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.

Final Years

Msgr. Ropert engaged in extensive pastoral visitation notwithstanding the pain caused by a stomach cancer he endured since September 1898. In summer of 1902, he made a trip to San Francisco and lower California partly for business and partly for the benefit of his declining health. He returned, no better, and succumbed to his illness on January 4, 1903. He was buried in the Honolulu Catholic Cemetery at 839A South King Street, in downtown Honolulu.

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