His interest began when he read letters from missionaries to America sent back by Bishop Louis William Valentine Dubourg.

In 1819 he entered the minor seminary at Meximieux where he won several awards and class prizes in Latin, Christian doctrine, and oratory.

During this time, Chanel heard of a group of diocesan priests who were hopeful of starting a religious order to be dedicated to Mary, the Mother of Jesus.

In 1831, at the age of 28, Chanel joined the nascent Society of Mary (Marists),[1] who would concentrate on local missions and foreign missionary work.

Chanel traveled first to the Canary Islands (8 January 1837), where his friend, Claude Bret, caught a flu-like virus which led to his death at sea (20 March 1837).

Next, Chanel traveled to Valparaíso, Chile (28 June), where the French Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary ("Picpus Fathers"), who had care of the Apostolic Vicariate of Eastern Oceania, had their base.

In that ship, they set sail (23 October) to drop off two missionaries at Wallis, the main seat of the mission in Tonga.

They arrived on 8 November 1837 with an English Protestant layman named Thomas Boag, who had been resident on the island and had joined them at Tonga seeking passage to Futuna.

Chanel laboured faithfully amid the greatest hardships, attending the sick, baptizing the dying, and winning from all the name of "the man with the kind heart".

[6] It was a difficult mission, requiring him to cope with isolation and acclimatise to different foods and customs, but it eventually began to bear some fruit.

When his son, Meitala, sought to be baptised, the king sent a favored warrior, his son-in-law, Musumusu, to "do whatever was necessary" to resolve the problem.

[8] The ship's doctor, M. Rault, was able to verify the identity of the remains, bearing in mind the description of the manner of Chanel's death given previously by Marie-Nizier.

He looked for a trustworthy captain, and a reliable person in London to receive the consignment, attend to the customs, and have it sent on to Lyon.

[9] Pompallier sent Catherin Servant, François Roulleaux-Dubignon and Marie Nizier to return to the island and they arrived on 9 June 1842.

Musumusu himself converted and, as he lay dying, expressed the desire that he be buried outside the church at Poi so that those who came to revere Chanel would walk over his grave to reach it.

[10] The tabloid The Catholic Weekly has claimed that a Tongan dance, the eke, originated as penance for Chanel's death.