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. 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.

Margaret Whitehead's profile page

Margaret Whitehead is a professor in the History Department at the University of Victoria.

Recommended to anyone interested in the history of the Roman Catholic church's missionary activities in British Columbia or in the cultural changes experienced by the native people around the turn of the century.

BC Historical News

Diligent research provides some stimulating reflections on what the great Belgian priest Pierre Charles called missiology, and Whitehead's comparison of Jesuit mission methodology in the Pacific Northwest with that of the Oblates is of special interest.

Wilfred P. Schoenberg, SJ, Columbia

These recollections provide a basis for comparison of the ordinary and the exceptional pioneer Oblate missionary.

BC Studies