He was born in 1803 in a small village in the remote French diocese of Belley (in the mountains midway between Lyon and Geneva). Ordained priest his first assignment was to a rundown local parish of the diocese, which he soon turned round. In 1831 he joined the Order of Marists a missionary congregation (now worldwide) then recently founded in Lyons by Jean Colin, and hoped to be sent abroad. Instead he was posted for five years to teach in the local seminary - something which then as now is not always a very glorious experience. Finally in 1836 he was sent with a few others to the islands of the Southern Pacific. In 1837 he arrived with just one colleague on the Futuna Islands near Fiji, which were under French jurisdiction. Cannibalism had been a feature of local life until shortly before. They were well received learnt the local language tended the sick and soon began to catechise. All went well until in 1841 the son of the local chief asked to be baptised. His furious father then sent a band of warriors to kill this interfering missionary. He was clubbed to death and cut to pieces. The result of his martyrdom was the almost total conversion of the Islands to Christianity shortly afterwards. He was canonised as first martyr of the South Seas in 1954; his feast was at first kept only in the locality of his death and in Australia and New Zealand but in the 1969 calendar reform became universal.