the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, a religious institute called the Picpus Fathers, founded by Pierre Coudrin during the French Revolution. The first Picpus Fathers departed from Bordeaux aboard the La Comète on November 21, 1826, and stopped in Valparaíso in Chile on February 8, 1827. The Picpus Fathers resumed their trip on February 25. They entered port at Honolulu Harbor on July 7. Having originally been refused entry by Protestant advisors to the king, the Picpus Fathers did not disembark from their ship until July 9, the Feast of Our Lady of Peace. Among the first Picpus Fathers were Abraham Armand and Alexis Bachelot of France, as well as Patrick Short of the United Kingdom. They were joined by six lay brothers. It has been claimed that Fathers Armand, Bachelot and Short concelebrated the first Mass in the Hawaiian Islands on Bastille Day, July 14, 1827, in honor of their religious institute's French heritage, but this is untrue, and an anachronism: concelebration of masses was not practiced at the time, and since France was being ruled by the restored Bourbon monarchy, "Bastille Day" would certainly not be marked as a national holiday. They performed the first baptism on November 30. The Picpus Fathers were quick to plunge into the Hawaiian society. They learned the local language, went into the Native Hawaiian community and began preaching to them. They distributed Hawaiian language Bibles and taught the lessons of Jesus from the gospels. Hundreds of Native Hawaiians chose to receive the sacraments of baptism, confirmation and Eucharist. Among the first converts were William Pitt Kalanimoku who was baptized aboard the French vessel L'Uranie by Abbe de Quelen which arrived in 1819, four months after the death of Kamehameha the Great. Also the royal governors of Oahu, Boki and Liliha. They would both become pivotal members of the Catholic underground. Persecution Christian missionaries were influential in shaping the modern society of the kingdom after the deaths of Kamehameha I and Kamehameha II. The missionaries, largely Congregationalists from New England, baptized the queen regent Kaahumanu and persuaded her to create religious policy favoring the suppression of the Catholic Church in Hawaii. Kamehameha III agreed and enacted its expulsion from the kingdom. Fathers Bachelot and Short were forcibly boarded onto the brig Waverly by the chiefs loyal to Kaahumanu and they left Honolulu Harbor on December 24, 1831. They landed