Catholic Church to Beatify First South African Ever
On Sunday, September 13, Pope Francis will beatify the first South African ever – a schoolteacher who was beaten to death in 1990 by villagers after he refused to pay a sorcerer who promised to end storms battering the region. Benedict ‘Tshimangadzo’ Daswa was stoned by his attackers and ran to a bar to find safety…but he […]
On Sunday, September 13, Pope Francis will beatify the first South African ever – a schoolteacher who was beaten to death in 1990 by villagers after he refused to pay a sorcerer who promised to end storms battering the region.
Benedict ‘Tshimangadzo’ Daswa was stoned by his attackers and ran to a bar to find safety…but he was found there and beaten to death. Afterwards, the attackers apparently poured boiling water in his ears and nose to make sure he was dead.
The murdered teacher’s name became famous in the Catholic Church in South Africa, and people started to commemorate the anniversary of his death. Daswa had converted to Catholicism at the age of 17. He was principal of the Nweli Primary School when he was killed, aged 43.
Being beatified does not make Daswa a saint but shows that the church recognises that he entered heaven and that people can pray to him to intercede on their behalf.
“He can’t become a saint for the universal church because he didn’t perform a miracle,” former Tzaneen Bishop Hugh Slattery was quoted as saying to Agence France Presse.
Slattery was the one who initiated the investigation into Daswa’s life and death, and approached the Vatican. “We managed to prove his death was (that of) a martyr but it was not easy because the witnesses of his death didn’t want to talk.”
Several people were arrested, but with little evidence the case was eventually closed.
The diocese of Tzaneen commissioned a documentary on Daswa that came out this year. Watch here:
The pope announced in January that Daswa would become the first person from Southern Africa to be thus recognised by the church.
The beatification comes only months before the pope in November will visit Kenya, the Central African Republic and Uganda, where he will commemorate the 1964 canonisation of the first African saints — 22 young people killed in 1878 on the orders of the local ruler because they refused to renounce their Christian faith.
In a statement on Thursday, President Jacob Zuma congratulated the Catholic Church for this historic ceremony.
More than 20,000 people are expected at the Sunday ceremony, including Daswa’s mother, in Tshitanini village, not far from Daswa’s house in Limpopo. The Italian Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, will celebrate mass and represent Pope Francis, who is expected to say a few words from Rome about the beatification.
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