FMDM SISTERS @ 70: 1952 TO 2022

IN 1948 Very Rev Mother Francis, our Superior General at that time was approached by Bishop Arnoz of Bulawayo earnestly appealing to her to consider building a Catholic hospital in Bulawayo.

The Bishop’s main concerns were that in the Government hospitals unethical procedures were being performed especially sterilisations and abortions, also he was worried because priests were not being notified when Catholic patients were very ill or in danger of death, therefore they were being deprived of the sacraments.

Having discussed the Bishop’s request with her Council it was decided to build a small hospital in Bulawayo, seeing it as a service to the church.

It was also anticipated that as a private hospital the surplus from patients’ fees would help to finance our rural missions in Zambia.

Sister Delphina

Once the decision to build was made, plans went forward very quickly. Bulawayo Municipality donated 25 acres of land on condition that it would be used only for the building of the hospital and living quarters for the Sisters.

Towards the end of 1951 the ground was blessed by Rev Fr Andrew, Parish Priest of the Cathedral Parish, after which the first sod was cut and the building commenced.

Mother Francis, being anxious to have Sisters in Bulawayo to supervise the building, sent four pioneering Sisters out, they were — Sr Mary George (Angela Clare Priddey), Sr Mary Laetitia (Moira Devitt), Sr Mary Brendan (Teresa Mc Garry) and Sr Mary John Forest (Eileen Menage).

Opening of MDH

They arrived in Bulawayo late 2nd February evening and the story of their arrival is recorded in the history book as follows:

“Their train was late and even though they had sent a telegram to the Dominican Sisters, there was no one to meet them. After seeing to their luggage they started off to look for the Convent.

All was in darkness! The house next door had a light on so the four went and knocked on the door. A gentleman came in short sleeves and said, ‘Well Sisters, what do you want?’ The Sisters explained they had arrived late by train and there was no one to meet them. ‘Are you Protestants?’ enquired the gentlemen.

‘No, said the Sisters readily, we came here because we thought you might have something to do with the church, living next door.’ ‘Well,’ said the gentleman ‘I have a bit to do with it, I am the Bishop’.

Bishop Arnoz

The Sisters got quite a shock. The Bishop went away and returned quickly in his purple and was most kind to the Sisters, taking them, himself to the Convent where they were received with the utmost courtesy and hospitality”.

Mother Francis had arranged that the Sisters would work in the Government hospitals in the city while at the same time supervising the building of Mater Dei, two of the Sisters worked in the Maternity Hospital and two in the General Hospital.

They had quite a long walk from the Convent to their respective hospitals to work each day, but they soon became familiar, in their long white habits, to the people of Bulawayo who were very kind to them and often offered them lifts.

In June two more Sisters joined the group, these were Sr Mary Carmel Kierns and Sr Mary Delphina Kierns (not blood relatives).

Sr Mary Carmel was appointed Sister-in-Charge and was responsible to supervise the business concerned with the building, but by July 1st was ready to start work in the Maternity Hospital.

Delphina played a crucial role. Mother Francis, on the advice of Bishop Arnoz, had invested money with a Broker in Bulawayo for the purpose of paying the monthly certificates to the contractor for the building.

Mother had never been happy about this arrangement but felt she could abide by the Bishop’s advice. On July 7th the said Broker was admitted to the General Hospital in an unconscious state, as an attempted suicide, having embezzled a large amount of money!

Sr Delphina was given a task of caring for him and having come so recently from England was familiar with the antidote which should be given to neutralise the poison he had taken.

Sister informed the doctor of this, who agreed to use the antidote, following which the patient regained consciousness sufficiently to sign the necessary papers to have any remaining money removed from his care. The man could not bear to look at Sr Delphina, knowing what he had done with the Sister’s money.

Cutting of first sod

Sister, however, cared for him with the utmost kindness and Christian charity. Needless to say all this was a big disappointment to Mother General and her Council as well as the Sisters concerned in Bulawayo, not knowing where the next payment would come from to pay for the building.

Nevertheless, the Sisters prayed and trusted God believing that if it was His will to have the hospital built, He would see to the finances. This He did, and donations came from different sources, thus enabling the building to continue.

The building of the convent, however, had to be postponed until a much later date; the first four floors of the hospital were to be used for patients while the top two floors would be used as accommodation for the Sisters.

To go back a little, it would be appropriate to comment that Bishop Arnoz had died suddenly before the arrival of the first Sisters and had been replaced by Very Rev Dr Adolph Schmidt who welcomed the Sisters and approved a genuine father to us over the years.

The building of the hospital was eventually completed and ceremoniously opened by the Governor, of then Rhodesia, Sir John Kennedy, on the 15th of August 1953. The hospital was dedicated to Our Blessed Lady under her title of Mother of God and was to be known as Mater Dei Hospital.

We will now leave Mater Dei for the moment and move to Wankie, where, at the request of the Managing Director of Anglo American Mining Corporation, Dr Van Blomstein, and with the encouragement and blessing of the Prefect Apostolic of Wankie, Very Rev Monsignor Dominic Ross, our Congregation was asked to undertake the Nursing Management of the newly built Mine Hospital in Wankie.

Mother Francis and her Council deemed it would be an advantage to have another Convent in Rhodesia so that there could be some interchange of Sisters between Bulawayo, Wankie and even Northern Rhodesia. Also, it was anticipated that the salaries from Wankie would help our rural missions elsewhere.

On August 1st 1955 the first community members set out from Bulawayo in two vehicles. This was quite a hazardous journey on the “strip” road all the way from Bulawayo to Wankie, the first car carrying Mother General and four other Sisters went on ahead, the second one, a vanette followed , but unfortunately had a puncture about 25 miles outside Wankie.

By this time it was now dark and none of the party were skilled at changing wheels. However, Mother Benedict, and a couple of amateur assistants set about the task. I (Aine) was in that party and my job was to watch for wild animals especially lions, we did not fully realise it then, but we were actually in the heart of lion country! Eventually the wheel was changed and we arrived in Wankie at about 11PM, much to the relief of the party that had gone before us, not to mention our own relief.

The pioneer Sisters were: Mother Mary Benedict (Bridgid Veale) Sr Mary Patrick Harte, Sr Mary Scolastica Perry, Sr Mary Ciaron O`Shea, Sr M Delphina Kierns, Sr M Alexius Meyers, Sr M Celestine Mc Donald, Sr M. Edwin Ryan, Sr M Immaculate Heart Smith, Sr M Robert Mc Shee, Sr M Nativity Johnson, and Sr M Trinity Tarr.

Pioneering sisters

When we arrived the building of the hospital was still in progress with all the noise and dust which that entailed. Neither was the hospital chapel completed so we converted a downstairs bedroom into a temporary oratory and on August 3rd 1995 our first mass was celebrated in Wankie Convent and the Blessed Sacrament reserved.

By August 27 the Convent chapel was ready for use and solemnly opened with a sung Mass (in latin of course), in honour of Our Lady.

Meanwhile, the Sisters were busily preparing for the opening of the first wards of the hospital, cleaning, sewing, making beds et cetera and on September 16 equipment started arriving from the old hospital and thereby lies a tale! Much of the equipment was filthy, with blood still on the theatre mackintoshes so it entailed hard work to get it all cleaned up and ready for use until the new equipment would arrive, which eventually did, little by little.

September 18th saw the opening of the first three wards, patients being transferred from the old hospital, the other five wards opened later as they were completed.

One project that Anglo American Corporation did not anticipate when building the hospital was the possibility of opening a Training School for local nurses but it did not take Mother Frances long to persuade the responsible authorities that this would be to their advantage and a great service to the community.

Of course what Mother Frances also had in mind was the fact that we, as missionaries, had a duty to contribute to the development of the local people, especially African women.

Soon work commenced on the building of a Nurses Home and Training School on the hospital complex. However, no time was wasted in starting the Training School, while awaiting the completion of the building.

One of the 66-bed wards was divided into three sections, the first section was the lecture room, the second, the sitting room and the third was the dormitory! Sr Mary Celestine (Aine Mc Donald) was appointed Sister Tutor and Home Sister, the Training School officially opened on January 2, 1956 with 28 students.

The present community members of Mater Dei Convent are: Srs: Clara Beards, Martha Musonda, Prisca Gupar, Teclar Mukuli and Yeyani Nyoni

The students took up residence in the newly-built Nurses Home on May 12 of the same year. We are very happy to report that the Training School went from strength to strength and is still functioning today (year 2004) having been upgraded to Registered Nurse and State Certified Midwife Status.

The next venture was St Francis Home for Mentally Handicapped Children in Bulawayo.

The Home was owned by the Rhodesian Government, the FMDM’s were asked to administer and staff it, which we did. On April 24, 1958 the Home was officially opened by the Minister of Health, Mr Caldicott. It was the aim of the Home to create at St Francis’ an atmosphere akin to real family life as possible, this the Sisters certainly achieved.

The founding members included Mother Mary Fatima (Cora Veal) who was Matron, Srs Antonia Traynor, Mary Duns Scotus (Patricia Morgan), Mary Regina Burke, Mary David (Sheila Mahoney), Mary Leo Beisty, Mary Kevin, Mary Bartholomew (Bridie Mc Mahon),

Mary Hildegrade, Mary Columbanus (Marie Kidney), Mary Francisca Leahy, Mary Gethsemani (Teresa Corless).

The Home catered for up to severely handicapped children, unfortunately during the 50s, 60s and 70s, its services were only open to White Children. The Sisters became increasingly unhappy with a view to commencing Day Centres for Intellectually Handicapped African Children.

Consequently, the Sisters handed over the Administration of St Francis’ Home to the Government in November 1976 and withdrew from the Convent, not without heavy hearts at leaving the children whom they had come to love.

The dream for holistic care for all handicapped children regardless of ethnic background continued at the next move by the sisters:

In 1974 a Day Care Centre was established in Luveve, a western suburb in Bulawayo, for the care and education of such children. The FMDM’s were asked to manage this centre and Sr Mary Fatima was appointed Administrator.

The Centre, called Sibantubanye, developed rapidly under Sr Fatima’s very capable hands and catered for as many as 50 to 60 children, giving education and skills training.

By the early 1980s the need to find sheltered employment for the young adults leaving Sibantubanye became urgent and the idea of purchasing a farm was conceived, this project came to birth in 1984. Sr Fatima, now known as S Cora Veale, was heavily involved in the development of the project which became a huge success.

By this time Sibantubanye was under the umbrella of Zimcare Trust which was established in 1981 with the aim of furthering the development of all Centres for the care of the intellectually and physically handicapped children in Zimbabwe.

New opportunities for involvement with handicapped children continued to present themselves, notably, when a request was made by the Ministry of Health for a Sister to return to St Francis’ Home to start a school similar to the one at Sibantubanye for those children capable of benefiting from it.

Sr Antonia Traynor was chosen for this appointment which she assumed in September 1981 being joined in January 1983 by Sr Sheila Mahoney.

Both Sisters worked tirelessly to build up the school, which they did very successfully, remaining there for a number of years until the lay staffs were sufficiently experienced to continue.

Another opportunity presented itself with the opening of Simanyane Centre, in August 1983, on the initiative of Sr Cora and her team. Simanyane was situated in the city centre to make it easier for children with special needs to attend rather than having to travel to Sibantubanye. Sr Helen Scully was appointed to open and organise this school.

Sr Helen was recalled to Ladywell in October 1983 being replaced by Sr Maria Leahy. Maria continued working there until a qualified lay teacher was available to take over from her.

Maria was recalled to Ladywell in June 1984 but that was not the end of her involvement with disadvantaged children in Zimbabwe, Maria returned to this country in January 2000 and now runs a centre in Hwange, which she herself initiated, and includes training of parents to care for their handicapped children at home.

This is just a very brief summary of FMDM ministry to intellectually and physically handicapped children, which is so in tune with our charism.

As time went on the Sisters were becoming more and more aware of the fact that the future of the church here would depend on the adequate training of local priests, brothers and sisters.

It was on account of this awareness and in response to the pleas of the Sisters both in Zimbabwe and Zambia that the 1983 Chapter gave permission for the opening of an Inter-regional Novitiate, based in Victoria Falls.

This Novitiate was to serve Zimbabwe, Zambia and Nigeria. A suitable house was located in Reynard Road and purchased for a mere Twenty Eight Thousand Zim Dollars! The core community moved in in October 1983 and was comprised of Sr Raymond Blake, (Superior) Sr Eileen Byrne, (prospective novice directress), Sr Josephine Keegan and Sr Carmela Haugh.

The house was named “La Verna” in the hope it would become a centre of true Franciscan spirituality. The first novices, Helen Doyle and Constance Mabhena were received into the Novitiate on April 23rd 1984; these novices were professed in April 1986.