Almighty and everlasting God, who kindled the flame of your love in the heart of your holy martyr Bernard Mizeki: Grant to us, your humble servants, a like faith and power of love, that we who rejoice in his triumph may profit by his example; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Bernard was born Mamiyeri Mitseka Gwambe in Portugese East Africa, now Mozambique. He moved to Cape Town, now South Africa, to find work. The poverty and drunkeness of the slums he lived in touched him, and he never drank alcohol. Slums, by the way, still exist in South Africa.
Bernard found the Cowley Fathers' mission, and attended their night school. He later converted to Christianity, took on his christian name, and quickly started converting people. He was then sent to Zonnbloem College to train as a catechist, mastering many African and European languages.
He later accompanied the missionary bishop of Shonaland, George William Knight-Bruce. He came to live simply as the Shona people did, discarding the furniture he built, and to translate the Bible and liturgy into the Shona language. Although he opposed some traditional religious customs, Bernard was very attentive to the nuances of Shona Spirit religion. He developed an approach that built on people’s already monotheistic faith in the one God Mwari and on their sensitivity to spirit life at the same time that he forthrightly proclaimed the Christ. He later married Mutwa, a convert, and was well-respected by everyone except the witch doctors.
One of them, it seems, later had him murdered. There was a rebellion in Mashonaland, and missionaries were ordered to leave, but Mutwa was pregnant, and Bernared stayed. On June 18, he was dragged from his hut and fatally stabbed. Mutwa found him. He ordered her to leave, and she ran to get him some food and blankets. She, and others, saw a bright white light, and heard a sound “like many wings of great birds." When she returned, his body had disappeared.
The place of Bernard's death has become a pilgrimage shrine for all Christians, and a great communion service is held in his honor every June 18.
The more prosaic explanation for the miracle of his disappearance is that Mchemwa, the son of the chief, a "troublemaker", and Bernard's likely murderer, likely had returned to hide the body.
Bernard respected the customs of the people. He did not simply come and tell them what to believe. He let them change him, as much as he tried to change them.
Bernard's story also gives us a glimpse into Christianity in the Global South. Bishop John Spong, one of the Episcopal Church's more controversial and abrasive bishops, once condemned African Christians as superstitious. Not to be outdone, I personally have condemned Asian Christians as superstitious as well. However, Christianity in Asia and Africa is not far removed from indigenous religions. Most Christians are recent converts.
In Asia, many young Christians convert while their families are still praying at shrines in the house set up to idols. People will burn joss sticks (a form of incense) in honor of their dead ancestors. People will offer food to their ancestors - as in, real food. For their ancestors to eat, at least in some metaphysical way. Families burn "hell money" at the Hungry Ghosts festival, so that their ancestors have money to spend in the afterlife.
Rationalist Christianity is not too popular in the Global South. Christians are not trying to convert secular humanists. They are trying to convert those who practice tribal religions, or Hindiusm or Islam. To engage with those religions, one doesn't use a rationalist mindset.
I still don't approve of the way my Global South brothers and sisters in Christ do things. I would rather they heed Brian McLaren's words: don't try to "shoe-horn them out of their religion". Don't impose Christianity on indigenous peoples at the expense of their cultures. Bernard Mizeki did no such thing.
Source
Mike Oettle, who writes about a few saints including Bernard, here.
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