Fr. Killian Flynn OFM Cap. (centre) with Fr. Timothy Phelim O’Shea OFM Cap. (right) and Fr. Seraphin Nesdale OFM Cap. (left), probably onboard a ship during their first voyage to Africa in late 1931.
Cutting from the Irish Press reporting on the departure of Fr. Seraphin Nesdale OFM Cap., Fr. Killian Flynn OFM Cap. and Fr. Timothy Phelim O’Shea OFM Cap. for Northern Rhodesia.
Studio photographic print of (left to right) Fr. Timothy Phelim O’Shea OFM Cap., Fr. Seraphin Nesdale OFM Cap. and Fr. Killian Flynn OFM Cap. in Ireland before their departure for the African mission.
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.
McFadden, Declan, 1901-1979, Capuchin priestFr. Timothy Phelim O'Shea OFM Cap. (kneeling, left), Fr. Casimir Butler OFM Cap. (standing, left), Fr. Killian Flynn OFM Cap. (standing, right) and Seraphin Nesdale OFM Cap. (kneeling, right) in Northern Rhodesia in about 1932.
(On the right) Fr. Killian Flynn OFM Cap., Fr. Casimir Butler OFM Cap. (1876-1958) and altar servers outside Maramba Mission Church, Livingstone, Northern Rhodesia. The original caption reads ‘First mission chapel outside the centre of Livingstone, at Police Camp Maramba, opened on the Feast of Christ the King, 1932. A better church opened in Marmaba in 1940’.
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’.
McFadden, Declan, 1901-1979, Capuchin priest(From left) Fr. Killian Flynn OFM Cap., Fr. Timothy Phelim O’Shea OFM Cap., Fr. Casimir Butler OFM Cap. and Fr. Seraphin Nesdale on Victoria Falls Bridge in Northern Rhodesia.
(From left) Fr. Killian Flynn OFM Cap., Fr. Seraphin Nesdale OFM Cap., Fr. Casimir Butler OFM Cap. at Victoria Falls in Northern Rhodesia.
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.