History

Sancta Maria mission was founded in 1936 by Fr. Phelem O’Shea with the help of Monsignor Killian Flynn.  The two were very instrumental in acquiring permission from Paramount Chief Yeta Ш to open a mission station in Barotseland .

Fr. O’Shea was in 1950 ordained bishop of Livingstone until 1974 when he retired.  He settled at Sancta Maria where he died and was buried in 1979.

Attempts to set up a Catholic mission in Western Province started as early as 1932.  For Paramount Chief Yeta III, granting permission to Catholic Friars to set up a mission in Western Province was difficult because of a pact that his predecessor, Lewanika, had signed with the Paris Evangelical Missionary Society (PEMS) in 1884.  The Agreement stated that no other denomination should be allowed to operate in Mongu.  This influence continued until December 8, 1936 when PEMS withdrew their objection and the Friars were given permission to set up a mission. 

However, the Friars could only set up a mission hundreds of Kilometers north of Mongu – Lukulu – where the PEMS did not have a grip.  It was not until 1947 when the Friars were allowed to set up a mission in Malengwa, about seven kilometres away from Mongu.

It goes without saying that the negative response by the Litunga to grant permission to build a mission in Mongu was a blessing in disguise to Lukulu.  Soon after the permission was granted to the Friars, their first priority was to locate a site for the mission.  They first went for Kangombe and Silembe, which were later disapproved. 

Finally, a site was spotted on the east bank of the Zambezi River on a dry flat piece of land.  Fr. Phelem and local Indunas Liatitima, Nooyo, Silembe and Likulunga immediately took a 21-day-long trip to Lealui to see the Paramount Chief Yeta III for final arrangements and Sancta Maria mission was established in December 1936.

After getting their permission to set up a mission in Lukulu, the Friars started building at the mission.  Besides erecting a Friary and Church building, elementary schools at the mission and through out the district were built. By 1942 the Capuchins had twenty (20) schools in Lukulu district.

Some of the schools which were opened in the early years of sancta Maria were; Silembe, Simakumba, Pezo(Kasheke), Kambwata(Kaluwawa), Chotela, Kawaya, Namakando, Sitwala, Mbangweta, Muyondoti and many others.

The school at Sancta Maria developed into two separate schools for boys and girls. The two schools developed into high standard Primary Boarding schools.

In 1958 a Junior Secondary school for boys was opened at Sancta Maria under the administration of Fr. Edwin Flynn and Fr. Emmanuel Quinn. The school received students from all catholic primary schools in Western Province ; namely, Lukulu, Ngimbu, Mangango, Sihole, Sichili, Sioma and other students came from Livingstone. Later in 1962 the school was moved to present day St. Johns , in Mongu.

Due to the expansion of Primary Schools around Lukulu, the need for trained teachers arose and as a result a teacher training school came into being in 1938.  The teacher training college continued at Lukulu until its transfer to Malengwa near Mongu in 1965.

Earlier, in 1937, Fr. Phelim had an idea of developing girls education in the district as well as to bring in health care at the mission.  In order to achieve the two plans, he requested for the Holy Cross Sisters to come and carry out the tasks.

Therefore in 1937 a group of Holy Cross Sisters arrived in Lukulu. Among them were sisters Mary Brigid Slattery a teacher who organised the girls’ education to a high standard for more than twenty years and Sr. Maria Gonzaga who was a nurse.

Sr. Maria Gonzaga started Lukulu hospital under a tree and later developed steadily into a dispensary. She was the first sister – in – charge.

 The dispensary that was built of pole and mud was later replaced by a brick, thatched house in 1944 but later on some modern building was erected.  The current Lukulu hospital was only built in 1957 and the sisters added on a leprosarium wing in 1962. 

The Holy cross sisters ran the hospital from 1937 until Jan 1992 when government took -over the administration of the institution whilst the former dispensary building is now being used temporarily by Phelim O’shea High School.

The third group that came to Lukulu were the Christian Brothers in 1969.  They reopened the secondary school, which was closed and moved to Mongu some seven years earlier. Todate, the school enrols about 480 pupils – both boys and girls.  However, all the secondary schools in Lukulu district are day-schools, which posses a challenge to the Catholic Church in the area.

In 1994 the Christian Brothers also opened Lukulu Training Centre trade school. The school trains students in carpentry, pottery, mechanics, computer literacy, tailoring and designing programmes.

In 1984 the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate took over the Sancta Maria mission when the Capuchins pulled out due to a shortage of personnel.  They immediately started a Pastoral Outreach Programme that involves parishioners to evangelise the vast Lukulu district. Today, the parish has 76 mass stations.

The first superior of the OMI pioneer missionaries to Lukulu was Father Paul Duffy, OMI who is currently the Bishop of the Diocese of Mongu.

Besides the pastoral work, the Oblates in Lukulu are very much involved with Justice, Development and Peace programmes.  The Lukulu Catholic Commission for Justice Development and Peace (CCJDP) runs a number of human rights and civic education programmes on different issues burning at a given point in time. 

The Community and social development outreach projects include an agriculture shop for peasant farmers in the district. It also operates a medium sized shopping complex involving wholesale, retail and butchery services including maize and rice mills.  These shops are not profit making shops and are meant to give people an affordable choice.

Among the challenges that the oblates found in Lukulu was the intense poverty of the people.  This is despite the bad state of roads that sometimes hamper their mission to evangelise the whole of Lukulu.

Seven decades after Fr. Phelim’s dream of educating girls was made into reality, girl’s education is still a major challenge in Lukulu as most households are too poor to afford to send their children to boarding schools. 

Most pupils rent out rooms in town and travel long distances back and forth their homes to collect food weekly.  Usually, the girls are hit negatively as besides having their food stolen from their rented houses; most of them fall pregnant before they complete their education.  Therefore the Oblates came up with Girls Dormitory Project, which is currently under construction.  The Dormitory will house over hundred girls.

 

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