Étienne Jérôme Rouchouze

Biography

For the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, he served as Vicar Apostolic and Titular Bishop of Nilopolis from 1833 to 1843 of the Vicariate Apostolic of Oriental Oceania, from which were derived the Archdiocese of Pape‘ete, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu and the Diocese of Taiohae o Tefenuaenata in the Marquesas Islands. As a missionary bishop, Msgr. Rouchouze resided in Valparaíso, Chile and in Honolulu; he was responsible for the evangelization efforts of the Picpus Fathers in the Hawaiian Islands and eastern Pacific. His motto was Per aspera in astera (from hardship to the stars).

Prior to his episcopal ministry, Pope Gregory XVI, on November 27, 1825, created the Prefecture Apostolic of the Sandwich Islands. Father Alexis Bachelot was subsequently appointed its first prefect on December 3, 1825.

Msgr. Rouchouze was appointed Vicar Apostolic of Oriental Oceania and Titular Bishop of Nilopolis on June 14, 1833 with ordinary jurisdiction over the Hawai‘i prefecture apostolic. He was subsequently consecrated to the episcopate in Rome, on December 22, 1833 by the Prefect of the Propaganda Fide, Cardinal Carlo Maria Pedicini. On June 29, 1834, in Golden Square in London, Msgr. Rouchouze served as principal co-consecrator in the episcopal ordination of Msgr. John Bede Polding, O.S.B., Titular Bishop of Hierocaesarea and Vicar Apostolic elect of New Holland.

Rouchouze left Le Havre on October 29, 1834 and arrived in Valparaíso, Chile on February 19, 1835. After staying a few months, he went on to Mangareva in the Gambier Islands on May 9, 1835. He baptized the island's king Maputeoa and his family on August 25, 1836. On April 4, 1839, Msgr. Rouchouze returned to blessed the first stone for the St. Michael's Cathedral, Rikitea in Mangareva. He said the first pontifical Mass in the Marquesas at Tahuata on February 6, 1839. He arrived in Honolulu on May 14, 1840.

On December 8, 1842, the ship Marie-Joseph was blessed in Saint Malo in Brittany. Shortly thereafter, Msgr. Rouchouze, accompanied by thirteen brothers and ten sisters, left Saint Malo for Oceania on the Marie-Joseph. A nun died at sea. Unwilling to bury her at sea, they put intoIsland of Saint Catherine and buried her there. On February 19, 1843, Rouchouze and his twenty-two missionaries left the island on the Marie-Joseph. The party stopped off in Florianópolis in Brazil to bury the body of Sister Caliste Le Gris, who had died on board. Evaristo, a Mangarevan youth, fell ill and also died while they were in Brazil. The ship was last sited off the Falkland Islands on March 13, 1843. Rouchouze and his companions were never seen again and were presumed to have perished at sea.