Francis Xavier Gsell

Who was Francis Xavier Gsell?

Francis Xavier Gsell, OBE was an Australian Roman Catholic bishop and missionary, known as the "Bishop with 150 wives". He was born at Benfeld, Alsace in 1872. He was ordained as a priest in the order of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart in 1896, after study in Rome.

He began active missionary work in Papua in 1900, then in 1906 re-established the Catholic Church in Palmerston, Northern Territory. He established an Aboriginal mission on Bathurst Island in 1910 and worked there until 1938. Though unsuccessful in converting adults, he persisted with children's education and "bought" many girls promised in marriage to older men according to tribal custom. He became known as the "Bishop with 150 wives" for his activities in freeing girls from such arranged marriages, thus making it possible for them to marry men of their own age.

Gsell was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1935, and was Bishop of Darwin from 1938 to 1949, during which time he was influential in founding Aboriginal missions at Port Keats and Arltunga. He died in 1960.