In 1838, the first Marist Brothers came with Bishop Pompallier and the Marist Fathers, and established the Catholic Church in New Zealand. A second wave of Marist Brothers came in 1876 and since then, Brothers established primary and secondary schools throughout New Zealand and the Pacific, especially, in terms of our Province in Samoa, Fiji, Kiribati and Tonga.

Today we name ourselves as Champagnat Marists, brothers and lay, who together reach out to needy young people in schools and in other settings where presence among young people is our way of leading them to know and love Jesus Christ.