Kiribati
Kiribati, officially the Republic of Kiribati, is an island country in the Micronesia subregion of Oceania in the central Pacific Ocean. Its permanent population is over 119,000 as of the 2020 census, and more than half live on Tarawa. The st ...
.
History
According to
oral tradition
Oral tradition, or oral lore, is a form of human communication in which knowledge, art, ideas and culture are received, preserved, and transmitted orally from one generation to another.Jan Vansina, Vansina, Jan: ''Oral Tradition as History'' (19 ...
, Tabiteuea has long been divided between
autonomous
In developmental psychology and moral, political, and bioethical philosophy, autonomy is the capacity to make an informed, uncoerced decision. Autonomous organizations or institutions are independent or self-governing. Autonomy can also be defi ...
districts or villages such as Tanaeang, known as ''aono''. One story describes the establishment of Tanaeang from a distant land in the west, Rôrô, led by the brothers Bouabaraki and Taningabaraki. They built the village maneaba, which was completed by another group of ancestors, Bakoa and his three sons, Rairimoa, Rairimui and Tewatu.
In the 1860s, a man named Tanako introduced a new religion to Tabiteuea that worshipped Tioba (
Jehovah
Jehovah () is a Romanization, Latinization of the Hebrew language, Hebrew , one Tiberian vocalization, vocalization of the Tetragrammaton (YHWH), the proper name of the God in Judaism, God of Israel in the Hebrew BibleOld Testament. The Tetr ...
Christian
A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...
teachings he claimed to have learned in Fiji. Tanaeang was quickly converted and made Tanako's headquarters. Tioba's worshippers were later defeated in a violent battle against two
Protestant
Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...
missionaries and their convertees. Tanaeang was forced to convert to Protestantism.
In 1933, Father
Octave Terrienne
Octave Marie Terrienne MSC (9 September 1902 – 4 March 1994) was the Roman Catholic bishop of the apostolic vicariate of the Gilbert Islands from 1937 until 1961, when Pierre Guichet succeeded him.
He was bishop of Menelaites (a titular see) ...
and Brother Eloi built a
Catholic
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 ...
stone church in Tanaeang. The village today is predominantly Catholic. However, the people prefer to use a larger church modelled after a maneaba, with cement pillars and a corrugated sheet metal roof. In 1936, Terrienne became the bishop of the Gilbert Islands. He made Tanaeang an
apostolic vicariate
An apostolic vicariate is a territorial jurisdiction of the Catholic Church under a titular bishop centered in missionary regions and countries where dioceses or parishes have not yet been established. The status of apostolic vicariate is often ...
until he moved to
Tarawa
Tarawa is an atoll and the capital of the Republic of Kiribati,Kiribati ''
Teburoro Tito
Teburoro Tito (born 25 August 1953) is an I-Kiribati politician and diplomat who served as the third president of Kiribati from 1994 to 2003.
Early life
Teburoro Tito was born in Tanaeang, a village in Tabiteuea North, on 25 August 1952 or 1953. ...