths Breton Roman Catholic priests French Roman Catholic missionaries People from the Gambier Islands People from the Marquesas Islands People from Tahiti French Polynesian Roman Catholics Roman Catholic missionaries in French Polynesia Picpus Fathers People from Ille-et-Vilaine 19th-century French Roman Catholic priests 19th-century deaths from tuberculosis Tuberculosis deaths in France