Fr. Casimir Butler OFM Cap. at the rear of St. Theresa's Friary in Livingstone. The original caption reads: ‘In 1910 he left Ireland to help out in Hermiston, Oregon in the United States. Casimir began work and soon he had built a small church. Before he left Hermiston, Casimir built three mission churches. Casimir embarked on a new adventure, going to Cape Town, helping to establish a Capuchin presence there and then Zambia (then called Northern Rhodesia) where the Irish Capuchin Province had established a new mission. The Livingstone government had set aside a plot for a Catholic church and house. Casimir hired a contractor to build a house: ever since known as “217” (PO Box). Casimir was fifty-five years old when he arrived and was not in good health’.
Photographic album (titled ‘The Cambrian Album’) containing black and white prints of the early Irish Capuchin missionaries in Northern Rhodesia. Some of the prints were later annotated by Fr. Edwin Flynn OFM Cap. The album includes: • Two views of St. Theresa’s Church, Livingstone. • Postcard print of the consecration of Monsignor Killian Flynn OFM Cap. as Prefect Apostolic, 25 Nov. 1936. • Fr. Agathangelus Herlihy OFM Cap. with local Christians. (Fr. Agathangelus was resident in Northern Rhodesia from 1936-49). • Fr. Timothy Connery OFM Cap., Fr. Christopher Crowley OFM Cap., Fr. Fintan Roche OFM Cap. at Mulobezi. (Fr. Timothy was resident in Northern Rhodesia from 1935-9, Fr. Fintan from 1933-9, and Fr. Christopher from 1933-44). • Fr. Timothy Connery OFM Cap. and Fr. Agathangelus Herlihy OFM Cap. outside a tent; Fr. Timothy Phelim O’Shea OFM Cap. on the banks of the Zambezi River; Fr. Fintan Roche OFM Cap. on the banks of the Zambezi; Fr. Killian Flynn OFM Cap. on horseback. • Fr. Timothy Connery OFM Cap. and Fr. Fintan Roche OFM Cap. inspecting a van with rifles perched against wheel; A view of a barge crossing a river in Northern Rhodesia. • Fr. Timothy Connery OFM Cap. with a fishing rod. • Fr. Timothy Connery OFM Cap. hunting wild game in Northern Rhodesia (including leopards and zebras). • Monsignor Killian Flynn OFM Cap. and Fr. Jarlath Gough OFM Cap. with a large group of worshippers outside St. Theresa’s Church, Livingstone. Fr. Jarlath Gough OFM Cap. was resident in Northern Rhodesia from 1936-49. • Livingstone Church and adjoining school; Fr. Fintan Roche OFM Cap. on the banks of a river; a view of Victoria Falls. • Fr. Fintan Roche OFM Cap. on the veranda of Livingstone Friary; local Christians with a religious sister at a pageant. • The installation of Monsignor Killian Flynn OFM Cap. as Prefect Apostolic (25 Nov. 1936). The photograph includes: Fr. Timothy Phelim O’Shea OFM Cap., Fr. Seraphin Nesdale OFM Cap., Fr. Christopher Crowley OFM Cap., Fr. Casimir Butler OFM Cap., Fr. Oliver O’Hanlon OFM Cap., Fr. Jarlath Gough OFM Cap., Fr. Timothy Connery OFM Cap., Br. Alexius Paolucci OFM Cap. and the Most Rev. Aston Chichester SJ, Archbishop of Salisbury, Rhodesia. • Fr. Timothy Connery OFM Cap. at Sawmills School. • Photographs of early missionary churches and buildings.
Letters from Archbishops Arthur Hinsley, Antonio Riberi, David Mathew and James Robert Knox, successive Apostolic Delegates in Mombasa, Kenya, to Fr. Casimir Butler OFM Cap. and Fr. James O’Mahony OFM Cap., Provincial Minister. The letters refer to the work of the Irish Capuchin missionaries in Northern Rhodesia. Archbishop David Mathew also refers to his hope that the Irish Capuchins may be prevailed upon to take charge of the College of St. Louis in the Seychelles (23 Apr. 1947). Archbishop Knox expresses his hope that an assistant will be appointed for Monsignor Killian Flynn OFM Cap. to assist in his work with the Conference of Northern Rhodesian Bishops (24 May 1957).
Photographic pints assembled by Fr. Declan McFadden OFM Cap. (1901-1979) during missionary work in Northern Rhodesia (1931-3) and later in India. Only a small number of the prints are annotated: Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) Building work on the Capuchin house and church in Livingstone. The first mission station at Loanja ‘cleared and built in virgin bush. Fr. Timothy Phelim O’Shea OFM Cap. in the foreground’. ‘Back view of the Loanja Station with little oratory in foreground. They were just clearing the brush and scrub away when this was taken’. ‘Building of school at Loanja’. ‘Fr. Peyton at Sichili’. Fr. Casimir Butler OFM Cap. and Fr. Declan McFadden OFM Cap. with local men. Fr. Declan with local converts and communicants. Religious sisters with local children. Fr. Declan standing outside the Livingstone Capuchin house. The exteriors and interiors of Capuchin churches in Northern Rhodesia. Postcard prints of wild game in Northern Rhodesia. India: ‘Paharganj Bazaar / Italian Capuchins in India, Old Delhi’.
Photographic album of Fr. Jarlath Gough OFM Cap. The album contains un-captioned black and white photographic prints. Fr. Jarlath was resident in Northern Rhodesia from 1936-49. The collection includes some views of local worshipers and parishioners (in Northern Rhodesia and in South Africa). Includes prints of Fr. Christopher Crowley OFM Cap., Fr. Luke Sheehan OFM Cap., Fr. Timothy Phelim O’Shea OFM Cap., Fr. Killian Flynn OFM Cap., Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OFM Cap. (Provincial Minister from 1931-7) with Fr. Paschal Larkin OFM Cap., Fr. Casimir Butler OFM Cap. and others, a group of young friars at St. Bonaventure’s Friary, the voyage of the Union Castle Line ship, RMMV 'Cape Town Castle', in December 1947.
Ledger of loans and monies supplied to the Irish Capuchin missions in Africa compiled by Fr. Kieran O’Callaghan OFM Cap., Provincial Secretary. The ledger includes records of money supplied to Fr. Alban Cullen OFM Cap. and Fr. Oliver O’Hanlon OFM Cap. to build parish churches in Athlone and Parow, Cape Town, in March 1933. £1,700 was given to Monsignor Killian Flynn OFM Cap. to build a friary (14 June 1937), and £1,000 was given to Fr. Casimir Butler OFM Cap. for Livingstone Church in Northern Rhodesia. The accounts also include monies derived from the Seraphic Mass Association (SMA) from Aug. 1931-Jan. 1935. The accounts are signed are by Fr. Edwin Fitzgibbon OFM Cap. Provincial Minister, 10 Aug. 1937.
Cutting from 'The Southern Cross' reporting on the opening of the new Church of St. Therese of the Child Jesus, Livingstone, Northern Rhodesia. With a photographic print of the Church. The report notes that the Church, built by the Irish Capuchins, ‘is the only Catholic Church now on the 600 mile stretch of railway between Bulawayo and Broken Hill’. Reference is made Fr. Casimir Butler OFM Cap., Superior of the Mission, Fr. Declan McFadden OFM Cap. and Fr. Killian Flynn OFM Cap.
Letters of Fr. Declan McFadden OFM Cap. (1901-1979). The correspondents include Fr. Kevin Moynihan OFM Cap. Provincial Minister; Fr. Kieran O’Callaghan OFM Cap., Provincial Secretary. The subjects include: Fr. Declan’s first impressions of the South African mission; negotiations with Bishop Bernard Cornelius O’Riley (1868-1956), Vicar Apostolic of the Cape of Good Hope; Fr. Declan’s efforts to open a mission school in Claremont Parish, Cape Province, South Africa. Fr. Declan also refers to arrangements for the opening of the Irish Capuchin mission in Northern Rhodesia. He wrote ‘Looking at the map it may strike you that the Cape is a long way from N. Rhodesia – it’s nearly two thousand miles. Yet it’s quicker and at least as cheap, if not cheaper, for our men to land at the Cape and rail to N. Rhodesia’. (27 Feb. 1931). Fr. Declan also provides an account of Irish missionary activity for Stanislaus Kavanagh OFM Cap., Provincial Archivist. (25 Sept. 1931). Reference is also made to the missionary activities of Fr. Casimir Butler OFM Cap. and Fr. Killian Flynn OFM Cap. in Barotseland.
Fr. James O’Mahony OFM Cap. (seated on left) with Fr. Casimir Butler OFM Cap., (seated on right), Fr. Timothy Phelim O’Shea (standing on left) and Fr. Christopher Crowley (standing on right) in Livingstone.
