Rheumatologe: Easter Island and the Catholic Church

The roman-catholic church is of interest [1]. The church is located at the far end of Te Pito O Te Henua Road, if you come from the sea side. This time I didn’t have the time to walk by, but I’ll show you the older pictures.

In the mid-1800s Eugène Eyraud (1820 – 23 August 1868) was the first Westerner to live on Easter Island and belonging the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, his intend of living on Easter Island was missionary [2]. The population had been diminished by smallpox and unluckily Pater Eyraud suffered from tuberculosis, which he spread unto his flock. About a quarter of the population died of tuberculosis. He baptized all of the inhabitants – and died shortly afterwards, of course from tuberculosis, which was beyond medical help back then. However, Eyraud was the first Westerner to have a look at the rongorongo, which are wooden tablets with writings like hieroglyphs. Later Bishop Jaussen of Tahiti made the rongorongo known to the outside world. (I’ll give the kohau Rongorongo a closer look here on this blog later.)

In the 20^th century Father Sebastian Englert (17.11.1888 –08.01.1969),” a Capuchin Franciscan friar, Roman Catholic priest, missionary, linguist and ethnologist from Germany”, had a great influence on the catholic church of Easter Island [3]. The Father Sebastian Englert Anthropological Museum is named after him; which I wanted to visit, but had been closed due to the presidential elections in Chile. As Father Sebastian spoke Rapanui, he translated religious songs and texts into Rapanui. He published on Rapanui, both island and language, and I wish, I could read: Englert, S. Idioma rapanui: gramática y diccionario del antiguo idioma de la Isla de Pascua. Santiago de Chile, Universidad de Chile, 1978.

If you want to have a look at today’s church, please look here: [4]. There are other churches as well, also the Mormons are active, but that’s another story.

I've found two places for St. Mary devotionalism, one in
Te Pito O Te Henua Road, near the soccer field, and one near by the sea.