Saints for South Africa
The days of South Africa being without a saint may be numbered as not one but two causes are currently being presented to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in Rome. South African Catholics could soon celebrate the beatification of Benedict Daswa and Abbot Francis Pfanner. CLAIRE MATHIESON explains.
Benedict Daswa
Benedict Daswa is the first sainthood cause of a South African born-Catholic to be proposed for beatification and eventually canonisation.
Born on June 16, 1946 as Tshimangadzo Samuel Daswa in the former Venda homeland, young Samuel, a herd boy, was raised in the Lemba tribe, which claims affinity to the Jewish culture.
After finishing school, Samuel joined a group of Catholics who met for instruction in the faith under a local fig tree. He was baptised on April 21, 1963, and confirmed shortly after, taking the name Benedict after his catechist.
Benedict qualified as a teacher and became active in his community through teachers unions, sport, local politics and had a particular devotion to serving through the Church. He helped build the communitys church and was well known for the errands he ran in his bakkie, never asking for petrol money.
Bishop Hugh Slattery, retired of Tzaneen, the diocese in which Benedict lived, recalled how Benedict would conduct Sunday services when the priest was not there. He would work closely with the priest, supporting him financially and morally, and he would give instruction for the youth and the elderly.
Bishop Slattery said when Benedict became a Catholic he was able to combine his traditional love of work that he received from his family and the importance of work in Christianity. He was also a family man, married to Shadi Eveline Monyai, with whom he had eight children, the last born four months after his death.
Benedict became a prominent figure in his community, and eventually became principal of Nweli primary school.
He was a respected member of the community, but that changed when unseasonal heavy rains and lightning struck the areas in
1989 and early 1990.
The community leaders decided to pay a traditional healer to deal with the weather which they ascribed to witchcraft.
Benedict tried explaining that the weather was a natural phenomenon. He also argued that his Catholic faith prevented him from taking part in anything connected with witchcraft, and refused to pay.
Many in the community saw him as belittling their traditional beliefs and conspired to get rid of him.
One a Friday night, February 2, 1990, Benedict was attacked by an angry mob of youth and adults who ambushed his car with sticks and stones. He was hit on the head with a knobkerrie, crushing his skull. The attackers then poured boiling water over his head.
Sr Claudette Hiosan FDNSC said there was a sense almost immediately that Benedict had been martyred for his faith.
Martyrdom is grounds for sainthood and Bishop Slattery decided to look into the matter. Following the initial investigation, the South African Catholic Bishops Conference (SACBC) was informed, and their approval for a proper canonical investigation was granted, allowing the diocese of Tzaneen to proceed with a full canonical inquiry.
The investigation into Benedicts life is a formal inquiry and the process is lengthy and costly.
The investigation was completed in 2010 and all the official documents were sent to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in Rome.
A positio, which is really a book on the life of Benedict, was written by Fr
Lucio Di Stefano, a member of the Italian province of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart in Rome and official postulator of the cause.
After publication, a positio is very closely examined by a panel set up by the sainthood congregation, comprising Church historians, moral theologians and canon lawyers.
Their judgement will then be presented to the cardinal prefect and other archbishops and bishops of the sacred congregation for their approval. If that is received, it will then be given to the Holy Father for the seal of his approval and the setting of a date for the beatification, Sr Hiosan explained.
The Daswa cause will be examined in October, shortly after a planned pilgrimage of prayer for the cause, led by Bishop Joao Rodrigues of Tzaneen and headlined by The Southern Cross to Fatima, Lourdes, Avila and other places associated with Our Lady (see page 3).
Sr Hiosan said this was an unusually short wait for a cause such as ours, adding that the cause for the martyred teacher from Tzaneen is very strong. He is indeed a martyr and prophetic figure of faith for Africa. I believe this is the reason why his cause has reached this critical stage in which it can now spread through a concerted prayer campaign throughout the SACBC region.
For more information contact Sr Claudette Hiosan on 015 307 5244 or email . To contribute to the cause, deposits can be made to account name: Diocese of Tzaneen: Benedict Daswa Cause, Standard Bank, account 330911538, branch 052749.
Abbott Francis Pfanner
The Austrian-born founder of the Mariannhill Missionaries and the Sisters of the Precious Blood is also on the track to sainthood.
Francis Pfanner was born in Vor-alberg, western Austria, in 1825, become a priest in 1850 and joined the Trappists in 1864.
Suffering failing health due to tuberculosis, he entered the strict order to prepare himself for death, but the Trappist way of life agreed with him and he lived many more years.
He was called to South Africa by a local bishop who had called for Trappists to evangelise local Africans. When all others had declined the invitation, Fr Pfanner resolved to relinquish his settled abbey life and face fresh difficulties in South Africa.
His first mission site was unsuitable, but it served as a stepping stone to obtain permission to set up a mission near Pinetown, on a part of the farm Zoekoegat, where the monastery of Mariannhill would be built in 1882. It was here, in 1884, that the first indigenous locals were baptised publically.
In 1898, the monastery became the worlds largest with 285 monks, and in 1885 the first five female mission helpers arrived, becoming the foundation of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Precious Blood.
In 1894 the outstation of Lourdes mission was founded at Emaus the place where Abbot Pfanner would remain until his death.
The order also opened new mission stations in Zimbabwe and into German East Africa. In 1898 the first Zulu priest returned home from his theological studies in Rome.
Shortly before Abbot Pfanners death in 1909, Mariannhill Monastery was separated from the Order of the Trappists, forming a new and independent congregation.
Abbot Pfanner died on May 24 of that year, leaving 49 mission stations in South Africa.
The cause for the beatification of the Mariannhill founder has been a long process, having been approved in 2003. 2009 saw the first of 12 sessions of the Historical Commission, an integral part of the inquiry for the cause for the beatification of Servant of God Abbot Francis Pfanner.
The postulator for Abbot Pfanners cause, initially the late Fr Georg Lautenschlager CMM and then Fr Yves La Fontaine CMM, has had to document his subjects life in detail for proof of heroic virtue, collate all of Abbot Pfanners writings (and literature about him), and submit these to the Vatican for scrutiny.
The commission was tasked to study and examine the historical profile of the Mariannhill founder.
The final report, together with the report of the Theological Commission, will be evaluated by the Congregation of the Causes of Saints, which will determine the abbots heroicity of virtues required for beatification.
While the process is still many years off, said secretary for the commission Sydney Duval, there is no doubt that he left a great legacy that people still admire today. There is a prayerful attitude towards him and he has a big following.
Mr Duval called Abbot Pfanner one of the great characters of the Church not only in Africa but for the international Church. He was an incredible monk, an amazing visionary and an extraordinary man who took on local authority for the rights of locals.
To advance to the beatification stage, the commission will have to demonstrate that a miracle is attributable to Abbot Pfanner’s intercession.
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