Early years Chanel was born in the hamlet of
La Potière near
Montrevel-en-Bresse, Ain département, France. Son of Claude-François Chanel and Marie-Anne Sibellas he was the fifth of eight children. From about the age of 7 to 12 he worked as a shepherd. The local parish priest persuaded his parents to allow Peter to attend a small school the priest had started. After some local schooling, his piety and intelligence attracted the attention of a visiting priest from
Cras, the abbé Trompier, who took over the boy's education at Cras in the autumn of 1814. He made his first communion on 23 March 1817. It was from that time that Chanel's attraction for the missions abroad began. His interest began when he read letters from missionaries to America sent back by Bishop
Louis William Valentine Dubourg. He later said, "It was that year that I formed the idea of going to the foreign missions." In 1819 he entered the minor seminary at
Meximieux where he won several awards and class prizes in Latin, Christian doctrine, and oratory. He attended the
Belley diocesan college in 1823, and the major seminary at
Brou in 1824. Chanel was ordained on 15 July 1827 won the hearts of the locals. During this time, Chanel heard of a group of diocesan priests who were hopeful of starting a religious order to be dedicated to Mary, the Mother of Jesus.
Marist and missionary In 1831, at the age of 28, Chanel joined the nascent
Society of Mary (Marists), In return for eventual acceptance, the group were promised formal approbation, granted by
Pope Gregory XVI. Chanel, professed with the other aspirants as Marist on 24 September 1836, was made the superior of the band of seven Marist missionaries that set out on 24 December from
Le Havre on the
Delphine accompanied by the new Bishop of Maronea (Western Oceania),
Jean-Baptiste Pompallier. Chanel was not deterred by the dangers of such a long sea voyage. Chanel traveled first to the
Canary Islands (8 January 1837), where his friend, Claude Bret, caught a flu-like virus which led to his death at sea (20 March 1837). Next, Chanel traveled to
Valparaíso,
Chile (28 June), where the French
Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary ("Picpus Fathers"), who had care of the
Apostolic Vicariate of Eastern Oceania, had their base. His third and fourth stops were in the
Gambier Islands (13 September) and in
Tahiti (21 September), where the group transferred to the ship
Raiatea. In that ship, they set sail (23 October) to drop off two missionaries at
Wallis, the main seat of the mission in
Tonga. The missionaries arrived at
Vava’u but were not welcome, and thus continued their journey to Futuna. Chanel went to neighboring
Futuna, accompanied by a French lay brother, Marie-Nizier Delorme. They arrived on 8 November 1837 with an English Protestant layman named Thomas Boag, who had been resident on the island and had joined them at Tonga seeking passage to Futuna. ==Relics==