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

The policy of the Jesuits which was later inherited by the Carmelites was to concentrate on the central mission
and the people were obliged to go to the Mission for all their requirements. This often involved walking for great
distances. Again the main concentration was on religion to the neglect of land-husbandry, domestic science, child
care etc. Other missionary bodies like the Methodists went in for the evangelization of the whole person.
Saint Barbara’s Mission: First Mass 1910. Officially established 1927.
o The present Saint ‘Barbara’s Mission area’ was an out-station of Triashill Mission.
o The first Mass was said in the area on Easter Monday, 1910.
o The ‘Mission’ started to develop during 1913 and the development continued until 1927. The Mission
was ‘officially established’ during 1927.
o The present Church was built during 1931.
o Like Triashill Mission, the Mariannhill Fathers and Brothers ministered at Saint Barbara’s Mission,
followed by the Jesuits. The Carmelites followed the Jesuits and were entrusted with the Mission between
1948 and 1950
The land around Saint Barbara’s Mission was very fertile and flat and a few hundred acres were reserved for the
use of the Missionaries. When Ambrose Majongwe was at school in Triashill, he and his companions were asked
to walk to St. Barbara’s to till the fields and do general chores. Apparently the missionaries got tired of the 16
mile trek and decided to remain around St. Barbara’s area in order to supervise their tillage and so St. Barbara’s
Mission was founded in 1927, perhaps founded out of convenience due to the miles of trek to and from Triashill.
During the previous year, 1926, three aspirants came forward for the priesthood, there were A. Majongwe, M.
Sedze and K. Samukandi. Kilian Samukandi was eventually ordained to the priesthood and ministered in South
Africa. Ambrose Majongwe, ex MP, MBE, decorated by Pope Pius X11 was murdered during 1978.
When the Jesuits came to take over St. Barbara’s Mission they did not spare themselves in the building of the
mission which could be regarded for that particular time as a masterpiece. There was a well constructed church
with a magnificent convent for the Sisters at the side of the Church. Unfortunately the Jesuits at that time were
unaware of ant courses or any other form of ant deterrent and during the following years, the ants simply played
havoc with the mission despite the well structured buildings. The original plan was to build a presbytery on the
other side of the church but they never got around to it and the missionaries lived in another building nearby.
When the mission was taken over by the Carmelites, Fr A. Corbett became the priest in charge. In time, Fr A.
Corbett gained a great command of the Shona language after learning the language at Mhondoro with Fr. L.
Flynn. Fr. M. Aherne and Brother Bernard Clinch joined the community at St. Barbara's. There were three
communities of Sisters also, namely the Precious Blood Sisters, the Trinity Sisters and the LCBL Sisters. There
was a hospital, an orphanage, a very well arranged farm and farmyard at St. Barbara’s at that time. Up to
1948, the grinding of maize was done at Triashill and a big ox-wagon, pulled by eight oxen made the weekly
journey to and from Triashill with maize and upfu, which is ‘ground maize’.
As St. Barbara’s was on the border of the Makoni and Manica communal lands there existed a number of
outstations or outschools. It was the custom that one priest remained on the mission, generally the priest in charge
who looked after the mission and school while another priest acted as ‘superintendent of the outschools’. As time
went on this arrangement gave a very bad impression as missionaries were regarded as civil servants. St. Barbara’s
had some of the finest outschools in the area such as Bethania, Loretto and St. Anna’s which was later to become
St. Columba’s Mission in the Honde Valley. Father Schmitz, S.J. was the last Jesuit to serve at St. Barbara’s
Mission.
The Carmelites became very involved in education in their mission areas possibly because many had University
Degrees and were eligible for salaries whereas the wages of the African teachers in schools was hopelessly and
unjustifiably low.
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