The history of the parishes in the Diocese of Eshowe
During his time as priest-in-charge of the Holy Cross Mission, Entabeni, Fr. Anselme Rousset travelled regularly to Eshowe and Empapala and even as far as Mahlabatini (150km from Emoyeni) to visit and care for small communities of Christians. These journeys made it clear to him that it was necessary to have a second mission station farther inland in order to reach the people in central Zululand more easily. Rousset decided to start a new mission at Empapala, present-day Mbongolwane. He was able to go ahead with his plan when Bishop Delay placed Fr. Arturus van der Laenen in charge of the Holy Cross Mission. Fr. Rousset arrived at Mbongolwane in June 1914. A near-by storekeeper offered him accommodation while three African labourers built a hut for him at the mission site, a plateau overlooking the Tugela river. The beginning was full of hardships. He had no confrère to help him and was therefore all the more interested in securing assistance from French Franciscan nuns. By September 1915 he had a building ready for them, but it took another eight months before the sisters eventually arrived (sf. Father Anselme Rousset and the Zululand Mission, pg. 17). The new mission was dedicated to Saint Jules.
Bishop Spreiter visited Mbongolwane for the first time in June 1922 and gave the following account of the early history of the mission:
"There are six Franciscan sisters here...The mission was founded...by the sisters who provided the money which they had received from France...Fr. Rousset purchased the mission site by favour of the local chief and the government. The sisters appointed him as their chaplain and paid him a monthly allowance of £ 1 whereby Fr. Rousset was granted free lodging and meals. He also used the sisters' money to pay for the buildings which are very small and simple. Fr. Rosenthal, who has been here for the last three years, said that, as a result of a canonical visitation, he is getting an allowance of £ 2, but has to pay the catechist's salary of £ 1/10/0 with that money...The mission was granted only thirty acres of land which is too little to live on. The mission does not own the land because it is situated in the Native Reserve" (TT 19-06-22).
When the Benedictines took over Mbongolwane on February 1924, the mission consisted only of a small house made of wood, a tiny chapel and a sisters' convent, built of daub and thatch. "The chapel is a wood-and-iron shack, nine metres long, five metres wide and 2,60 metres high. After Mass the altar section is screened off with a curtain and the rest of the building is used as a class-room...The convent is nine metres long and six-and-a-half metres wide. It has three rooms and two tiny additions, one of which serves as a kitchen, the other one as a pantry" (chronicle of Mbongolwane, Feb. - July 1924, pg. 19).
The Benedictines immediately built a solid presbytery. They were able to move into their new home before the end of 1924. A large workshop, a school, a boarding house and a provisional church were erected between 1926 and 1932. Bro. Candidus Mayer drew up the plans for a proper twintowered church which was built between 1937 and 1939. Fr. Rudolph Reiser blessed the church on November 1, 1939. The Mbongolwane Mission Hospital opened its doors in 1937. Bro. Dietrich Schmid built a new, doublestorey house for the priests and brothers in 1953/54. The school was gradually expanded so that a Std. 7 class could be introduced in 1939. It became a government school in 1978. Benedictine brothers looked after the garden and the small farm attached to the mission. They also did repair and maintenance work for the hospital. For many years the mission rendered an invaluable service to the local community through their maize-mill. People from far away used to come to Mbongolwane to have their maize crop ground.
It was not easy for Oblate and Benedictine missionaries to gain converts and to establish Catholic communities in the Mbongolwane area. Representatives of various Protestant churches had been active in the district long before. They were not at all pleased with the arrival of Catholic missionaries and regarded them as intruders. For quite a long time, the relationship between the churches remained rather frosty. The attempts by the different denominations to get the best church sites caused a lot of friction and, in a few instances, even led to appearances in court. However, after the Second World War the climate began to improve as the churches adopted a more open approach towards each other. This became even more pronounced in the sixties, when a new spirit of ecumenism emerged in the wake of the Second Vatican Council. The atmosphere of competition and mistrust among the churches gave way to mutual respect and a far greater readiness to co-operate.
In other respects, too, the Mbongolwane Mission experienced difficulties and set-backs. Between 1924 and 1934 there were several malaria and typhoid epidemics which claimed many victims, especially in the Tugela valley. An unusually long drought hit the area from 1926 to 1932. The annual rainfall dropped repeatedly below the crucial 500 millimeter level. Widespread crop-failure was the result. The year 1934 became known in the annals of Mbongolwane as the year of the locusts. Large swarms of grasshoppers penetrated the coastal region of Zululand, causing havoc and destroying much of the harvest. It was during such times of crises that the people living in the neighbourhood of Mbongolwane made great demands on the resources of the mission and the mission personnel struggled to meet their needs.
The Benedictine Sisters of Zululand, a congregation of local sisters founded at Inkamana by Bishop Thomas Spreiter in 1933, had their motherhouse at Mbongolwane from January 2, 1937 until January 25, 1949. They were trained under the direction of Sr. Victorine Mandl, a Benedictine Sister of Tutzing. Bishop Aurelian Bilgeri decided, soon after he had taken charge of the Diocese, to transfer the community from Mbongolwane to Twasana. This was done early in 1949. The Twasana Mission had much more farmland, thus offering a far better economic base for the fast growing community of African sisters.
In March 1924, Benedictine Sisters of Tutzing replaced the French Franciscan Sisters who had worked at Mbongolwane since May 1916. Besides running the mission school, they also started a mission hospital (in 1937) and eventually opened a training centre for medical nurses. The Benedictine Sisters left Mbongolwane in July 1959 and were replaced by Holy Childhood Sisters. The hospital was taken over by the government in 1978, but the sisters were allowed to continue their nursing apostolate even afterwards. In 1972, the Holy Childhood Sisters opened a novitiate at Mbongolwane. Sr. Frances Zungu was the first South African candidate to join them. She took her vows in 1972. Altogether thirteen local candidates have made profession between 1972 and 1990. The sisters began to render a very valuable service to the community when they opened a home for orphans at Mbongolwane in 1991.
About two hundred baptisms had been entered in the parish register of Mbongolwane by February 1924 when the Benedictines took over the mission from the Oblate Missionaries. In 1960, the number of Catholics had grown to about 3000. In 1993, the parish had 21 outstations and a total of 5600 members. Most of them live in small villages or isolated kraals, the traditional settlement pattern of the Zulus.
Parish Priests of Mbongolwane
Assistant Priests at Mbongolwane
Brothers at Mbongolwane
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This page was updated on Tuesday, 24 October 2006 17:51:43
