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

FOUNDING OF MISSIONS AND PARISHES FROM 1951 TO 1969.
Saint Anna’s Wengesi (1951)
(Situated around the junction of the Mutare/Masvingo road and the Chimanimani turn-off. About 40Km from
Mutare)
Around 1951, Father Lamont was donated a plot of land to the South of Umtali. It was a small farm in the
middle of a white farming community.
Father Lamont had a house constructed on the property and a small school to provide education for the local
children of the farm workers on the surrounding farms. Father John O’Sharkey was appointed to the area. The
venture proved a dismal failure as there was nothing static about the farm workers, they were always on the move.
After a short time Father O’Sharkey found himself with a school but with few children and the whole project was
abandoned.
Saint Simon Stock, Rusape (1952)
The next area to receive attention of Father Lamont was Rusape Town. During 1952 the ‘old Church’, now a
hall was erected (situated beside the present Church and Priest’s residence). This was a mistake as it gave the
wrong impression in an area where the local people in those days outnumbered the Europeans by five to one. The
first Mass was said in Rusape during 1916. Rusape was an outstation of Triashill up to 1958. While at
Triashill, Fathers M. McMahon and G. O’Brien took turns in saying Mass in Rusape and the services were
conducted in English. The first Priest took up residence in Rusape during 1958.
There was a ‘foundation’ in Rusape during the time of the Trappists. It was situated near the railway station and
was known as ‘Saint Josephs’. It was a fairly sizable cottage and most of the Trappists and later the Mariannhill
brethren spent their first few days there, having arrived by train. The plot of ground is still marked ‘The Trappist’s
site’ on the old survey maps of Rusape.
The cottage with its small plot of ground served as a storage place for goods collected from the train prior to their
being taken to the missions.
Avila Mission (1953)
To the North and East of Mount Melleray there were scattered villages of Christians or people who were
interested in Christianity. Father A. Corbett put the whole situation in perspective when he wrote: “Across the
mountains and over towards Mocambique there were scattered villages of Chief Nyamaropa’s people who were
still pagan and rather primitive when compared with those living near Umtali. Further North there was the big
undeveloped area called Nani-Katerere. Mount Melleray was the jumping off place for expansion north and
eastwards”.
During 1953 Monsignor Lamont started to organise his new Prefecture. The area of Katerere was the first to
claim his attention. In the early twenties, two Trappists Brothers, Aegidius and Zacharias reached as far as
Katerere from Triashill, a distance of over 100 miles. The two made such an impression on Chiefs and people
that it was easy for the future missionaries to continue in their footsteps. When the Carmelites made their first
contact with Chief Katerere, he asked them one very searching question ‘was Roma the same Church as that of
Brothers Aegidius and Zacharias’? When Father Corbett told him that it was the same church, he gladly and
joyfully gave permission for the Carmelites to come to his area. During the rainy season of 1953, Monsignor
Lamont, Fathers O’Shea and Corbett set out for Katerere which may not have been a good idea because of the
heavy rains at that time. The Monsignor always liked a challenge and liked to impress visitors and probably
wanted to introduce Father O’Shea to mission life in the raw!! The three travelled with two local teachers and left
Mount Melleray early in the morning intending to return the same day. The distance to Katerere was about fifty
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