Supplied by Very Rev. Father Carthage, C.P.
The following is an account of the sudden illness and death of Father Emmanuel (Pender), C.P. In the first week of December Father Emmanuel was working as usual at his mission station in Morwa. He complained of headaches and was treated for them in the usual way. On the 6th December he went to Mafeking for a load of lime to finish the building of some teachers’ houses at Morwa. It was a week of heavy rains and travel on the wet roads was most difficult. On the return journey from Mafeking he spent a night at Lobatsi Mission and when he came to Ramoutswa Mission on Friday he had to spend a night there also as the river was in flood and he was unable to pass. After Mass in Ramoutswa on Saturday morning (the last Mass he said) he continued his journey as the river had subsided, and arrived at Morwa on Saturday December 10th.
On Sunday morning he arose to say Mass but fell to the floor and was unable to get up again. He called an African boy to help him but he was too heavy. Eventually he dragged himself up onto a chair and the African boy ran to the village of Mochudi for a doctor. After some time the doctor phoned Khale Mission to have Father Emmanuel removed from Morwa as he could not be left alone. He was brought to Khale Mission where antibiotics were administered. On Monday morning it was seen that the antibiotics were having no effect, so after many examinations and consultations two doctors diagnosed polio. By this time he was finding it very difficult to breathe and he had no movement in his legs. He would have to be removed to Johannesburg. A plane was promised at 2 o’clock. News was sent to all the missions that Father Emmanuel was very ill. Father Thomas hired a small service plane in Lobatsi and arrived at Gabarones, five miles from Khale. The doctor, however, dismissed it as no medical attention could be given on this plane. At 5 o’clock news was received that the plane had left Johannesburg.
Father Emmanuel was placed on a chair which, with the help of iron poles, was lifted on to the back of a truck on which he was driven very slowly to a small air-field cut out of the bush at Gabarones. As he reached the air-field everyone looked in horror at the sky which showed signs of the approach of a real tropical storm. Forked lightning began to flash in dazzling brightness and sizzled into the ground close by, but no one thought of his own safety. The one hope and prayer was that the plane would come before the rain. At 6.15 p.m. the heavens opened in all their fury and soon the airfield was just a sheet of water but the plane arrived and landed at 6.30 p.m.
Covered with blankets and coats as the rain was still pouring down Father Emmanuel was placed in the plane. Immediately a doctor and nurse who came with the plane put him on a respiratory machine. However, after an hour’s delay the doctors decided to keep Father in Gabarones for the night as he was very weak and it would be difficult for the plane to get off the ground. He was taken by ambulance to a small hospital at Gabarones where he was made comfortable, and was watched over by two doctors and by Father Placid until dawn. At 5 a.m. the plane took off for Johannesburg. About five minutes later another plane landed. It had come from Johannesburg to help also.
Very Rev. Father Carthage and Father Norbert travelled to Johannesburg by truck and waited for three hours outside the ward of the hospital while the doctors were trying to put Father Emmanuel into an iron lung. They had to remove him again as he was too big and found greater difficulty in breathing. An incision was made in his neck to help him to breathe with greater ease through a tube from the respiratory machine. He was comfortable for a few days and was able to recognise those who called and to hear what was said. The Bishop of Johannesburg called to see him. Father Michael Touhy, a native of Belfast, who is attached to the Cathedral, called to see him three times a day. On the Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday of the second week he was able to receive Holy Viaticum. On the Wednesday there was a slight improvement, but on Thursday complications set in, and in spite of the efforts of many specialists, it appeared that it would only be a matter of time until he died. Father Leonard stayed with him all night on Thursday. Father Emmanuel at this stage was trying to say something and a Sister teaching deaf and dumb children was called in to lip read. He requested someone to write to his mother. Fathers Ronan, Donal, Kieran, Augustine, Cosmas, Brother Paul and four Sisters took turns in visiting him. On Friday his condition deteriorated. Father Leonard stayed with him again on Friday night. He was unconscious on Friday night and Saturday morning and he died peacefully on Christmas Eve at 5 minutes to 12.
Christmas Day was a sad day in Bechuanaland in 1960. After a quiet supper the Missionaries recited the Office of the Dead and the Rosary for Father Emmanuel. Permission was given to the doctors to perform a post mortem as this was necessary in order to get a permit to have Father Emmanuel buried in Bechuanaland. The post mortem was held on December, 28th. On December 29th Solemn Requiem Mass was celebrated in the new Cathedral in Johannesburg by Fathers Kieran, Donal and Leonard. His Lordship Bishop Boyle presided. Father Augustine was M.C. Many friends, clergy and sisters attended.
At the same time a Solemn Requiem Mass was celebrated in Khale by three of his classmates, Fathers Oswald, Herbert and Harold. Monsignor Murphy presided. The funeral arrived at Khale in the evening. Very Rev. Fr. Carthage preached the panegyric, and Monsignor Murphy read the prayers at the graveside. A very large crowd of people attended the funeral. There were two District Commissioners amongst those carrying the coffin. The Oblate Fathers, the Sisters of Mercy and the Sisters of the Holy Family from Mafeking attended. Father Emmanuel’s death is the first amongst the Passionists in Bechuanaland. His fellow missionaries who mourned his passing are consoled by the thought that he died a very happy and holy death. R.I.P.
REV. FATHER EMMANUEL (PENDER), C.P.
The hand of the Lord was laid heavily upon St. Patrick’s Province on Christmas Eve, 1960. Passionists in Ireland, Scotland and Africa were busily preparing for the joyous coming of Christ, when suddenly the sorrowful news broke amongst them that death had come and taken Father Emmanuel. The Lord had called home a young priest just four years ordained, a youthful missionary who, a little more than a year previously, had gone to Africa there to give his life to God and souls.
Known in the world as James Patrick Pender, Father Emmanuel, C.P., was born in Belfast on January 17th, 1927. Having completed his secondary school course, he entered the Congregation in 1949, and was professed on September 15th, 1950, at St. Gabriel’s Retreat, The Graan, Enniskillen. Ordained on May 26th, 1956, at Holy Cross Church, Clonliffe, Dublin, he offered his first Holy Mass on the following day in the Church of St. Paul of the Cross, Mount Argus.
In August, 1959, he was appointed to missionary work in the Passionist Prefecture of Bechuanaland. There he was assigned to a new mission station at Morwa. In this area, Father Emmanuel found conditions that might have daunted many an experienced missionary. Here was a great section of God’s vineyard as yet untilled, and to the tilling he gave himself with unflagging zeal and energy. Mission buildings were urgently required, and skilled workers were in short supply. But Father Emmanuel toiled with his own hands, even making the bricks himself. The buildings at Morwa – and, more especially, the faith of his new converts in that mission station – will stand as a noble memorial to a selfless young apostle.
Early in December, Father Emmanuel became ill. To receive proper medical attention he was taken to Khale, where polio was quickly diagnosed. A Johannesburg fever hospital was immediately contacted, and soon a medical team arrived by special plane. Everything was ready for the Khale – Johannesburg flight with the stricken priest, when a violent tropical storm broke over the area, delaying the take – off for ten hours. Arrived at the hospital, the patient received the most skilled medical care. Indeed he soon showed some signs of improvement, but these were short – lived, and on December 24th, Father Emmanuel, strengthened by the Last Rites of the Church, passed to his reward. At his passing, the Passionists in Bechuanaland suffered a grievous loss which cannot easily be repaired. To his family – and especially to his widowed mother – we, his Passionist brethren, offer our sincere and prayerful sympathy.
On Thursday, December 29th, the Prefect Apostolic, Right Rev. Monsignor Urban Murphy, C.P., presided at the Solemn Obsequies held at St. Joseph’s Mission, Khale, Bechuanaland. Requiescat in Pace.
(The Cross, Vol. LI, 1960-61; p. 303)
A MISSIONARY’S SACRIFICE
A TRIBUTE BY A FELLOW MISSIONARY
The happiness of Christmas day this year in Bechuanaland had a large bundle of Myrrh, in it, which dimmed our Gold and spoiled the perfume of our Frankincense.
Over each Mission Station hung a certain air of sadness that not even the warm, bright sunshine could dispel. In the heart of each Missionary was a deep sorrow at the loss of one of our fellow labourers, working here with us in Bechuanaland, in the vineyard of the Lord. On Christmas Eve we received a telephone call from a Johannesburg hospital informing us that Father Emmanuel had died peacefully that morning. The first of our Missionaries in Bechuanaland had made the supreme sacrifice.
In August 1959 Father Emmanuel came to Bechuanaland and after a three month course to familiarise himself with African ways and the native language, Tswana, he was posted to Our Lady of Mount Carmel Mission at Morwa. When he arrived at this mission outpost there was just one poor building with temporary partitions dividing it into four rooms. It was used for a church on Sundays and the rest of the week as a school. The Father in charge slept in one of these rooms (when the Pupils had gone!) so living conditions were both primitive and precarious.
Now at present writing, there stands beside the chapel-cum-school a beautiful, tidy little presbytery. It is Father Emmanuel’s monument. He devised it himself. The actual building, carpentry and plumbing were mainly the work of his own two hands. Someone has already said ‘In the death of Father we have lost one who was a master artisan.’
But he, not only excelled as a builder of mission buildings; he excelled also as a shepherd of souls. His efforts to bring the love of God to a pagan people were untiring; his zeal unflagging. His African friends were always glad to see him. On his visitation rounds he was always a welcome visitor to their humble homes. No better estimation of their regard for him can be given than to recall the great crowds who came to pay their last respects at his funeral. Most of them had travelled over twenty miles to get there. He had endeared himself to all and won their hearts.
Father Emmanuel’s illness was brief and unexpected. He had been travelling all day on the 8th December and had got as far as St. Konrad’s Mission at Ramoutsa on the 9th when he was held up by heavy rains. The river at that point was impassable so he spent the night at the Mission. Before going to bed he complained of a headache, but otherwise seemed well.
Early next morning the waters of the river had receded, so Father took his opportunity and drove on to his own Mission at Morwa. Here he became really ill and the Doctor was sent for, who advised his removal to St. Joseph’s Mission, Khale where he could be looked after by one of the Sister nurses. On 12th December the Doctor called again and brought a second doctor with him for consultation. They agreed on a diagnosis of suspected Polio and ordered his immediate removal to Johannesburg. Father was not responding to treatment and was finding it difficult to move his limbs.
The doctors arranged by radio for a plane to fly in and transport the patient to hospital. It arrived at 5.30 that evening a few miles from the Mission and was immediately swamped in a downpour of tropical rain, which within a quarter of an hour turned the landing field into a quagmire. The pilot of the plane found a take-off impossible and Father Emmanuel was returned to the local hospital, where he spent a quiet if difficult night. We feel now that Bechuanaland was loath to part with her Missionar. However at five o’clock next morning the plane was airborne with Father safely and comfortably aboard. A Doctor and Nurse accompanied him and attended all his needs till they eventually arrived in Johannesburg.
In Johannesburg the hospital staff was kindness itself. No effort was spared to bring Father safely through although from the start it was recognised that it would be an uphill fight. What gave everyone hope was Father Emmanuel’s attitude to his illness. With patient courage he called on all the resources of his own great physical strength and never showed the effort it must have cost. He never once complained. Back on our mission stations regular bulletins told us of his fight for life and for days we all felt hopeful and prayed. The hospital staff was encouraged by his effort and powerfully edified by his patient suffering. The words of the Sister in charge summed up the opinion of all her staff. ‘ He is a wonderful, wonderful patient.’ But it was not to be. Two days before Christmas came a fatal relapse and in the evening of that day we recited the last of the great vesper antiphons in preparation for Christmas, ‘ O Emmanuel, Our King and Lawgiver, the Expected of the nations and their Saviour, come and save us, O Lord our God.’ On Christmas Eve he died peacefully. Fr. Emmanuel surrendered his life in sacrifice to his King and Lawgiver.
ON Thursday, 29th December the remains were brought back to St. Joseph’s Mission, Khale, where they were received by the Right Rev. Monsignor Murphy, C.P., Prefect Apostolic of Bechuanaland. Solemn Requiem Mass was celebrated by Fr. Oswald, C.P. assisted by Fr. Harold and Fr. Herbert, C.P. as Deacon and Subdeacon respectively. All three were classmates of Fr. Emmanuel. The burial took place in the lovely little mission cemetery where he now lies at rest among the people whom he loved.
Present at the obsequies were Monsignor Murphy, C.P., Fr. Carthage, C.P. (Religious Superior), Fr. Tuohy, Cathedral, Johannesburg (representing His Lordship Bishop Boyle), Fr. Sonntag and Fr. Motsumi (Mafeking), Fr. Kieran, C.P. and Fr. Augustine, C.P. (Transvaal). Other Passionists there included Fathers Feargal, Linus, Leonard, Norbert, Placid, Thomas, Donal and Eunan; also Brothers Isidore and Paul. The Passionist Sisters of Khale, Ramoutsa and Lobatsi communities also attended and the Holy Cross Sisters from Mafeking.
Through all our sense of loss runs the deep realisation of our gain. We feel that we have now in heaven one who knows our needs by intimate experience. We have someone lo look after our interests. We know and believe that his sacrifice has not been in vain. Meantime his presence amongst us in the little graveyard is there to inspire us. Through that simple grave, there is a little bit of Africa that belongs forever to St. Paul of the Cross.
(The Cross, Vol. LI, 1960-61; p. 322-3)