Soakimi Gatafahefa

From the island of Tongatapu, his family were relatives of Tāufaʻāhau, the later Tongan King George Tupou I. Gatafahefa converted to Roman Catholicism with his father.

He entered the school at Kolopelu, on Futuna, and then the Seminary of Lano, on Wallis, founded by the French Marist missionary priest, Bishop Pierre Bataillon, the Vicar Apostolic of Central Oceania.

He was the only one of the Polynesian students to finish his studies and was ordained to the priesthood by Cardinal Costantino Patrizi Naro on 10 June 1865 at the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran.

[2][6] Encyclopaedic sources claim that Bishop Bataillon believed that Gatafahefa was attempting to persuade the people of Futuna to distance themselves from European Roman Catholic clergymen.

"[3][7][8] He died on 24 May 1896, at the age of 58, and was buried in the Taradale Cemetery, Napier, Hawke's Bay; the name "Father Joachim Gata Gatafahefa" is now inscribed on his gravestone.