The Diocese of Mutare & The Carmelites in Zimbabwe - the Irish ...

The Municipality granted the Bishop twelve acres for the hospital site and allowed him to purchase twenty more
on adjoining land.
The Bishop accepted an offer of the Sisters of Charity from the Netherlands who were already established in the
Diocese. During 1957 the Sisters came to Umtali and after living for some time at the Dominican Convent,
Umtali they moved to Saint Joseph’s Mission to begin their work at the future Hospital and Primary School.
Saint Joseph’s Mission was founded on the 12 th of September 1958.
Within a short time the building of the Hospital started. On the 30 th of December 1958 , the T.B. Hospital was
officially opened by Lady Dalhousie and the first patients were admitted.
The opening of the Hospital was of great benefit to Umtali and the districts as the incidence of T.B. among the
people was becoming most alarming. The Government had been sending ‘mobile clinics’ to test the people of the
villages and those who were suffering from T.B. were brought back to Umtali, to the General Hospital. As the
numbers increased, the General Hospital was unable to cope with the T.B. patients. The people found it difficult
to leave their villages for long periods as the treatment took rather a long time but with the opening of the Saint
Joseph’s Sanatorium and the presence of the Sisters, the people soon became aware that consumption could be
cured.
They also realized that T.B. was infectious, some went to the sanatorium of their own initiative and better still,
they often brought their families for treatment or for testing. All was not smooth sailing as some of the patients
ran away because of the length of time it took for healing. They of course had to be brought back to Saint Josephs.
On discharge from hospital, Government officials visited people who had T.B. to make sure that the disease was
arrested. For years Sister Margaret ran a ‘mobile clinic’ from Saint Joseph’s hospital and Sister Camilla, Sisters
Catherine and Damian, other Sisters and dedicated staff treated the patients at the hospital.
It was also within a short time after the founding of Saint Josephs that the building of the school, an upper
primary with lower combined was started (1959). Twenty houses for hospital and school staff were also erected on
the Mission during 1959. It was also during 1959 that all the classes at Saint Roberts transferred to Saint
Josephs. For the following two years, the buildings were increased, including the two-story Primary School building
until there were over one thousand pupils attending the school. Sister Petronella was the first Headmistress of the
school. Bishop Patrick Mutume attended school at this time. Sister Petronella was followed by Sisters Maria Jose
and Maria Goretti.
The school buildings were well built with monies from The Sisters in the Netherlands. The amount of money
poured into the Diocese of Umtali by the Sisters was astronomical!! During 1968, two new schools were included
at Saint Joseph’s Mission – the Secondary school which was run by Sister Adelaide and a Homecraft school which
was run by Sister Laurentina.
Sister Laurentina started the Homecraft school for girls which included cooking, sewing, gardening, laundry and
religion. Also during 1968, permission was granted to begin a Secondary School at the Mission. At first the
Secondary School used some classrooms in the Primary school and during 1975 they began to build the Secondary
School classrooms.
It was during 1958 that the Catholic people began to assemble at Saint Joseph’s Mission. Father Conall Collier
came to Rhodesia during 1958 and Father Pio Kiernan came during 1960. Both were associated with Saint
Josephs from its early years. The Priest’s house and Church at Saint Joseph’s Mission were built in the early sixties
(1962) and the Church has the same design as the churches at Regina Coeli and Saint ThÑrÖse Chiduku though
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