History in Colour: Fr Jakobus Hoendervangers

by Admin · Published June 25, 2024 · Updated June 25, 2024

Among all the Oblates and Dominicans who led the first wave of missionary work in South Africa was a Norbertine priest from the Netherlands.

Fr Jakobus Hoendervangers came to South Africa in 1849 with two Belgian priests, at the invitation of Bishop Aidan Devereux of the Cape’s Eastern District. They quickly moved into the land’s interior, travelling by ox-wagon to Graaff-Reinet, Colesberg, Somerset East and Grahamstown.

Bishop Devereux soon had a new assignment for the Dutch priest: go to Bloemfontein, which had been founded in 1846 as a British outpost in Transoranje. Fr Hoendervangers set off on his own, riding on a horse for 60 hours to reach the village where he found very few Catholics.

In 1852 he was sent to Bloemfontein permanently as the resident priest. He lived in poverty, with his little house, an abandoned carpenter’s workshop, doubling as the church. It was so small, he wrote, that “I have to say two Masses on Sunday although there are only 65 Catholics”. He soon built Bloemfontein’s first Catholic church, in St Georges Street, which was replaced by Sacred Heart church in 1881. Aside from taking care of the spiritual needs of Bloemfontein’s nascent population, Fr Hoendervangers also founded a non-racial school.

Dressed in his old-fashioned clothes and always with a top hat, he was an odd sight. An accident with his ox-wagon broke both his legs, leaving him handicapped. Fr Hoendervangers returned to Belgium in 1869. Today largely forgotten, he is one of the most influential missionaries in Southern Africa.

Published in the May 2024 issue of The Southern Cross magazine