The Sancta Maria and Bishop Pompallier

Early Sailing Vessels and Visitors to Tauranga
Part XI. The Sancta Maria and Bishop Pompallier

At the Bay of Islands in July 1840, Bishop Pompallier bought the Atlas, an aging topsail schooner, from Captain Mayhew, an American who had previously operated a whaling station on the small island of Tahoramaurea, near Kapiti. The bishop planned to use the 120 ton vessel to establish and service new Catholic mission stations in New Zealand. After completing necessary repairs at considerable expense, Pompallier renamed the schooner Sancta Maria (Holy Mary) and endowed it with its own flag, a blue cross on a white field, a golden sun, a monogram of Mary and twelve stars, the flag of the mission.

Pompallier’s 80 foot mission topsail schooner Sancta Maria (Holy Mary)

Pompallier was delighted with his new vessel and with just cause. His previous missionary vessel, Reine de Paix, a forty ton schooner that he described as ‘badly built’ had nearly capsized twice while carrying missionaries between the Pacific Islands and New Zealand. In contrast, he found the 80 foot, Sancta Maria a fast, reliable vessel and a ‘veritable travelling mission station’ which subsequently sailed 1,000 leagues (5,556 km), around New Zealand, including a return voyage to distant Polynesian mission stations over the course of the next six months.

At the end of July 1841, the Sancta Maria sailed from the Bay of Islands with Pompallier and Fathers Baty, Borjon, Seon and Rozet. The priests were placed at new stations, Seon at Matamata, Borjon at Maketu, Rozet at Opotiki, and  Father Baty on the Mahia Peninsula. Baty was promised for Auckland, and the Sancta Maria was to pick him up from the Mahia on its return journey from the South Island. New Zealand’s first Catholic parish, had already been established at Tauranga in May 1840, when Pompallier sent Father Viard and the Maori Catechist Romano to set up a permanent mission there.  During an earlier visit that year, Pompallier had been given land at Otumoetai within the palisades of the pa for a church and a presbytery by the rangatira Tupaea, Tangimoana and Te Omanu.

The events of this historic visit are recorded in Pompallier’s journal:

"At the end of the month of July, after having given the new missionaries information on the work of the mission and grammatical notes on the language of the country, I provisioned the Sancta Maria, and embarked with five priests and three or four catechists to make a fresh voyage round the coasts of New Zealand, and a pastoral visit to Wallis and Futuna and to the Friendly Islands."

"Then I set sail for the Bay of Tauranga [and] arrived… to the great joy of the people of that place. I visited all the tribes there three or four days. I also conferred baptism and confirmation on a certain number of native catechumens. This mission station had been for some months confided to Father Pesant in place of Father Viard, who had been stationed there before him, and whom I had sent for to create him Grand Vicar of my mission."

Jean Baptiste Francois Pompallier 1801- 1871
Pompallier visited Tauranga on three occasions during the years 1840-1841

"Before quitting Tauranga I deputed Father Seon to Matamata… I hove up the anchor of the Sancta Maria, and sailed with Father Viard for Maketu. There I disembarked the chief Tangaroa and his followers, and landed myself with Father Borjon and the catechist, Brother Justin. Nearly all the people belonging to this tribe were away. They had gone to seek provisions from some tribes, their allies, about twenty leagues distant. I found at Maketu a Catholic chapel very well made of reeds and a house of the same material for the priest whom they expected."

"The day after my arrival I sent the Sancta Maria back to Tauranga. I baptized, confirmed, and married the wife of Tangaroa, and, accompanied by Father Viard, I left to visit the tribes of Rotorua. As to Father Borgeon and Brother Justin I left them at Maketu at the new station that had just been inaugurated under the patronage of St. Joachim and St. Anne ..."

Hori Tupaea
Tauranga was New Zealand’s first Catholic parish; established in May 1840 with the assistance of Ngai Te Rangi rangatira including their paramount chief Hori Kingi Tupaea

"On continuing our journey towards Rotorua, we found several tribes of infidels who also sought for the teachings of the Mother Church; but native Protestant catechists had already been among them. I had to uphold against them the legitimacy of the church and of the truths of the faith. Public conferences took place between them and me, and their ignorance and rambling statements damaged their cause and confirmed the people in their desire for the teaching of the Catholic Church ... At length we left these people in an excellent disposition, and at the end of two days we were back at Tauranga, where the Sancta Maria lay at anchor waiting for us."

After striking a reef close inshore on the Otago coast in 1842 while servicing southern mission stations, the Sancta Maria’s captain was able to maneuver the vessel clear with little damage. Later that year, Pompallier was reluctantly obliged to sell ‘his beloved Sancta Maria’, due to an acute shortage of funds. The Catholic mission at Tauranga was compelled to close in late 1863 because of the disturbing effects of the Waikato land war, father Emmanuel Royer being the last priest stationed there.

Sources
McCauley, Debbie, ‘Tauranga Memories, Missionaries in Tauranga’, Tauranga City Libraries, tauranga.kete.net.nz
Pompallier,J. B. F;  Early History of the Catholic Church in Oceania, H. Brett, Auckland, 1888: 74-76.
Simmons, E. R; ‘The First Missionaries’, www.faithcentral.org.nz
Williams, Henry. The Early Journals of Henry Williams 1826-1840, Rogers, L. M. (comp.), Christchurch: Pegasus Press, 1961: 454.
Williams, W. and J; The Turanga Journals 1840–1850, Frances Porter (ed.), Price Milburn, Wellington, 1974: 197.

Illustrations
O’Keefe, C. J. Sancta Maria, photograph of a sketch [circa 1939], Marist Messenger, National Catholic Monthly, 1 April 2019: 4.
Pompallier, J. B. F;  Early History of the Catholic Church in Oceania, H. Brett, Auckland, 1888: Title Page.
Robley, Horatio Gordon, Maori Chief Hori Kingi Tupaea [circa1864], Ref. A-128-025-1, National Library of New Zealand, Wellington.