PALAU, 1991, the centenary of Christianity in Palau, from a miniature sheet of six stamps, Scott 288d

Fr. Edwin McManus, SJ, from Brooklyn, New York, a graduate of Brooklyn Prep and Holy Cross College, entered the Society of Jesus on July 3, 1928. During his course of training he was sent, from 1934 to 1937, to teach at the Ateneo of Manila. He was ordained January 23, 1940, and served in the Chaplain Corps of the US Army in Wales until 1946. In that year the Caroline-Marshall Islands were transferred from the Spanish Jesuits to the American Jesuits, and shortly thereafter entrusted to the New York Jesuit Province. Fr. McManus was assigned to Chuuk but sent in late 1946 on an inspection tour of the Palau mission. He was sent to Palau in August 1948 on a temporary basis, but a year later his assignment was made permanent, he became the local Jesuit superior, and soon afterward the pastor of Koror as well. He spent the rest of his life on the missions, setting up schools, introducing a variety of religious congregations of women to teach, promoting vocations, and producing the mission magazine, The Palau Press, to help support the mission. When his term as superior ended in 1958, he went to the northern district on Ngaraad on Babeldaob, and built a church, school and convent, which were unfortunately destroyed by a typhoon in 1967. On September 1969 Fr. McManus died of a heart attack. He made a great linguistic contribution by compiling the Palauan-English Dictionary.

NEXT