Missionaries of the congregation of Sacré Coeur de Picpus who landed in 1834 transformed the Gambier islands. In addition to the conversion of their inhabitants to Catholicism, missionaries introduced new elements to the fauna and flora (pigs, banana trees, soft potatoes), they also defined new social codes such as the prohibition of nudity. However, the most visible part of their influence lays in the building of dozens of churches and chapels. Notre-Dame-de-la-Paix whose building in Akamaru was achieved 1841 and was the first Catholic monument in Oceania.