Rev. Fr. Odilo (Otto) Weeger, CMM (14 October 1912 – 8 June 2006) was a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

missionary A missionary is a member of a Religious denomination, religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Tho ...

Matabeleland Matabeleland is a region located in southwestern Zimbabwe that is divided into three provinces: Matabeleland North, Bulawayo, and Matabeleland South. These provinces are in the west and south-west of Zimbabwe, between the Limpopo and Zambezi r ...

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. He arrived in Africa in July 1938 and was based at

Mariannhill Mariannhill is a cluster of suburbs and townships in eThekwini Municipality in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa. In 1882, Trappist missionary Father Franz Pfanner established Mariannhill Monastery 16 km west of Durban. He promoted local developm ...

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, South Africa. He was later transferred to

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where he worked at St. Patrick's in Bulawayo before moving to Lukosi, near

Hwange Hwange (formerly Wankie) is a town in Zimbabwe, located in Hwange District, in Matabeleland North Province, in northwestern Zimbabwe, close to the international borders with Botswana and Zambia. It lies approximately , by road, southeast of Vi ...

in 1939.

Missionary work in Matabeleland

In the

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of Matebeleland, he travelled by bicycle from St. Mary's Lukosi to Hwange, Victoria Falls, Matetsi and Gwayi River. He built and established many schools, including those in Gwayi,

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Dete Dete (previously known as Dett) is a small railway re-crewing depot and a developing town on the Bulawayo-Hwange-Victoria Falls railway line in Zimbabwe, approximately north-west of Bulawayo and south-east of Hwange, lying within the Hwange N ...

and Lupane and later went to Fatima where he opened a mission hospital and school. With the support of friends in

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, who were doctors, he opened St. Luke's Hospital in Lupane. In 1958, he returned to Bulawayo, where he was the parish priest at St. Mary's Cathedral. He was appointed Provincial Superior of Mariannhill Missionaries, a post he held from 1970 to 1982. He was Parish priest for many years of the Hillside parish of Christ the King. Weeger was awarded the Verdienstkreuz – Erster Klasse (Cross of Merit – First Class) in Germany, on 5 May 1989, for his work in Matabeleland. Weeger's archives are stored in Bulawayo.

References

Sources

* Alexander, Jocelyn & Ranger, Terence ''Competition and Integration in the Religious History of North-Western Zimbabwe'' * Journal of Religion in Africa, Vol. 28, Fasc. 1 (Feb., 1998), pp. 3–31 {{DEFAULTSORT:Weeger, Odilo 1912 births 2006 deaths Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Roman Catholic missionaries in South Africa German Roman Catholic missionaries 20th-century German Roman Catholic priests Roman Catholic missionaries in Zimbabwe German expatriates in South Africa German expatriates in Zimbabwe