Wiremu Te Awhitu

Who was Wiremu Te Awhitu?

Wiremu Hakopa Toa Te Awhitu was the first Māori to be ordained a Roman Catholic priest.

Born at Okahukura near Taumarunui, he was the third of 10 children of Tamakaitoa Te Awhitu and his wife Katarina Toia Bell. His family belonged to the Ngāti Hauaroa and Ngāti Maniapoto iwi. His early education was at Ongarue and Okahukura schools. At Okahukura he was influenced by headmaster R. A. Watson, known to Māori as Te Miro Watihana, an English convert to Catholicism, who also gave local children religious lessons, working with the Mill Hill priests. Through the efforts of Watson and the Mill Hill priests, Wiremu attended St Peter's Māori College, Northcote, Auckland, in 1931–32. Watson, also then living in Auckland, taught him to master English. Te Awhitu practised Māori crafts and became a skilled carver and artist. He then attended St. Patrick's College, Silverstream to prepare for Mount St Mary's Seminary, Greenmeadows, which he entered in 1936.

He was ordained a priest in St Patrick’s Church, Napier, on 17 December 1944 by Bishop Liston of Auckland and celebrated his first Mass the following day in the church of the Immaculate Conception at Pakipaki. He was stationed in 1945-46 at Otaki, and then spent 11 years at Meeanee and Pakipaki in Hawke's Bay. He was a member of the Hawke’s Bay Māori mission, and his pastoral area extended from Wairoa to Dannevirke.