Sapapali’i is a village on the northeast coast of Savaii Island in Samoa. 

 

It is the village where John Williams and his wife Mary, the first missionary to bring Christianity to Samoa, landed on 24th August 1830 on the Messenger of Peace (a ship he had built with local materials in Tahiti).

John Williams met with Malietoa Vaiinuupo, who was considered the King of Samoa at the time. Williams later observed that Samoa was the only country where Christianity was accepted without war. 

 

When Malietoa died on the 3rd of May 1841, the last King of Samoa declared that he would take Samoa’s traditional monarch and kingship to the grave, while Samoa turned to 

Jesus and the Word of God as its King.