February 10, 2022
Mill Hill missionary Pā Mikaere Ryan servant of Māori
A priest who spent his life working with Māori has died at his Mount Eden home aged 93.
Peter Michael Ryan, better known as Pa Mikaere Ryan, was the parish priest for Te Unga Waka, for many years the centre of Māori Catholic life in Tāmaki Makaurau.
He grew up in England and, after his seminary training as a Mill Hill missionary priest, he arrived in New Zealand aboard the Dutch emigrant boat Zuider Kruis in January 1954.
He became not only a fluent speaker but a scholar of te reo Māori, and many homes will have a copy of his Dictionary of Modern Māori first published in 1995.
The New Zealand Catholic site says he received the papal medal Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice in 2019.
Pa Mikaere will be taken to lie at Te Unga Waka Marae in Epsom.