Missionnaires au quotidien à Tahiti immerses us in the everyday life of Catholic missionaries sent out to the Tahitian islands in the period 1834 to 1914. Using the correspondence of the 167 members of the order of the Congregation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary, an attempt is made to define the social and geographic origins of the Picpucian people. Priests and friars are followed in their education, from the apostolic school to the first Pacific vicariates. Right from the first days of established contact, we see the management of the day-to-day affairs of these eternal travellers, by turns vicars and planters, schoolmasters and builders. Within the framework of a very hierarchical ecclesiastical structure, we watch the elaboration of a social project that quickly extends beyond the bounds of a narrow theocracy. It is on this societal model that a large part of Polynesia rests today.

In 1836, the newly created Society of Mary receives from the Holy See the responsibility of evangelizing Oceania. Jean-Claude Colin, freshly elected Superior General, will eventually send 117 missionaries there. These men record what they observe, they keep their logbooks, they say how they are received, they state the difficulties they meet, they record the works they undertake... in short, they write.

This book is a survey of the life writings by and about Canadian missionaries at home and abroad, over the last one hundred and thirty years. A general missionary history of Canada appears first, to introduce separate chapters on the forms and themes of this body of literature. The critical problems presented by writing that has resisted modern and post-modern developments are discussed. Partial and fictional life writing, as well as marginal forms, are also explored. The book concludes with general statements about the whole of this literature and its effects. The first attempt at a comprehensive bibliography of Canadian missionary life writing is appended.

These miscellaneous writings are the result of a lifelong search for undiscovered sources of Asian Mission History. They cover five centuries and nine countries. New information on various contributions by Catholic missionaries to the development of Asian Churches, to Islamology, Sanskrit studies, education and colonization policy has been provided.

"Significant contribution to Central American ecclesiastical history and ethnohistory. Heart of study focuses on missionary interaction with Lenca people of Tencoa district. Fills important gap in literature for the Lenca, colonial Honduras, and the Mercedarian order"--Handbook of Latin American Studies, v. 58.

Les grands voyages de découverte du Pacifique au XVIIIè siècle ouvrirent la voie aux missionnaires catholiques et protestants. Ainsi avec une surprenante rapidité une poignée d'hommes transformèrent radicalement la physionomie de Tahiti, Hawaï, des Iles Cook, de l'archipel des Tonga, de Wallis et de Futuna. Ces paradis insulaires furent métamorphosés en quelques années en véritables monastères ou en bastions du puritanisme le plus étroit.