Zimbabwe: Mass commemorates Musami martyrs

Dominican sisters and the Society of Jesus held a thanksgiving Mass to celebrate the lives of four Dominican sisters and three Jesuits killed at St Paul's Musami 39 years ago on 6 February 1977.

Fr Martin Thomas SJ, Fr Christopher Shepherd-Smith SJ, Bro John Conway SJ, Sr Epiphany Schneider OP, Sr Ceslaus Stiegler OP, Sr Joseph Wilkinson OP and Sr Magdala Lewandolski OP were martyred in a hail of bullets on the night of 6 February 1977 at St Paul's Musami Mission.

The Mass also continued the 800th anniversary celebrations since the founding of the Dominican Order by Pope Honorius III in 1216.

Fr Nigel Johnson SJ who also worked at the mission with the martyred priests and religious was the main celebrant and homilist, with a battalion of Jesuits concelebrating. In his touching homily, Fr Johnson encouraged the sisters and the congregants to go on mission to combat hatred and vengeance which led to the killings of the seven "martyrs " at the mission.

"You have been called out of the world to follow Jesus in combating that hatred which we find in the world, that jealousy, that vengeance. How do you fight it? You don't do it with fists, you do it by pouring love into that world which is precisely what these people were doing," said Fr Johnson.

Speaking at the shrine erected for the remembrance of the martyrs, Fr Mark Hackett SJ, another one of the priests who worked with the martyred Jesuits said the deaths of these missionaries remain examples of good witnesses of men and women for others.

"We don't need to worry about who did it or anything like that, but these were witnesses to the war against hatred, they continued their work and remain examples for us to follow," said Fr Hackett.

Source: In Touch

Read more about the Musami Martyrs here: www.jesuit.org.uk/blog/who-were-musami-martyrs