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Draft report by Fr. James O’Mahony OFM Cap., Provincial Minister, on the canonical visitation of the Irish Capuchin missions in the Cape Province, South Africa, and in the Livingstone Vicariate, Northern Rhodesia. The report is divided into the following sections:
Mission in the Cape Province (South Africa)
A. St. Mary of the Angels, Athlone

1. Parish of Athlone
2. Station at Welcome Estate
3. Location at Langa
   B. Friary of the Immaculate Conception, Parow
4. Parish at Parow
5. Station at Matroosfontein
   Livingstone Vicariate (Northern Rhodesia)
   A. Livingstone
6. Township: St. Theresa’s Pro-Cathedral
7. District of Maramba: Christ the King Mission
   B. Caprivi Strip
8. Katima Mulilo: Holy Family Mission
   Barotseland Protectorate (Northern Rhodesia)
9. Sichili: St. Fidelis Mission
10. Sioma: St. Anthony Mission
11. Malengwa: St. Francis of Assisi Mission
12. Lukulu: Sancta Maria Mission
13. Mangango: St. Joseph Mission
14. Sihole: St. Patrick Mission
15. Balovale Boma: Our Lady of Fatima
16. Chinyingi: Sacred Heart Mission
    Reference is made to the history of the various mission stations, the friars staffing the stations, and the apostolic activity undertaken by the Capuchins.

A view of the first Dutch Reformed Mission Church in the Cape Flats region of Cape Town in South Africa. The print is annotated: ‘The recently completed church in Lawrence Road, Athlone. It has seating accommodation for about 500 people’. Manuscript annotation reads: ‘This is for non-Europeans. The whites have another. Built [in] two months’.

File relating to an abortive attempt to establish an Irish Capuchin missionary presence in the Cape Colony, South Africa. In 1903, Bishop Hugh McSherry (1852-1940), Vicar Apostolic of the Cape of Good Hope (Eastern District), invited the Irish Capuchins to establish missionary foundations in his Vicariate. The large missionary area offered to the friars comprised the civil divisions of Albert, Aliwal North, Herschel and Barclay East collectively known as the Gariep (later Aliwal) territory. The file includes:
• Ecclesiastical return of the numbers of missions and Catholics in the Eastern Vicariate. 30 June 1903.
• Correspondence between Bishop Hugh McSherry and Fr. Peter Bowe OSFC, Provincial Minister.
• Draft report of Fr. Peter Bowe OSFC on his visit to Port Elizabeth to view the proposed territory in March 1904.
• Draft letters to the Capuchin Minister General re the proposed mission.
• Draft memoranda of agreement for the proposed mission stations and properties to be held by the Irish Capuchins in the Vicariate.
• Colour trace map of the Eastern Vicariate showing the locations of the proposed Capuchin mission stations.
Other correspondents include: W.H. Butler, J. Commins, Fr. Lewis B. Gately, Fr. J.J. O’Reilly, St. Mary’s, Cape Town, and Fr. Bernard Christen of Andermatt OSFC, Minister General of the Capuchin Franciscans. On 13 July 1903, Bishop McSherry wrote: ‘I fear it would be practically impossible for me in a letter to convey to you any fair idea of the state of things in this country. Everything here is quite different to what it is at home – climate, season, habits and customs of the people, conditions of travelling, the ways of the natives – everything’. Later, the Bishop explained that the ‘mission district is 175 miles in its greatest length and 75 miles in its greatest width. It contains the important towns of Ailwal and Burghersdorp and the following smaller ones, Jamestown and Barclay East. … There are no Catholic schools in the district. The climate is about the best in South Africa or in the world’. (4 Jan. 1904).

Financial statements for the African missions founded by the Irish Capuchin friars. The file includes:
• Note re income derived from masses in the Livingstone (Northern Rhodesia) and in the Cape Town (South Africa) missions from 1931-4.
• Statement of income and expenditure for the Livingstone and Cape Town missions submitted to the Provincial Minister and Defintiory, 17 Jan. 1935.
• Statement of income and expenditure for the Victoria Falls Prefecture compiled by Monsignor Killian Flynn OFM Cap., Prefect Apostolic, and Fr. Seraphin Nesdale OFM Cap. 15 May 1937.
• Financial account for the Victoria Falls Mission from July 1947 to July 1948.