Octave Marie Terrienne MSC (9 September 1902 – 4 March 1994) was the
Roman Catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
bishop
A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...
of the apostolic vicariate of the
Gilbert Islands
The Gilbert Islands (;Reilly Ridgell. ''Pacific Nations and Territories: The Islands of Micronesia, Melanesia, and Polynesia.'' 3rd. Ed. Honolulu: Bess Press, 1995. p. 95. formerly Kingsmill or King's-Mill IslandsVery often, this name applied o ...
from 1937 until 1961, when
Pierre Guichet
Pierre Auguste Antoine Marie Guichet, Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, MSC, Order of the British Empire, MBE (born 21 January 1915, died 6 October 1989) was the Catholic Church, Catholic bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tarawa and Nauru, Di ...
titular see
A titular see in various churches is an episcopal see of a former diocese that no longer functions, sometimes called a "dead diocese". The ordinary or hierarch of such a see may be styled a "titular metropolitan" (highest rank), "titular archbi ...
) from 1938 to 1961 as
Vicar Apostolic
A vicar (; Latin: ''vicarius'') is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). Linguistically, ''vicar'' is cognate with the English pre ...
of the
Gilbert and Ellice Islands
The Gilbert and Ellice Islands (GEIC as a colony) in the Pacific Ocean was part of the British Empire from 1892 to 1976. It was a British protectorate, protectorate from 1892 to 12 January 1916, and then a crown colony, colony until 1 January 1 ...
. After building there the biggest church of the colony in 1936, Bishop Terrienne established the vicariate see in
Tanaeang Tanaeang is a village in North Tabiteuea, Tabiteuea North, Kiribati.
History
According to oral tradition, Tabiteuea has long been divided between Autonomy, autonomous districts or villages such as Tanaeang, known as ''aono''. One story describes ...
, on North
Tabiteuea
Tabiteuea (formerly Drummond's Island) is an atoll in the Gilbert Islands, Kiribati, farther south of Tarawa. This atoll is the second largest and the most populated of the Gilbert Islands after Tarawa. The atoll consists of one main island, Aa ...
, instead of Ocean Island, headquarters of the British Colony, or
Tarawa
Tarawa is an atoll and the capital of the Republic of Kiribati,Kiribati ''
Nantes Cathedral. He was then the youngest Roman Catholic bishop at only 36.