Memorial unveiled commemorating Wellington missionaries lost at sea -

Memorial unveiled commemorating Wellington’s first missionaries lost at sea

Tuesday, February 19th, 2013

Members of the Marist family along with representatives of the Archdiocese of Wellington and the Friends of the Mount Street Cemetery joined the Archbishop of Wellington, John Dew, at the Mount Street Cemetery, Wellington, New Zealand on Sunday 17 February to unveil a memorial which commemorates two early French Marist missionaries who died at sea.

In August 1842 Michel Borjon, a Marist priest, and Jean Villemagne, a Marist Brother (Br Deodat), set out by ship from Auckland to Wellington. They were to found the Catholic Church in Wellington and Michel was to be Wellington’s first resident parish priest.

Their vessel was last sighted at Mercury Bay on 12 August 1842, and not seen again until wreckage was picked up on the East Coast of the North Island.

Both Borjon and Villemagne, along with their fellow travellers, were presumed drowned at sea. There were no survivors.

Society of Mary Archivist Ken Scadden unveiled the memorial stone, and representatives of the Society of Mary, the Marist Brothers and the French Embassy unveiled an explanatory panel.

Archbishop of Wellington John Dew then blessed the memorial.

Borjon arrived in New Zealand in 1841 along with other well known Marists including Fathers Antoine Garin, Jean Antoine Seon and Brother Basile (Michel) Monchalin, and a lay Marist, M. Jean Francois Yvert, who is buried in the Mount Street cemetery, and whose grave was re-discovered some three years ago using a Ground Penetrating Radar Survey.

Brother Deodat had arrived in 1842, accompanied by Brothers Justin (Etienne) Perret and Luc Ardant, Frs Forest, Reignier, Grange and Lampila.

Before being sent to Wellington, Brother Deodat had been assigned to the Bay of Islands and Borjon had been in Rotorua.

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