Missionary Benedictine Sisters of Tutzing

Inkamana Convent

Vryheid

RSA

On December 4, 2000, the last group of Missionary Benedictine Sisters of Tutzing will leave Zululand and return to Germany. For nearly eight decades, Tutzing Sisters have worked together with Benedictine priests and brothers from the Congregation of St Ottilien to build up the church in Zululand. The first group arrived in South Africa in September 1920, well over a year before the first Missionary Benedictine monks set foot in Zululand. The sisters had come to South Africa from present-day Tanzania in the wake of the First World War. They helped at first the Mariannhill Missionaries in southern Natal and the Tyrolian Servite Missionaries in Swaziland before they joined Bishop Thomas Spreiter at Inkamana in December 1922. Altogether 112 Tutzing Sisters have been working in South Africa between 1920 and 2000. Forty-seven of them died and are buried in South Africa. Tutzing Sisters used to run schools, hospitals and clinics. They taught catechism, were experts in gardening, looked after chickens and ducks, and in some places also after pigs and cattle. Moreover, they did all the household chores that had to be done at all the mission stations. That Inkamana High School is ranked among the fifteen best schools in South Africa is largely due to the expertise and dedication of the Tutzing Sisters. Equally impressive was their contribution to health care in Zululand. They built up four hospitals at Mbongolwane, Nongoma, Mahlabatini and Nkandla. The Benedictine Hospital at Nongoma, the largest of the four with 600 beds, served a whole district.

Exemplary as religious, unwavering in their commitment to the missionary apostolate and always willing to put up with the hardships of a pioneering life, the Tutzing Sisters were kept in high esteem by the Benedictine monks who worked with them. One of their big achievements was the establishment of a community of local Benedictine Sisters. The "Benedictine Sisters of Twasana" as they are called, have about 80 members today and maintain houses in Zululand and other parts of South Africa. The Tutzing Sisters were so committed to the creation of a local congregation of sisters that they felt it would be unfair to recruit young Zulu women for their own priory at Inkamana. It was a painful and somewhat controversial decision. Its full impact was felt more and more as time went on and their own members grew old or died. In the end, it proved to be irreversible. The number of Tutzing Sisters decreased steadily over the last twenty years. Between 1940 and 1970 the Inkamana Priory numbered an average of 60 sisters. By 1980, their number had dropped to just over 40 and in 1990 it stood below 30. It will be a sad day when, on December 4, the last three Tutzing Sisters will leave Zululand. The Church in Zululand owes them a big debt of gratitude. They will be missed but their legacy lives on and will remain a source of inspiration for those who continue their work in this part of the world.

Fr. Godfrey Sieber O.S.B. (Inkamana News, December 2000)

Missions-Benediktinerinnen von Tutzing
Diocese of Eshowe

This page was last updated on Monday, 23 October 2006 10:31:32