The island was discovered by the Portuguese in the XVI century and colonised by the Dutch in 1598. They abandoned it in 1710 because pirates were making their lives impossible. In 1721, the French East Indian Company established themselves there and set up a sugar cane industry, bringing in many slaves to work on the plantations.
An English colony
By the Treaty of Paris in 1814, the island was ceded to the British and they developed and expanded the sugar industry. As a result of the abolition of the slave trade in the British Empire in 1807 and slavery itself in 1834, the planters brought workers from India to replace the slave labour. Sugar production rose by more than 130% in 80 years.
By the middle of the XIX century, 80,000 of the 140,000 inhabitants of the island were living in abject misery. The planters were a small, dominant class who owned the land and employed the Indians to work for them. They became very rich, enjoying a life of privilege. They were "disappointed not to be able to totally dominate their servants as they did before the abolition of slavery". Their policy was to moralise and educate their ex-slaves, making them members of the Anglican communion.
The newspaper, a new source of information
At this period a new element came to influence society: the newspaper. The new Mauritian papers formed and informed the opinions of their readers, and the social situation of the colony was a constant subject for comment and analysis. Articles and open letters both attacked and defended the Creole population that had recently emerged from slavery. The living conditions that were imposed on them could only result in their disappearance with the passing of time. All manner of crimes, drunkenness and laziness were attributed to these ex-slaves.
An open letter
In 1847, a local paper "The Cernéen" published a letter from one of its readers. It came from "a real Christian", and it contained some advice for two Catholic priests, Frs. Laval and Comerford. They were told to
"warn the ex-slaves against giving too much importance to external cult...they should concentrate on forming their consciences in the moral prescriptions of our religion. Going no further than those who are employed in domestic service in our houses...they are always missing at the times they are most needed, they are disobedient, liars, and drunkards. If anything could rapidly improve this situation, it would surely be the intervention of the catholic priest who has so much power over them. This intervention would also bring back a large number of the ex-slaves to productive and honourable work, from the idleness or involvement in miserable little enterprises into which they have drifted since their emancipation".
From this and other such letters published in the newspapers, we can get an idea of what the landed class thought of the Mauritian Creoles.
".........But how could they be otherwise? Nobody has ever taken the slightest interest in them. They have been treated like beasts of burden. What surprises me even more than their ignorance is that, despite their total neglect, they still want to be taught...When I arrived here, I found eight priests. I sent three away and there are three others that I cannot get rid of".
Mgr William Collier, Vicar Apostolic of mauritius
An English Bishop of Mauritius
The Holy See was unhappy with the situation of the Mauritian Creoles, mostly baptised Catholics. When an English Benedictine, Mgr. William Collier, was appointed Vicar Apostolic, he wrote home, in October 1841:
"I could not imagine that a Christian country could
Mgr. William Collier, an English Benedictine, Vicar Apostolic of Mauritius |
fall into such a state of moral degradation. Sometimes, the Europeans do not know much about their religion, but the people here (this large black population) are just like the inhabitants of China or Kamtchatka. But how could they be otherwise? Nobody has ever taken the slightest interest in them. They have been treated like beasts of burden. What surprises me even more than their ignorance is that, despite their total neglect, they still want to be taught...When I arrived here, I found eight priests. I sent three away and there are three others that I cannot get rid of".
A priest from Normandy
Mgr. Collier went in search of priests for this Church that had been put in his care. He went to St. Sulpice in Paris and the Superior put him in contact with Frédéric Le Vavasseur. It was just at the time when the Work for the Black People was being started. Le Vavasseur immediately thought of a former student of the seminary, Jacques-Désiré Laval, who had been a country parish priest in Normandy for the past two years. Fr. Laval had told him of his desire "to be the servant of Jesus Christ amongst despised people". Fr. Laval obtained his Bishop's permission to go to Mauritius to be "a missionary of the poor black people". He handed over the administration of his possessions to Francis Libermann and left France, never to return.
From doctor to missionary priest
Jacques Laval was born in 1803. From 1825 to 1830, he studied in the faculty of medicine in Paris, It was a time when "Reason" was considered by many to be everything, to the detriment of faith in Jesus. He was not a particularly religious person, but he worked very generously as a doctor in the service of the poor people of Normandy for five years. It was his closeness to the poor which seems to have put a new ambition into his heart: to become a priest so as to serve them even better. He returned to Paris in 1835, this time to study theology at the Seminary of Saint Sulpice. It was here that he met the three future founders of the Work for the Black People - Le Vavasseur, Tisserant and Libermann. He was ordained priest on December 2, 1838 for the Diocese of Evreux, but after two years of parish work in Normandy he answered the invitation to go the Mauritius, setting sail from London in September 1841. He found about 80,000 illiterate people who had received no religious instruction, and many of whom had spent time in prison. He received no help from the other priests on the island who seemed to be unconcerned by the plight of these poor Creoles. They simply baptised the children and then left them to sink or swim.
He wrote to Francis Libermann in July 1842:
"Mauritius is in a terrible state...I am working from 9 in the morning until 10 at night, teaching catechism to these poor people and hearing their confessions, I have baptised about 60, married a large number and given first communion to about 40...You have to do everything yourself here; nobody is willing to give you a hand"
