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

from the Bishop and were then appointed to a mission. Mel did not insist on the use of the martyrology but he did
on the recitation of the Divine Office, even on missions where there were only two Carmelites in residence. All the
brethren had to spend at least one day each month either in Umtali or Salisbury. The Provincial Chapter of
1955 made adequate provisions for the upkeep of the Regular Superior. All Mass stipends, retreat stipends and
other monies went to the Superior as directed by the Mission Statutes of 1955. Father Hill was adamant that all
the brethren got oversees leave once every six years. It was also during this time that a rule was introduced that no
Carmelite was to go to conduct business with Bishop Lamont without the company of his Regular Superior. This
rule was necessary and both the brethren and Father Hill abided by it. People who knew Mel would testify that
he was a kind and hospitable Superior who dropped everything when anyone arrived at the Priory Umtali. He
was a man of extraordinary wit and charm, a poet who could write anything about anyone!! Like Father Gerry
Galvin, Mel shared ‘a thought for the day’ on religious matters on Radio Rhodesia and he was removed from
broadcasting after a remark which he made that ‘Christ died for blondes as well as brunettes’!!
Regina Coeli (1955)
The people were constantly being shifted and changed by District Commissioners. Many people were moved from
the Makoni, Manica and Triashill areas to the Nyamaropa area. Monsignor Lamont was very conscious of this
fact and in 1954 he contacted the District Commissioner of Inyanga and Chief Nyamaropa with a view to
opening a Mission in Nyamaropa. Permission was granted and Father Senan Egan was asked to go there. A site
was identified which was to become ‘Regina Coeli Mission’. At first Father Egan lived some miles away from the
site, at Saint Bernard’s out-school, sharing a house with a teacher, his wife and family. Few missionaries have
ever roughed it as Father Egan did. His transport was very inadequate for the work and for the road conditions of
Nyamaropa. He began to build and his first building was a multi-purpose affair in which he slept and from which
he supervised the building of the mission. Most of the buildings on missions up to this time were somewhat
haphazard, there was no indication of a plan as buildings were added as time went on. Senan had another plan!!
He planned the mission with meticulous care, provision was made for the erection of an eventual church,
hospital, presbytery. The bare essentials were built in the beginning. The whole mission was to be circular shaped
and when completed it would be possible to take in the entire mission at one glance. Father Egan learned from
the stories emanating from Avila, stories of sheer misery without water so he brought water at the very beginning
from a local river and installed filter plants to clear the water.
Father Senan made friends with a Mr Van Roiyan, the Government agent in charge of an irrigation plant in
Nyamaropa, near the Gairezi river and as a result of the friendship Senan got tons of cement, sand and building
materials very cheap and most of the haulage was done for nothing!! The friendship between the two men
continued for many years and on the completion of the irrigation scheme Mr Van Roiyan left the area.
Father Norton came to Regina Coeli around 1957 and looked after the out-schools while Senan continued to
administer the mission and continued building. The Sisters of Charity from The Netherlands came during 1957.
The four Sisters, two nurses, one teacher and one to look after the Convent took to mission life like a duck to
water!! They had to learn English as well as Shona which was a difficult task for the Sisters. The nurses worked
in the new hospital, the teacher taught in the new Upper Primary school while the other Sister looked after the
Convent and the dining room for the Sisters and Fathers. With two qualified nurses on the mission, Father Senan
suggested the opening of a nurses’ training school but to do this he had to get a Doctor. The Doctor was soon
found and nothing less than a Baroness at that!! Baroness Doctor Irene Von Furstenburg was attracted to the
third world shortly after qualifying as a doctor in her native Germany. She got in touch with the Bethlehem
Mission Fathers from Switzerland and came to work in Rhodesia and spent a number of years at the Silveira
Mission Hospital. However there were a number of doctors being specifically trained for the Gwelo Diocese and
Doctor Von Furstenburg found herself redundant. Father Egan built a beautiful Doctor’s house, bought a landrover
with a driver thrown in for good measure and the Baroness found herself at Regina Coeli Mission!! In time
the training school for nurses was up and running and proved to be a great success. Girls who had completed
Standard Six of Upper Primary school were eligible for the course which lasted for three years. When the girls
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