St Mary’s Cathedral Basilica: The jewel of Mat’land The St Mary’s Basilica in Bulawayo

Hlakanipha Mbongolwane
ST MARY’S Cathedral Minor Basilica, the Catholic centrepiece next to Dominican Convent Girls High School, is one of the oldest monumental buildings in Bulawayo. It has seen the city grow from a small trading town in the 1880s to the second largest city in the country.

Built at the turn of the last century by the Jesuits, the cathedral was officially conferred with minor basilica status on August 31, 2013, and this year marks the fifth anniversary of the conferment of this status.

A basilica is a designation or status given to a church by the Pope through a proclamation passed by the congregations for Divine Worship and Sacraments, the governing body of the Roman Catholic Church to the churches of historical significance to the church at large as well as the local area; diocese or even region the church is located in.
It is used to identify churches of historic and spiritual importance. St Mary’s has played a very important role in the evangelisation of not only Bulawayo but also Matabeleland region and Zimbabwe since 1903.

In 1879 the Jesuit Fathers arrived in Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia) under the leadership of Father Depelchin SJ. They were granted permission by King Lobengula to start a mission KoBulawayo. The first mission was started in a house and was called the Mission of the Sacred Heart. However, in 1881 it was burnt down.

In 1887 Father Prestage SJ closed the struggling mission of KoBulawayo and was given permission by King Lobengula to move to Empandeni. This left a small Jesuit presence in Bulawayo which became the staging point for the Jesuit missionary to work further north.

By the mid-1890s the Jesuits had built a small chapel in Bulawayo at the intersection of Main Street and 10th Avenue. It was a brick under corrugated structure which was meant to serve as a boys’ school.

The school was called St George. The chapel and school building structures still stand today but are not used for the original purpose. By 1901 the Catholic community had grown remarkably and the chapel became too small for comfort. The Bulawayo Municipality granted the Jesuit Fathers the current site at the intersection of Lobengula Street and 9th Avenue.

The then Jesuits named the street Lobengula Street in honour of King Lobengula, who, although did not embrace Christianity, was very friendly and sociable and treated the Catholic missionaries with dignity and respect.

The foundation stone for the new church building was laid in 1903 by the Prefect Apostolic Monsignor Sykes SJ. The church was built by workmen from Croatia. The granite was obtained free from a local quarry. The altar stones are one solid block of quarry stone. The Stations of the Cross, which include the pictures on the interior walls, came from England in 1911.

Fast facts about St Mary’s Cathedral:
– Officially conferred Basilica on August 31, 2013

– When was it built: Started in 1903 by Prefect Apostolic Monsignor Sykes SJ, officially opened on April 3, 1904

– Who built the Church: Croatians

– When did it become a Cathedral? 1955

– St Mary’s birthday: March 25. This year she is 115 years old

– Number of Catholics in Archdiocese: Over 400 000

– Number of Major Basilicas in the world: Seven

– Number of Minor Basilicas in Africa: Now 17

In 1955, St Mary’s became a cathedral after the Rhodesian hierarchy had been established and Bulawayo declared a diocese. Also in the same year, after the Second World War, the parishioners of St Mary’s requested a memorial to honour the war dead.

It was decided the best way was to enlarge the church. The war memorial would take the form of a crypt in the church which would also serve as the burial site for bishops of Bulawayo.

However, funds were not adequate to build the crypt. What eventually emerged was elongation of the church and widening of the side aisles. The work was completed in 1959.

Today just above the crucifix the following is inscribed, “In memoriam morutorm in bello 1939-45” meaning, In memory of those who died in the 1939-45 war.

Christian church buildings constitute a substantial part of this country’s architectural heritage. Often the finest and most prominent buildings in their locality, possessing architectural, historical and social significance, churches were designed to express the meaning of heaven in the language and symbols of architecture and art.

In providing a spiritual focus within a community, usually over many generations, churches retain considerable social significance. Thus, Bulawayo is privileged to have such a monument.

Perhaps it is high time that such monuments are accorded the status of national monuments. The primary aim of such status will be to prolong the life of something of value and to do so in a way that protects what is valuable about it. The built heritage enriches our lives and provides a connection with, and a means of understanding our shared past.

Historic places of worship have incalculable value as tangible records of those who have gone before us, of the lives they lived and of their aspirations and achievements.
Each church building provides unique and irreplaceable evidence of the past and should be passed on to future generations with that evidence intact.
Church not an Auditorium

An auditorium is a large space for people to gather to hear a speech or see a performance. A temple, on the other hand, is the dwelling place for God. A church design that focuses on the gathering of the people of God instead of the presence of God may be useful, but it contradicts the great tradition and the instructions of God Himself as to what a temple must be.

St Mary’s Cathedral Basilica is thus a church not auditorium. For a Catholic Church is first and foremost God’s house. It is where the Divine Presence resides. It is not primarily where we come to meet one another.

It is where we all come to meet God. God is here and we come here to worship him. The fellowship we share and the community we build is part of our greater life together that flows from our worship of God in God’s house.

Besides that, the many pilgrims who have entered St Mary’s Cathedral Basilica talk of experiencing feelings of wonder and awe. There is a sense of spaciousness and grandeur at St Mary’s which lifts the heart and mind to heaven. These feelings of wonder and awe open the heart to the beauty which lies at the heart of the church, and at the very heart of God. These feelings prepare the soul for worship and help to bring the soul into the presence of God who dwells in this great monument.

Moreover, the significance of St Mary’s Basilica is that it instructs. It is a sermon in stone. It tells everyone who sees it, from the inside to the outside, certain truths about the Christian faith — that the Christian faith is beautiful and permanent and strong. That the Christian faith has inner integrity, honesty and truth. All these things are deep-down impressions that register profoundly within the human heart and mind. The decoration of the church also seeks to instruct. We do not install stained glass and mosaics and wall paintings and carvings just to make it look pretty.

All of these things reflect the beauty of God and the eloquent beauty of our Christian faith.

St Mary’s thus becomes the jewel, the “Bethel” of Matabeleland. This is the place where Jacob saw the ladder into heaven with the angels going up and down. He cried out, “This is the very threshold of heaven and the doorstep of God!” In other words, the many problems that bedevil us as a Christian church we can meet God and talk to him in this great place, as doors are opened from 6AM to 6PM for services and individual prayer. This explains why St Mary’s is so beautiful. Indeed the church building should be so beautiful that it points our hearts and minds not only to the presence of God here, but to Holy of Holies in Heaven.

Tourist Centre
Tourists to Bulawayo should be able to visit St Mary’s Cathedral which is the first and only minor basilica in the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) region.
Billboards in all roads which get into the city should highlight this great spiritual monument.

As Archbishop Alex Thomas, who was instrumental in having the Cathedral be given the status of a basilica, remarked five years ago, “This Basilica is our faith; please do everything possible in the strength of your faith. Make this Basilica great, it is for us, let us keep it.” (Chronicle September 22, 2013)

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