The Caroline Islands Mission

 

 

  
Cinderellas of the Mission of the Spanish Jesuits to the Caroline Islands

When Micronesian districts officially came under the control of Japan following WWI, local Christians asked for replacements for the previous German missionaries. In response to a request from the Japanese for neutral clergy to be assigned to the area, 22 Spanish Jesuits were sent in 1921 to work in the Caroline, Mariana and Marshall Islands. They and others worked in the region until the Second World War, when they were imprisoned and eventually executed in 1944, notably the "Martyrs of World War II." After this war the mission fell to the care of American Jesuits. The above cinderellas showing scenes from the Carolines were issued presumably in the 1920s or 1930s.

Xavier High School, Chuuk

MICRONESIA, 2002, the 50th anniversary of the school, Scott 504

Following World War II, the United Nations entrusted the Micronesian Islands to the United States, and in 1952 American Jesuits of the Buffalo Province established Xavier High School. It became coed in 1976, and was accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges in 1994.

The Church of the Sacred Heart, Koror

PALAU, 1991, a century of Christianity, Scott 288

This miniature sheet shows, besides the reigning pontiffs, the three Jesuit martyrs of Palau, and Jesuit Father Edwin McManus, two images of Sacred Heart Church in Koror. The first was of the original church founded by the Capuchins and taken over by the Jesuits at the time of their arrival on the island in 1921 until the church's destruction by a typhoon in 1927 (Scott 288b); in front of the church is the high chief at Koror for forty of those 100 years. The second image is of the new church, designed by Fr. Elias Fernandez, SJ, and dedicated in April 1935, Scott 288e.

 
PALAU, 1991, Scott 288b and 288e

Ponape Agricultural and Trade School, Pohnpei

MICRONESIA, 1990, for the 25th anniversary of the school, Scott 216-220

The stamps show the main building of this school founded and run by the Jesuits, the Ponape Agricultural and Trade School, Fr. Hugh Costigan, SJ, founder of P.A.T.S. with students, Fr. Costigan, Fr. Costigan with Ispahu Sam Handley, and a New York City Police Department badge, a symbol of the generous support the New York police gave to Fr. Costigan and to P.A.T.S.

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