Gulstan Ropert

Gulstan Ropert (August 30, 1839 - January 4, 1903) of the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary served as the third vicar apostolic of the Apostolic Vicariate of the Sandwich Islands — now the Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu, from 1892 to 1903. Born in France at Kerfago, St. Gildas de Rhuys, Morbihan, in Brittany, he was baptized as François. François Ropert entered the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary at age 20 and took the name Gulstan. He was ordained to the priesthood on May 26, 1866, at the age of 26. He was sent to the Kingdom of Hawai`i to assist the Vicariate, arriving in Honolulu on June 9, 1868. He was in charge of the Hamakua district on the island of Hawai`i until October 2, 1883, when he was assigned to the Wailuku mission. He left Wailuku for Honolulu in 1891 having been appointed Vice-Provincial.

Catholic Education in the Vicariate

Msgr. Ropert's continuing concern for Catholic education of his flock led him to erect a girl's school in Hilo entrusted to the Franciscan sisters; in Honolulu he also established a free school for boys (St. Francis School) in connection with St. Louis College (September 1893). He also provided a new concrete schoolhouse for the Sisters of the Sacred Hearts (1901). During Msgr. Ropert's episcopate, the Treaty of Paris in 1898 effectively ended the Spanish American War, with the loss of the Philippines, Guam and Puerto Rico to the United States. This seminal event would lay the groundwork for the sugar industry in Hawaii contracting workers from the vestiges of the Spanish empire in the predominantly Roman Catholic Philippines, Puerto Rico and Guam.

Related Topics:
Treaty of Paris - 1898 - Spanish American War

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