Mill Hill Missionaries Looks Back on Proud 150 Years

by Jael SC · April 20, 2016

This year Mill Hill Missionaries celebrates 150 years of existence. FATHER ANTHONY NDANG NDICHIA, a member of the congregation, looks at its history.

Mill Hill Missionaries members celebrate the feast of St Joseph, their patron, in South Africa. (From left) Frs Gabriel Baraza (Kenya), Emmanuel Omollo (Uganda), John Doran (England), Sylvester Ponje (Cameroon), Bishop Peter Holiday (Kroonstad), Frs Ephraim Ohdiambo (Kenya), Stephen Giles (England and Australia) and Anthony Ndichia (Cameroon and South Africa).

This year, the St Joseph’s Missionary Society, commonly known as the Mill Hill Missionaries, is celebrating a century and a half of bringing the love of Christ to the four corners of the world.

According to general-superior Fr Michael Corcoran, this is a significant milestone in the life of the society as “it marks a substantial contribution to the Church for over 150 years”.

On March 1, 1866, Fr Herbert Vaughan (1832-1903) a priest of the diocese of Westminster, settled with one student at Holcombe House in the north-west London suburb of Mill Hill. There he intended to begin to fulfil Christ’s missionary mandate (Matthew 28:19) which is incumbent on the Catholic world.

In 1866, this obligation was felt to be more of a burden than a benefit. Fr Vaughan approached the archbishop of Westminster and suggested that he might establish an English missionary college.

As a newly appointed bishop, Archbishop Henry Manning—like Fr Vaughan a future cardinal—had long been tortured by doubts and uncertainties.

As a priest, in his distress he sought the advice of Fr Vincent Pallotti, the Italian founder of the Pallottines. This venerable old priest, now a saint, advised him: “The Church in England will not flourish until it sends priests to the foreign missions”.

Fr Vaughan proposed to put that advice into action. He sought recruits not only in England, Ireland, Scotland and North America, but also in Flanders, the Netherlands and the Tyrol region.

Despite early difficulties, the number of students grew. Soon Fr Vaughan realised that Holcombe House would be far too small. He decided, therefore, to begin new, permanent college buildings.

On the feast of Ss Peter and Paul, on June 29, 1869, the foundation stone of the new college was laid, and by 1874, a chapel was consecrated. With special permission from Pope Pius IX, Cardinal Manning was permitted to crown the statue of St Joseph in a separate ceremony, with the hierarchy of England and Wales in attendance.

The college went on to produce thousands of missionaries who have worked in different parts of the world. Today Mill Hill missionaries are found on almost every continent.

Traditionally, members originated from European countries: Britain, Ireland, Austria, the Netherlands and from the German-speaking areas of northern Italy and Austria. Members also came from North American.

After training in centres in England, Scotland, Ireland, the Netherlands and the Tyrol, these Mill Hill missionaries were sent to countries in Africa: Cameroon, Sudan, Uganda and Kenya, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and, in more recent years, South Africa.

In Asia they went to Pakistan, India, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia and China, as well as to New Zealand.

Today Mill Hill Missionaries has missionary formation centres in Cameroon, Kenya, Uganda, the Philippines and India.

The mission and work of the society expresses itself in primary evangelisation, justice & peace, integrity of creation, mission animation, social work and development, and interreligious dialogue.

Members are responding to the challenges of secularisation and globalisation in the local churches where they serve.

In more recent years, Mill Hill missionaries were assigned to South Africa in response to the request by the late Bishop Johannes Brenninkmeijer of Kroonstad, a Dominican. He invited them to work post-apartheid for reconciliation in his diocese, focusing on engagement work among migrant workers and people of different ethnic groups through community-building and reconciliation in the townships of northern Free State.

In 1998, the first official group of Mill Hill missionaries to arrive in South Africa comprised Frs Kevin O’Donovan (Ireland), Andrew Mukulu (Uganda), and Ephraim Odhiambo (Kenya), followed later by Frs Anthony Chantry (England), James Juma (Kenya), John Melluish (England), Stephen Giles (England/Australia), Emmanuel Omollo, (Uganda), John Doran, (England) and Emmanuel Mbeh (Cameroon).

Latterly, these missionaries were followed by Fr Gabriel Baraza from Kenya, and from Cameroon Fr Sylvester Ponje and myself.

In Kroonstad seven Mill Hill missionaries cover 16 parishes.

In the past years the congregation has extended its presence to the diocese of Rustenburg.

Mill Hill missionaries are involved in numerous pastoral activities, including peace-building and reconciliation, education, and care for the sick, orphans and the elderly.

On the 150th anniversary of Mill Hill Missionaries, members will be encouraged to go where the need is greatest, seeking to build up the local Church in the new South Africa by endeavouring to mend relationships between South Africans of different racial backgrounds and with foreigners from the world over.

Last month, the Mill Hill Missionaries celebrated its 150 years of love and service with a Mass of thanksgiving in Westminster cathedral, London—a church that was built thanks to the tireless work of founder Cardinal Herbert Vaughan, who succeeded Cardinal Manning as archbishop of Westminster in 1892.

In South Africa, the Mill Hill missionaries also gathered in Parys, Free State, to celebrate the feast of St Joseph.

On June 19—the anniversary of the death at 71 of Cardinal Vaughan in 1903—the congregation will celebrate the 150th anniversary of foundation in Sasolburg with a Mass of thanksgiving for all that God has accomplished through Mill Hill Missionaries.

It will also be a time to pray that the journey into the unknown, begun in 1866 in Mill Hill, London, under the patronage of St Joseph—who himself ventured trustingly forward—will continue, treaching across the globe and making disciples of all nations.

Fr Anthony Ndang Ndichia is a Mill Hill missionary working in the diocese of Kroonstad.