| Summary: |
In 1857, the French Roman Catholic religious order, the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, began permanent missionary work among the native peoples of British Columbia-work which continues today. The memoirs of Father Nicolas Coccola, a Corsican-born Oblate who arrived in the province in 1880, reveal the complexity of the work carried out by the ordinary missionary priests. To date historical scholarship has focused on either exceptional missionaries or missionary methodology. Consequently, the numerous in-the-field Roman Catholic priests who obeyed the directives of the church and religious communities and who aimed simply to save "heathen" souls have remained obscure. As these memoirs reveal, the life of such an ordinary missionary was neither dull nor conflict-free..Coccola represents a group whose efforts caused widespread cultural change or, at least, cultural modification among the native peoples. His memoirs, which were written not for self-glorification but at the command of a clerical superior, reveal insights into Roman Catholic missionary beliefs, motivations, biases, and methodologies and focus on the diversity of missionary enterprise. They also shed light on neglected areas of British Columbia history. |
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