Well-Loved Missionary
p. 10 · Read in the full issue
Passes On
Prom a Special Correspondent
Rarotonga, May 24.
THE death occurred at Rarotonga on May 14 of the Rt. Reverend Father Jean Marie Bemadine Custanie, Pre fect of the Roman Catholic Church in the Cook Islands.
The good Father was born on January 31, 1869, at Aboul, Aveyron. France. He entered the congregation of the Sacred Heart in May. 1889, and was ordained priest on October, 1892.
He arrived in Tahiti in 1893, and the year following he was sent to open the
Cook Islands Mission. From that date on he worked lovingly and unceasingly, until three days before his death. In 1922. the Cook Islands Mission was separated from the Vicariate of Tahiti to become a Prefecture, and the Rev. Father Ber nardine was appointed Prefect Apostolic.
A Requiem Mass took place at Avarua, Rarotonga, on May 15. Although the day was extremely wet and cold, the Mass was largely attended by Catholics and non-Catholics. The burial service was again the occasion of a large gathering of all his friends.
The absence of the Reverend Father’s cheerful face from the “places which knew him and will know him no more” is deeply regretted by us all.