History of Micronesia: A Collection of Source Documents: Vol. 34 Part 1 Gilbert Island Mission, 1888-1938
Levesque, Rodrigue (2006). History of Micronesia: A Collection of Source Documents: Vol. 34 Part 1 Gilbert Island Mission, 1888-1938. 34.1. Gatineau, Québec: Lévesque Publications. ISBN 978-0-920201-34-3.
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Abstract: HOM.34.1 (1888–1938) compiles documentary materials on the development of the Catholic Gilbert Islands Mission led by the Sacred Heart Missionaries of Issoudun (MSC). The volume is largely composed of translated excerpts from the French missionary periodical Annales de Notre-Dame du Sacré-Cœur, along with letters, reports, and diaries written by missionaries working in the Gilbert Islands (modern Kiribati). Geographic coverage centers on islands including Nonouti (Nonouti/Nonouti), Nukunau, Tabiteuea, Onotoa, Beru, Makin–Butaritari, Abaiang, Tarawa, Marakei, Maiana, and related locations in the wider Micronesian Vicariate, with occasional references to neighboring groups such as the Marshall Islands, Ellice Islands (Tuvalu), and Banaba (Ocean Island). The documents provide descriptions of mission stations, villages, lagoons, and sailing routes between atolls, as well as accounts of travel aboard vessels such as the Maris Stella and other trading schooners connecting the islands with Sydney, Apia, Jaluit, and other Pacific ports. 
The narrative materials highlight the activities of missionaries and church personnel including Fr. Edward Bontemps, Fr. Joseph-Marie Leray, Fr. Edward Bontemps, Fr. Daniel Bontemps, Fr. Anatole Quoirier, Fr. Joseph Lebeau, Fr. Richard Van de Wouwer, Fr. Charles Gressin, Fr. Auguste Boudin, and numerous MSC Brothers and Sisters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart. Indigenous figures also appear prominently, including catechists and local leaders such as Petero Teravati, Lazaro Tiroi, Tekanua, and the Nanmwarki-like chiefs and councils governing island communities. Colonial and commercial actors appear intermittently as well, including British Resident Commissioners, traders, and representatives of companies operating copra plantations and trading posts across the islands. Missionary correspondence describes the establishment of chapels, schools, and boarding institutions, as well as the training of local catechists and the expansion of Catholic communities throughout the archipelago. 
The documents also record key events and conditions shaping missionary activity in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: the founding of mission stations beginning at Nonouti in 1888, conflicts with Protestant missions supported by American and British societies, negotiations with colonial authorities, and the gradual conversion of island communities such as Abaiang, Maiana, and Beru. Letters and diaries describe everyday missionary life—voyages between atolls by canoe or schooner, epidemics and shipwrecks, storms and droughts, village customs, local political structures, and economic activities centered on copra production and maritime trade. Together these materials provide a detailed documentary guide to the spread of Catholic missions across the Gilbert Islands and the interaction between indigenous communities, missionary organizations, colonial administrations, and commercial networks during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. 
