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Louis Vangeke: A Man Before His Time
Paperback
Biographies GeneralAustralia & OceaniaCatholicism
Publisher Price: $9.99
ISBN13: 9781763915602
Publisher: Eric Johns
Published: Oct 30 2026
Pages: 34
Weight: 0.20
Height: 0.07 Width: 8.00 Depth: 10.00
Language: English
In 1904, a tiny baby was born at Beipa village, in the Mekeo area of Papua. His mother died on the day he was born, and his father, a feared sorcerer, believed the weak child could not live. Sacred Heart missionaries baptised him, took him to Yule Island and fed him on cow's milk. He survived.
That baby was Louis Vangeke. At a time when most Europeans believed Papuans could not study beyond primary school, he travelled to faraway Madagascar, studied for nine years in French and Latin, and in 1937 came home the first Papuan Catholic priest. Colonial laws said Papuans could not drink alcohol, be in town after nine at night, or even wear a shirt, so the government had to give its first Papuan priest special permission to say Mass.
For decades Father Louis served among the Mekeo and Kuni people as teacher, healer and peacemaker. In 1970 Pope Paul VI made him a bishop in Sydney, the first from Papua New Guinea. He joked that he was the Sorcerer of God, was made a Mekeo chief, and was later knighted.
Drawing on the author's 1972 interview with Bishop Vangeke, and told partly in his own words, this illustrated book tells the remarkable story of a man who stayed faithful to his church and his culture: truly a man before his time.
Part of the series A Journey Through Papua New Guinea History.
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