Paul-Antoine Léonard de Villefeix OP

Dominican Order

The Order of Preachers , after the 15th century more commonly known as the Dominican Order or Dominicans, is a Catholic religious order founded by Saint Dominic and approved by Pope Honorius III on 22 December 1216 in France...

 (born 18th Century) was a French Dominican

Dominican Order

The Order of Preachers , after the 15th century more commonly known as the Dominican Order or Dominicans, is a Catholic religious order founded by Saint Dominic and approved by Pope Honorius III on 22 December 1216 in France...

 priest. He conducted the first Christian service in New Zealand. He was the chaplain of French navigator and explorer Jean-François-Marie de Surville

Jean-François-Marie de Surville

Jean-François-Marie de Surville was a French trader and navigator.In 1767 de Surville set sail in his ship, the St Jean Baptiste to India to trade between the French settlements in India and China...

 when de Surville, in his ship, the St Jean Baptiste, sighted the North Island

North Island

The North Island is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the much less populous South Island by Cook Strait. The island is in area, making it the world's 14th-largest island...

 of New Zealand in 1769. De Surville remained two weeks in Doubtless Bay, near Whatuwhiwhi

Whatuwhiwhi

Whatuwhiwhi is a settlement at the northern end of Tokerau Beach, on the Karikari Peninsula of Northland, New Zealand. To the south is Doubtless Bay. Kaitaia is about 39 km away.There are three shaded and sandy coves...

, where Father Paul-Antoine Léonard de Villefeix celebrated the first Mass

Mass

Mass can be defined as a quantitive measure of the resistance an object has to change in its velocity.In physics, mass commonly refers to any of the following three properties of matter, which have been shown experimentally to be equivalent:...

in New Zealand waters on Christmas Day 1769.