Palau Land Records, 1954-1959

Abstract

On March 16, 1921 four Spanish Jesuits were brought to Palau aboard a Japanese Steamship. These priests were part of a group of 22 Jesuits assigned to staff the Carolines-Marianas-Marshalls mission that Rome had recently entrusted to the Society of Jesus. Despite Japan's earlier hostility towards missionaries, the Japanese government in 1920 petitioned the Vatican for other Catholic missionaries to replace the German Capuchins they had evicted, but with the proviso that they be from a neutral nation. Frs. Indalecio Llera and Marino de la Hoz and Brs. Jose Gogenola and Emilio Villar were the Jesuits assigned to Palau and they had to rebuild the Catholic mission after the Japanese had evicted the German Capuchin Friars during the First World War. Among the duties that these missionaries had while in the Carolines was to record the Births, Deaths and Marriages among their parishioners.