Following Trappists’ footsteps
Trail honours those who helped establish missions
AGROUP of seasoned hikers leave today on a maiden trek in the footsteps of 19th century Trappist monks, from the Drakensberg towards Durban.
“They are hard-core hikers who are tough enough to change direction if necessary. It’s not a Sunday afternoon trail,” said organiser Syl Nilsen, wearing the hat of secretary of the March Abbot Pfanner Trappist Trail Association.
She has a vision of the trail becoming something of a local equivalent to the famous “Camino” pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Spain.
The 200km foot challenge starts at Reichenau Mission, near Underberg, which is known for its water-driven mill beside a waterfall, and ends at Mariathal, about 40km short of Mariannhill Monastery.
About 22 mission stations and outstations once built by the Trappist order of the Roman Catholic Church throughout southern KwaZuluNatal and the Eastern Cape are linked to Mariannhill.
Nilsen cited security as the reason the hikers would terminate their walk short of the ideal endpoint.
The route includes Centocow Mission, near Creighton, which has an art gallery in a refurbished church.
It features the work of the former Centocow student, Gerard Bhengu, and a black Madonna in a stain-glassed window that tells the story of Pfanner.
Others are Lourdes with its two-tower cathedral; Kevelaer at Donnybrook and King’s Grant, near Ixopo, which now functions as a guest house.
Also on the route is Emaus, where Pfanner, the founder of the Mariannhill missions, ended up on suspension for wanting reforms to make work on the stations more suited to missionary work, than the many strict Trappist rules allowed.
Only months before his death in 1909, the Mariannhill-based missions eventually separated from their Trappist parent order in Europe and became an order in their own right, known to this day as the Missionary Order of Mariannhill.
In 1963, a process began towards having him declared a saint.
Nilsen said she had been researching routes across mountains, farms, communal lands and through forests and negotiating with people along the way to make sure hikers may pass through.
“There were farms, including game farms, security gates and river crossings to work around.
“What I see in the long term is every hiking club being able to arrange trips. They won’t be for individuals. I can’t see a single person doing it unless they are very brave, for security reasons.”
She said that once the hike’s infrastructure was in place, she expected church groups, historical societies and hiking clubs as prime candidates for taking up the challenge. “Anyone will be able to do it.”
The pioneering crop of hikers is expected to end their expedition on March 20.
She added that the Abbot Pfanner Trappist Trail was the first long-distance religious pilgrimage trail to be established in South Africa that leads from one church to the next.
“But this is not church-to-church trail.
“This trail will honour the men and women who helped establish the 22 missions, each with schools and three with hospitals to serve the local people.
“It is almost beyond belief that these missions were established in less than 20 years, after the arrival in KwaZuluNatal of a man with exceptional vision and dedication.
“It’s even more astounding when you consider that he was a simple farm boy from Vorarlberg in Austria, who became the first Abbot of the just a Monastery of Mariannhill and founder of the Sisters of the Precious Blood, and without whom none of the Missions would have existed.”
Nilsen plans to involve communities and the Roman Catholic Church.
On the maiden hike she expects bishops, priests and a sister join the 13 core members for stretches. Also walking will be Reichenau Mission tour guide, Ndu Zuma.
She will bring in features of the Camino into the Abbot Pfanner Trappist Trail, such as a certificate of completion and a document similar to the “pilgrim’s passport” that will be stamped at every mission station.
“Each mission will have a self-inking stamp and their ‘pilgrim record’ will be stamped at each place.” The trail will also have a symbol, like the Camino has, except it will be a cross, not a scallop shell.
Nilsen is no stranger to the Camino, having walked it 10 times.