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The Province of Nigeria:
- First Spiritan Province in Africa & 3rd World 
The Spiritan missions in Nigeria began with the French /Germans
Fathers and Brothers from the Alscace Region, of north-west France
led by Fr Joseph Lutz C.S.Sp who arrived at Onitsha on the eastern
bank of the River Niger in 1885.
From early 1900s Spiritans of the Irish Province joined the mission,
starting with Fr. Joseph Shanahan. He arrived there in 1902, and
was made the Prefect Apostolic to take charge in 1905. He was made
bishop in 1920. The dominant Spiritan group became the Irish missionaries.
Later on with the event of the World Wars, the Spiritan
missionaries of the English and the Canadian Provinces came into the
middle belt of Nigeria. The English Spiritans settled in Makurdi,
and the Canadians who came from the end of World War II eventually
settled in Kabba. Thus arose the three Spiritan Districts that constituted
the base of the present Nigerian Spiritan Province: Onitsha - linked
to the Irish called Nigeria East, Makurdi linked to the English, and
the Okura (formerly Kwara-Benue) linked to the Canadians. A fourth
area, the Ekiti, which covers the area south and west of the River
Niger was developed later from the indigenous missionary apostolate
of the Province of Nigeria.
The development of the Province of Nigeria
A deliberate effort was made to start a Spiritan Province from 1953,
in the Irish misson area of the district of Nigeria East. In keeping
to plan, recruitment and formation of candidates began at a level
of the Secondary School with the Juniorate Ihiala in 1953. Then
followed the Novitiate at Awomama in 1958, Philosophy 1959, and
Theology 1962, leading to the 1st priestly Ordination of the first
4 candidates from this indigenous foundation in 1965 at Isienu Nsukka.
In 1970 at the end of the Nigeria-Biafra civil war,
almost all the Irish missionaries in the area were expelled from Nigeria,
while the native ordained Spiritan Priests weres only 17 including 2
bishops. By 1976, the indigenous Spiritan priests had reached 42 (with
2 Bishops) and the district was formally elevated to the status of a
Spiritan Province, named the Province of Nigeria East. This became the
1st Spiritan Province in all Africa and the 3rd world.
Vocations in the Canadian district of Kwara-Benue
later joined the Province making it now the Province of Nigeria in
1983.
In 2001 vocations from the English district of Makurdi
also joined the Nigerian Province. The Province then got restructured
into four Regions for the different parts of the country: Onitsha,
Makurdi, Okura, and Ekiti Regions. The Provincial
headquarters was then moved from Onitsha to the Nigerian Federal Captial
territory, Abuja.
Statistics
As at the beginning of October 2007, membership of the Province is as follows:
Professed members: 578
Finally professed: 375
Bishop : 1
Priests : 340
Brothers : 5
Scholastics: 232
Novices: 31
Mission Apostolate
Nigerian Spiritans can be found worldwide in various
continents of Spiritan Missionary activities, in over 28 countries of
the World in the following schema.
AFRICA: Home dioceses in Nigeria, French speaking countries
of West Africa, Anglophone countries of West Africa, Spiritan province
of Central Africa, Countries of South and Central Africa, Angola.
AMERICAS: Canada, USA, Guyane, Paraguay, Mexico, Trinidad,
Haiti.
EUROPE: Italy (Rome), France, Germany, Holland, England,
Ireland.
ASIA and Pacific: Pakistan, Taiwan, Philippines, Australia,
Papua New Guinea. |
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