Society of Mary

Marist Fathers New Zealand: Life and spirit

Antoine Garin

Antoine Garin: “We worship God better than in the finest churches”

The cause of Fr Antoine Garin SM was launched on 14 April at a Mass at St. Michael’s Church, Remuera, Auckland.

The launch sponsored by an Auckland lay group acknowledges Fr Garin’s founding of the parishes of Howick and Panmure.

Fr Garin was sent to the North of New Zealand to minister among Māori.

In his homily Fr Merv Duffy SM retold an event from Fr Garin’s diary saying that when he and the two brothers accompanying shared a meal with local Māori at their place, it was customary that after the meal a bell would go, announcing time for prayer to which Fr Garin said “we worship God better than in the finest churches.”

Fr Chris Skinner SM sings a song he composed to mark the launch of Fr Antoine Garin's (pictured) cause.
Fr Chris Skinner SM sings a song he composed to mark the launch of Fr Antoine Garin’s cause.

A good number of people were at the launch, including members of every branch of the Marist family, parish representatives from Howick and Panmure and representatives from local Catholic schools.

Having learnt Te Reo and developed significant friendships with the Māori in the north, in 1850, Fr Garin was sent south and assigned as parish priest of Nelson to look after the Catholics in the local area but also Buller, Marlborough and Westland.

Bible in Schools

Being a Marist and interested in education and being the local pastor Fr Garin was keen for young people to have the opportunity to learn about God.

IMG_3863bIndeed outside of church circles, he was probably most noted for his work in education; setting up boarding schools and orphanages in Nelson and in a country offering free and secular education, he was particularly noted nationally for his campaign for the Bible to be lawfully read in class as the last part of an ordinary school course of instruction and for school classrooms to be used for religious instruction outside of school hours.

It was a campaign he won and in 1867, with the support of Oswald Curtis, the Nelson provincial superintendent, the New Zealand Education Act was ammended.

On the occasion of his golden jubilee of priesthood Archbishop Redwood, a former pupil of his in Nelson named him ‘venerable arch priest of Nelson’ and remarked that there was not a remote corner of the colony in which there were not pupils of Fr Garin’s school.

Dying veteran says no to returning to France

Towards the end of his life Fr Garin had poor health but refused to give up his work and return to the comfort of France. It was his view that younger missionaries should see a veteran dying on the battlefield.

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Eighteen months after he was buried, Fr Garin’s remains were exhumed and placed in a crypt underneath the chapel.

Despite the coffin being waterlogged, according to those present there was neither sign nor smell of corruption from the body and they all signed a document attesting to these facts, however Archbishop Redwood wanted the account of Fr Garin’s incorrupt body to remain secret and prevent a cult developing around him.

An incorrupt body or not Fr Garin was a man of great faith, a man who reached out across cultures and who has a popular following.

The Mass launching his cause for canonisation on 14 July 2016 was significant because it was on this day that Fr Garin said Mass for the last time in Panmure and Howick, and to the day, 39 years later he died in Nelson.

Is Fr Garin a saint?

As well as preaching at the Mass, Fr Duffy also posed the question whether Fr Garin was a saint.

Answering his own question, Fr Duffy told the congregation that many of his contemporaries thought so.

Archbishop Redwood, who conducted his funeral declared “He was indeed a saint, and attracted universal respect, and in many sincere veneration.”

Fr Duffy therefore concluded, “Given his life and deeds, I think I can safely say that if he did not get into heaven then most of the rest of us do not stand much chance”.

To mark the occasion, prayer cards were blessed and distributed with Fr Duffy encouraging people to pray to God through the intercession of Fr Antoine.

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Possible sainthood for Fr Antoine Garin

The launch of the cause of sainthood of Fr Antoine Marie Garin SM will take place with a Mass on the 14th April 2016, at St. Michael’s Church, 6 Beatrice Rd, Remuera Auckland at 7-30 p.m.

The launch, sponsored by an Auckland lay group is taking place there because Fr Garin founded the parishes of Howick and Panmure.

The main Celebrant of the Mass will be Fr Mervyn Duffy SM.

Fr Antoine Garin SM
Fr Antoine Garin SM

After making his profession as a member of the Society of Mary, in 1840 Garin was assigned to New Zealand, where he arrived with 10 other members of the society on the Mary Grey at the Bay of Islands on 14 June 1841.

He was provincial of the Marists in New Zealand from 1841 to 1843 and, despite Pompallier’s growing antagonism to the society, he was nomonated several times to Rome as a possible bishop.

In late 1843 Garin was sent to the Kaipara mission station at Mangakahia, near Tangiteroria.

In 1847 he was appointed to the pensioner soldier settlements at Howick, Panmure and Otahuhu, where over half the families were Irish Catholics.

In 1850, after the quarrels between Bishop Pompallier and the Marists, Garin accompanied Bishop Philippe Viard to Wellington.

He was assigned to Nelson where he remained for the next 40 years.

He had the pastoral care of 200 – 300 Catholics scattered over the huge area of Nelson, Buller, Marlborough and the northern part of the region that became Westland.

He journeyed constantly to visit his people, on both foot and horseback, often inflicting great privations on his not over robust constitution.

He was responsible for education early in Nelson’s history and opened orphanages for both boys and girls as early as 1872.

In 1876 he gave lectures to the citizens of Nelson for a fee to raise funds to purchase land for a boy’s orphanage. The sum collected was thirteen pounds.

Father Garin kept daily records of parish life, along with letters he wrote to various bodies, parishioners and to his mother and brother in France.

These are kept in the St Mary’s parish archives in Nelson along with other information about the priest.
Garin died on the 14th April 1889.

His wish was to be buried in St Mary’s Church, Manuka Street, but was denied this by a city ordinance, so was buried at Wakapuaka, in the grave now occupied by his great friend and colleague Brother Claude Marie Bertrand.

When Garin was exhumed 18 months after his death, to be reinterred in the crypt below this chapel his body was found to be incorrupt despite the coffin found filled with water which was the quickest way for a body to decompose.

The vestments had stained pink as the red dye had run in the water and his biretta had fallen slightly forward on his forehead.

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