CHANEL, PIERRE-LOUIS-MARIE, Blessed. - Marist missionary, protomartyr of Oceania, born at Cuet, diocese of Lyon, now Belley, on 12 July 1803, and martyred on 28 Apr. 1841. Having completed his studies in the diocesan seminaries, he was assistant parish priest at Ambérieux (1827–28), then parish priest at Crozet (1828–31). Having entered the nascent Society of Mary, founded by the Venerable Fr. G. Colin, he took part in the first expedition of missionaries to central Oceania, under the leadership of Msgr. G. B. Pompallier (v.), whose apostolic provicar he was.
Having departed on 24 Dec. 1836, after a perilous voyage he landed on 7 Nov. 1837 on the island of Futuna (Tonga archipelago). Only after three years of abandonment, prayers, and sufferings of every kind did he succeed in gathering together a considerable number of catechumens, among whom was the very son of King Niuliki, who, hitherto favourable to the missionary, subsequently changed his attitude and unleashed persecution. C., treacherously attacked in his hut by the king’s minister, Musumusu, with a band of assassins, was struck to death; but this, far from extinguishing religion, as the persecutors intended, brought about the rapid, total, and lasting conversion of the island. Leo XIII beatified him on 17 Nov. 1889.