In the Footsteps of St. Louis Marie de Montfort
"Footsteps Online"
Spring 2001 (Volume 6, Issue 2)
The Words of the Superior General in Nzama, Malawi
Every year the Montfortian Family in Malawi gathers together on the 28 April, to celebrate the Feast of our Founder, St Louis Marie de Montfort. We look to him to inspire and guide our missionary work. This year the church of Malawi celebrates its first century of Christianity and it is here in Nzama that the first Montfort Fathers settled on 25 July 1901. This is why the Montfort Family from Malawi, but also from Zambia, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rome, as well as many ex-missionaries who have lived much of their lives in Malawi, have gathered here in Nzama to honour those priests, sisters and brothers who brought the Good News to the people of Nzama, and from here to the whole southern part of Malawi. At the same time, we want to honour and to thank the people in Malawi who received our first missionaries 100 years ago.
The first missionaries to come to Nzama were Frs Pierre Bourget, Anton Winnes and Auguste Prézeau, who later became the first Bishop of the Shire Vicariate. It was an international group: two French and one Dutch.
It must have been very hard for our three pioneers to live in a place so different from France; another continent, another language, and another history. At the same time, it must have been very hard for the local people to understand "these white men!", their way of life, their speech, their way of dealing with the people. The Fathers did not behave like the tax collectors or the district commissioners, who just visited the villages and continued their journeys. These strange white people apparently wanted to stay in the villages, to share their lives with the people for better and for worse. They took care of the sick, cleaning and treating wounds; they built schools to teach the young and the old; they visited the people wherever they lived; they ate and drank with the people. Like their Founder, St Louis de Montfort, those three pioneers were very near to the people, trying to speak their language, walking among them every single day in order to know them personally. Each day they had a special time set apart to treat all kinds of diseases. The healing of the sick took up a lot of their time, but this work of mercy prepared the people to open their hearts to the Gospel message. Later on the care of the sick was taken over by the sisters, and that gave the fathers and brothers more time for building and administration.
The people in Nzama saw the interest of the priests in their daily lives, and slowly they opened their hearts to the Good News. But the first catechumens were baptized only in 1905, after a four-year catechumenate!
After the official approval of the Vatican on 24 November 1903, Nguludi was established in 1904, Neno in 1906 and Utale in 1908.
From 1903 until today, all together 348 Montfortians have worked in Malawi. Montfortians were named Bishops and administered different dioceses. Great efforts have been made for localization, by training local priests and handing over the administration of dioceses. Many schools and hospitals have been built, and the Brothers and Sisters have given the best of their energy and love to make them outstanding places of learning, or healing. Today perhaps fewer Montforts are directly involved in parish work; others are involved in mass media and communication, social advocacy and prison chaplaincy, retreat work and preaching.
Some years back we started to recruit Malawians to join our ranks, in order to keep our Montfortian spirituality alive and strong in Malawi, and to deepen the faith of Christians in the second hundred years of the Church. But more and more our vision and our concern are not only for Malawi but also for the whole of Africa.
May I take this opportunity to thank you, the people of Nzama, for welcoming and accepting the Montforts in 1901. Thank you for having listened to and responded to the Gospel of the Risen Christ. From here, from Nzama, Christianity spread to the whole Southern Region of Malawi, and in a certain way, building the Church in Malawi gave inspiration and courage to the Montforts to go into Mozambique, Congo, Zambia, Uganda and Kenya. Thank you for bearing with us! May God continue to bless you!
To the entire Montfortian Family working in Malawi, sisters, brothers, fathers, lay associates, I offer my sincere congratulations and thanks. Let us continue to work together as sons and daughters of one great family. Today we remember our Founder, St. Louis Marie de Montfort, and in a few days we shall celebrate the feast of Blessed Marie-Louise of Jesus. Let us follow their example to live near to the people, taking their struggles and aspirations and making them our own.
William Considine, smm.
Superior General
Nzama, Malawi
