They Call Me Father: Memoirs of Father Nicolas Coccola (Recollections of the Pioneers of British Columbia, Vol 7)

## In 1857, the French Roman Catholic religious order, the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, began permanent missionary work among the Native peoples of British Columbia. The memoirs of Father Nicolas Coccola, a Corsican-born Oblate who arrived in the province in 1880, reveal the complexity of the work carried out by the ordinary missionary priests. Beginning with his arrival in B.C. in 1880, Father Coccola worked as a missionary for 63 years. After a brief posting to the Kamloops, Shuswap, and Nicola Valley Indian bands, Coccola spent 18 years as a missionary to the Kutenai before being transferred, in 1905, to Stuart Lake, in north central B.C.. Based at this mission, he ministered to Carrier, Sekani, and Tsimshian. His final posting as an active Indian missionary was as principal of Lejac Indian Residential School. In addition to his missionary work, Coccola spent some time as chaplain to Canadian Pacifaic Railroad workers and as circuit priest to the towns in the Kootenay region These fascinating memoirs of Father Nicolas Coccola, a Corsican-born Oblatean who arrived in British Columbia in 1880, reveal the complexity of the work carried out by ordinary missionary priests. Edited By Margaret Whitehead. Includes Bibliographies And Index.