Francis Xavier Gsell

Francis Xavier Gsell, Australian Catholic priest and missionary known as the "Bishop with 150 wives", 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 (now Darwin), 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" (also the title of his autobiography) for his activities in freeing girls from arranged marriages and making possible their marriages to men of similar age.

Gsell 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.

References

[http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A090129b.htm "Australian Dictionary of Biography" article on Gsell]

[http://www.naa.gov.au/about-us/publications/fact-sheets/fs151.aspx National Archives of Australia factsheet on Gsell holdings]

F.X. Gsell, "The Bishop with 150 Wives : fifty years as a missionary", London, 1955.