Mulivai/Matafele

The Mulivai Cathedral (or Immaculate Conception of Mary Cathedral), is the Catholic cathedral, originally dedicated in 1857.  In 2011 it was pulled down as a result of the earthquake damage it suffered in 2009, and was rebuilt by 2014.  In 1852 Bishop Bataillon bought the plot on which it stands from William Pritchard.   Roman Catholicism was introduced by Marist fathers who sent French missionaries into Samoa in 1845, acting on the instructions of Pope Gregory XVI (1765-1846).  

Nearby is the Marist Brothers Primary School, established here in August 1888; the headquarters of the Methodist Church, Matafele, and a branch office of Burns Philp and company, trading between 1876 and 2006, in plantation management, shipping, as a travel agency, in agricultural wholesaling, insurance, retailing and as a department store.