Two Irish Capuchin missionaries (Fr. Fintan Roche OFM Cap. on the right, and possibly Fr. Serpahin Nesdale OFM Cap.) on the banks of the Zambezi River, Northern Rhodesia.
A print of Fr. Fintan Roche OFM Cap. The verso is endorsed: ‘Group of schoolchildren at Saw mills school. … This is not [a] full crowd about half [are] missing in this group. After a while one gets accustomed to their strange faces. The little fellow second from right, front row, must have been playing rugby’.
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.
Calendar of Irish Capuchin missionaries in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) and South Africa from 1929-38 giving details of where each friar was stationed and the time spent at each mission station. Includes a clipping of an article on the Irish Capuchin mission in Barotseland, Northern Rhodesia, taken from 'The Father Mathew Record'. The extract is extant on pp 42-5 in the volume compiled Fr. Albeus McQuillan OFM Cap. (1912-1989).
• Photocopy of Fr. Matthew Flynn OFM Cap., 'The Eager Heart / A short life of Father Theobald Mathew OFM Cap. / The Apostle of Temperance' (Dublin: Catholic Truth Society of Ireland, 1961), 24 pp. • Photocopy of an article by Professor W.F.P. Stockley, ‘Theobald Mathew’s Work (1838-1938)’, 'Bonaventura' (Winter 1938), pp 33-49. • Photocopy of an article by Fr. Fintan Roche OFM Cap., ‘Father Theobald Mathew (1790-1856)’, 'Bonaventura' (Winter 1940-41), pp 121-9. • An article on Fr. Theobald Mathew transcribed from 'The Father Mathew Record'. Typescript, 4 pp.
Photographic prints of Irish Capuchin missionaries in Northern Rhodesia. The prints are extant on loose cards taken from a photographic album (CA AMI/2/10/1/2). Most of the prints have been annotated: Capuchin friars at the Maramba mission station. Fr. Timothy Phelim O’Shea OFM Cap. at the Livingstone Capuchin Friary. Confirmations at the Maramba mission station. Fr. Colga O’Riordan OFM Cap. Fr. Agathangelus Herlihy OFM Cap. in Cape Town, South Africa, in 1940. ‘Fathers, Sisters and girl boarders, Easter 1941’. The mission car in 1941. A trek to a mission station in 1937. ‘Hoisting a roof on a mission hut’. A local cook with his wife at an Irish Capuchin mission station. The building of the first Capuchin mission church in 1938. The interior of a mission church in 1939. Local game shot outside the mission grounds. Preparations for an eight-week trek through the bush. The Capuchin community in Sichili in 1937 (Fr. Christopher Crowley OFM Cap., Fr. Agathangelus Herlihy OFM Cap. and Fr. Fintan Roche OFM Cap.). A local teacher and altar servers. The building of the father’s dwelling at a mission station. Scenes on the way to Sesheke (including the local chief’s hut). The Parish Church and Capuchin Friary in Livingstone.
