Report and minutes of meeting between Fr. James O’Mahony OFM Cap., Provincial Minister, and Fr. Timothy Phelim O’Shea OFM Cap., Regular Superior. The meeting was held at the Sancta Maria mission station, Lukulu, Northern Rhodesia. The minutes refer to various decrees, appointments and recommendations made in relation to missionary work in Barotseland, and in South Africa.
Note on the history and geography of the Caprivi Strip committed to the care of the Irish Capuchins ‘temporarily in 1944, and permanently after the War’. The memorandum refers to the establishment on 6 August 1944 of the Holy Family mission in the Eastern Caprivi Strip.
Copy contract between the Most Rev. Timothy Phelim O’Shea OFM Cap., Bishop of Livingstone, and Fr. Berard Creed OFM Cap., Provincial Minister, outlining the ‘mutual rights and obligations’ in respect of the relationship between the Irish Capuchins the diocesan authorities in the Livingstone. The appendices specify the parishes, foundations and properties belonging to and administered by the Order in Zambia.
Proposal for the construction of St. Bonaventure’s Formation Centre, Lusaka, Zambia. The proposal includes details re expenditure for the construction and copy construction plans. With a letter from Fr. Angelus O’Neill OFM Cap., Provincial Minister, to Br. Declan O’Callaghan OFM Cap. offering his support for an application to the General Curia for funding for the project (13 Sept. 1990).
Report by Fr. Declan McFadden OFM Cap. sent to Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OFM Cap., Provincial Minister, on the progress of the Irish Capuchin mission in Barotseland, Northern Rhodesia. Reference is made to the difficulties encountered by the first missionaries (including Fr. Timothy Phelim O’Shea OFM Cap., Fr. Killian Flynn OFM Cap., Fr. Seraphin Nesdale OFM Cap. (1897-1980) and Fr. Casimir Butler OFM Cap.); the establishment of the Loanja mission; negotiations with government authorities and tribal leaders; the work of other missionary orders including the White Fathers and the Jesuits. Fr. Declan concludes ‘as regards the mission outlook in general in Barotseland, I must candidly state it is going to be a very tough problem. The whole territory is fearfully primitive and undeveloped. The only transport help of a convenient or modern touch that we have as an ally is a spasmodic lumber train which carries us from Livingstone to the Barotse border’.
Deed of proclamation of election ballot results for Regular Superior and Consultors at the Capuchin chapter in Zambia. The election was supervised by Fr. Brendan O’Mahony OFM Cap., Provincial Minister.
A collection of black and white and colour photographic prints associated with the work of religious sisters mainly 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: • Sisters in a garden with African children, Basutoland (later Lesotho). • A sister and an African worker draining a marshy area. • ‘The sisters wear white habits when nursing’. (The Father Mathew Record). • Nurses’ accommodation – ‘Sister and nurses sitting on a Basutoland blanket with students’. (Lusikisiki, Eastern Cape, South Africa). • Two religious sisters and a crippled man at St. Francis Hospital, Aliwal, South Africa. • Franciscan Missionaries of the Divine Motherhood at Mangango leprosarium. • African Sisters’ Convent at Kalabo, Northern Rhodesia. • Two first-year African students at Kaoma Secondary School. • ‘A petrified Sr. Lelia going to visit one of Sr. Elizabeth’s gardens – her first trip in a canoe’. • ‘Sister Josephine FMDM, the sister in charge of leprosarium in Mangango. She comes from Leitrim’.
An outreach project from the Franciscan Missionaries of the Divine Motherhood (FMDM) at Mangango in Zambia. The image shows Dr Kathleen O’Connor with a leprosy patient. Sr Martha Murtagh is in the background.
