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On November 11, 1887, three years after the community’s founding, the first Rite of Mission for East Africa took place in St. Ottilien. One priest, one frater, eight brothers and four sisters set off for the Apostolic Prefecture of South Zanzibar. During their journey, they stopped in Rome to make their religious profession in the Church of Campo Santo next to St. Peter’s.
Already in March 1888, the missionaries could move into their newly built house in Pugu, about 12 miles southwest of Dar es Salaam. The “white women” were gazed at in wonder by the African women and were soon loved, especially by the children. But tropical diseases beset the young brothers and sisters. Sr. Lioba Ellwanger, the cook, died of fever over night; Sr. Raphaela Kamphaus had to return home. The brothers fared no better. The gravestones of the brave missionaries are a silent witness today to their youth offered for the Kingdom of God.
An uprising against the German colonial power soon endangered the mission. Two sisters and seven brothers were in Pugu on Sunday, January 13, 1889, when insurgents overran the mission and burned it completely to the ground. Two brothers and Sr. Martha Wansang were killed immediately, three wounded brothers and Sr. Benedikta Sivering were taken captive, and two brothers secretly escaped.
At that time all community members wore a wide, red cincture over their habits as a sign of their readiness for martyrdom. What had Sr. Martha written to her relatives before her departure for Africa? “With happy determination I gird myself with the red cincture that will constantly remind me of my readiness to pour out my blood for the holy faith.”
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