Letters of Fr. Oliver O’Hanlon OFM Cap. (1902-1957). The correspondents include Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OFM Cap., Provincial Minister; Fr. Kieran O’Callaghan OFM Cap., Provincial Secretary; Fr. Colman Griffin OFM Cap., Provincial Minister; Fr. Stanislaus Kavanagh OFM Cap.; Fr. James O’Mahony OFM Cap., Provincial Minister. Most of the correspondence relates to missionary activity in the parish of St. Monica’s, Parow, Cape Province, South Africa. The subjects include: arrangements for Fr. Oliver’s journey to South Africa on board the SS Adolf Woermann. (5 Mar.-22 May 1930); a request from Fr. Oliver to ensure that Parow parish is kept in addition to Athlone parish as it ‘contains the biggest coloured school in the vicariate’. (26 Feb. 1931); requests for mass stipends. (15 Jan. 1932); James Carlton Clarkein who wishes to join the Capuchin Order as a lay brother. (3 Mar. 1932); the resignation of Bishop Bernard Cornelius O’Riley, Vicar Apostolic of the Cape of Good Hope. Fr. Oliver wrote: ‘It is the best thing he could have done. He had not the necessary qualities to be a bishop of such vicariate as this’. (22 July 1932); requesting that Matroosfontein parish come under Capuchin ministry. (3 May 1934); the opening of a church in Matroosfontein. (17 Sept. 1935); the future of the Capuchin mission in the Cape Province. (28 May 1940); the difficulties of sending priests to the mission during wartime conditions. (15 Oct. 1940); the opportunity of establishing a mission in the Port Elizabeth Vicariate. (2 Aug. 1949). The file includes a rough sketch map of the Irish Capuchin Mission in the Cape Province. The map also indicates the distances between the various mission stations. With two photographic prints including one of Fr. Oliver O’Hanlon OFM Cap. The other may show his residence at Parow. References are also made to the following Capuchin friars: Fr. Seraphin Nesdale OFM Cap.; Fr. Casimir Butler OFM Cap.; Fr. Timothy Phelim O’Shea OFM Cap.; Fr. Alban Cullen OFM Cap.; Fr. Livinus Keane Cap.; Fr. Fintan Roche OFM Cap.; Fr. Timothy Connery OFM Cap.; Fr. Marcellus Carroll OFM Cap.
Letter from Fr. Timothy Connery OFM Cap. (1908-1996) to Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OFM Cap., Provincial Minister, affirming that his health has improved and thanking him for his kind words of encouragement. The file includes a copy medical report affirming that Fr. Timothy is ‘quite unfitted for work in the bush’ (28 Apr. 1938). With a letter from Fr. Killian Flynn OFM Cap. referring to Fr. Timothy’s medical examination in Cape Town and thanking him for his three years’ work in Africa (24 June 1938).
Letters of Fr. Timothy Phelim O’Shea OFM Cap. (1902-1979). The correspondents include Fr. Kieran O’Callaghan OFM Cap., Provincial Secretary; Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OFM Cap., Provincial Minister; Fr. James O’Mahony OFM Cap., Provincial Minister; Fr. Colman Griffin OFM Cap., Provincial Minister; Fr. Conrad O’Donovan OFM Cap., Provincial Minister., and Fr. Clement Neubauer OFM Cap., General Minister. The subjects include: the progress of the Irish Capuchin mission in Barotseland and Livingstone, Northern Rhodesia; the Silozi catechism; the Loanja station; requests for financial assistance and loans for the Northern Rhodesian mission; missionary activities in Cape Town, South Africa; the recognition of five parishes in the Cape as coming under Irish Capuchin jurisdiction (1946); the Katima Mulilo mission station in the Caprivi Strip (1949); Fr. Phelim’s appointment as Regular Superior of the Victoria Falls Mission; the completion of the church at Langa (1949); the deaths of Fr. Eustace Burke OFM Cap. and Fr. Donatus Aherne OFM Cap. (1949); Educational matters in the missionary territories; the appointment of Fr. Killian Flynn OFM Cap. as Education Secretary General (1949); the need for more missionary sisters (Holy Faith Sisters, Sisters of Mercy, the Irish Sisters of Charity and the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of Africa); the opening of the church at the Holy Family Mission, Katima Mulilo. (Mar. 1954); the building of a new convent and girls’ boarding school at Maramba. (July 1953); his proposal to resign as Bishop of Livingstone ‘in line with the gradual Zambianization of the Hierarchy’. (10 Aug. 1969). Reference is also made to the activities of the following Capuchin friars: Fr. Casimir Butler OFM Cap.; Fr. Oliver O’Hanlon OFM Cap.; Fr. Timothy Connery OFM Cap.; Fr. Agathangelus Herlihy OFM Cap.; Fr. Seraphin Nesdale OFM Cap.; Fr. Eltin Daly OFM Cap. The file also includes a manuscript copy of an ‘Approved Prayer for the Conversion of Africa’ and a typescript copy of a ‘Spiritual portrait of Bishop Timothy Phelim O’Shea OFM Cap.’ by Fr. Salvator Quinn OFM Cap. (Livingstone, 1992). 19 pp.
Publication by Fr. Fintan Roche OFM Cap. on the Irish Capuchin mission in Barotseland, Northern Rhodesia. The booklet was published by M.H. Gill & Son, Dublin.
Notes by Fr. Killian Flynn OFM Cap. re clothing and supplies which are needed for missionary work in Northern Rhodesia. The file includes several lists outlining the requirements. Fr. Killian notes that Monsignor Bruno Wolnick SJ ‘says we can get help for all of the above articles from the “Peter Claver Society”. Dublin Address: 49 North Great George’s Street’.
Lists of Irish Capuchin friars at various mission stations in Northern Rhodesia. The list is arranged under the following locations: St. Mary’s, Livingstone (Rt. Rev. Bishop O’Shea OFM Cap., Vicar Apostolic) St. Theresa’s Pro-Cathedral, Livingstone Christ the King Mission, Maramba St. Fidelis Mission, Sichili Holy Family Mission, Katima Mulilo St. Joseph’s Mission, Mankoya St. Francis Mission, Mongu St. Patrick’s Mission, Kalabo Sancta Maria Mission
Two local children in Cape Town, South Africa. Manuscript annotations on the reverse read ‘Little Mother / Cape Town’ and ‘Two little friends – Cape Town’.
A collection of prints of local Christians mainly associated with the missionary work of the Irish Capuchin friars in Northern Rhodesia (later Zambia). Most of the prints are not captioned. The file includes prints collected for publication in 'The Capuchin Annual' and 'The Father Mathew Record'. The captioned photographs include: • ‘Peter: a cook boy – on right in picture, a Catholic. Kinabini – our kitchen boy [and] on left, a catechumen. These are the 2 boys who came with us from Mankoya to help us to start our mission here’. • Holy Cross mission, Mekading, Basutoland (later Lesotho). • ‘Local smoking women’ probably in Basutoland. • Church-goers at Quachas Nek, Basutoland. • ‘Our Well’ showing local children beside a primitive water well. • Portrait photograph showing ‘an African Witchdoctor’. • ‘Mother teaching children to balance baskets on their heads’. • ‘Paddling by Canoe to their village during the rainy season’. • ‘Making bricks at the Sancta Maria Mission in Lukulu’. • A local woman preparing an evening meal. • Leprosy victims and disabled children. • ‘A leper patient in Mangango, blind and crippled known as the “Joker”’. • Pounding maize.
Photographic prints of Mangango leprosarium, Western Province, Zambia. The prints show a group of local children, a feast in progress in the leprosarium and a visit by Sr. Joseph (and her sister from New York) to Mangango.
Booklet containing the recollections of Fr. Michael Murphy OFM Cap. particularly in relation to his role in establishing Namushakende Parish Church in the Diocese of Mongu, Zambia. Reference is also made to his missionary work in Kashembe, Namboata, Nanjuca and Litoya. The photographic print shows a celebration outside St. Gabriel’s Catholic Church in Namushakende on 25 Mar. 2004.
