The French Ambassador to Fiji Michel Djokovich, accompanied by his wife joined a delegation of local and overseas old scholars to visit the final resting place of several Marist Brothers at Naililili in Rewa.
Wreaths were placed at the gravesite in honour of the Marist Brothers buried there.
In 1899, just 11 years after the arrival of the first Marist Brothers in Fiji in the form of Brother Vincent, Brother Harvey and Brother Alphonsus, they decided to expand their services to Naililili, in Rewa.
They would serve there until 1954.
In one of his early recollections, Brother Raphael Penarroya is quoted as saying, “I’ll never forget Naililili in 1930, my happiest year as a Marist Brother in a community of five Brothers, four of them retired: Brothers Macarius, Richard, Claudius and Cloman.
My duties were those of headmaster, supervisor, and oftener than not I did the cooking (the old men were not hard to please, you’ll gather), gardener and bursar.
Days were not long enough. ‘Captain Raphael’, with neither mate nor passengers, on board our ‘Loloma’, could be seen gliding along with the tide, making for Nausori every weekend or in the wake of the ‘Sir John Forest’, ‘Adi Keva’, ‘Adi Rewa’, pretty close to Nukulau and Makaluva making for Suva, and anchoring by the Suva Power House.”
Brother Raphael would later become the first Head Teacher of Marist Brothers Primary School in Suva Street, Toorak when St Columba’s and St Felix’s was combined in 1963.
Buried at Naililili are Brothers Claudius, Brother Vincent, Brother Cloman and Brother Herman. The Naililili visit was the highlight of weeklong celebrations which started off with the 200th Bicentennial marking the founding of the Marist Brothers by Saint Marcellin Champagnat in La Valla in France as well as the 80th Anniversary of Marist Brothers High School.
Ambassador Djokovich expressed his appreciation at the early sacrifices by the Marist Brothers who were founded in France, and their pioneering education dating back 129 years in Fiji.
Accompanying the French Ambassador to Naililili, Marist Old Boys Association President Opetaia Ravai described the visit as “very humbling.” France is also considered the home country of human rights following the first Declaration for the Rights of Man and of the Citizen proclaimed there in 1789, the same year Saint Marcellin Champagnat was born.
The Marist connection to France can also be seen in the schools official colors of red, white and blue, reflecting the French national flag.