Société des Missions Africaines – Province d'Irlande

né le 26 avril 1911 à Cork dans le diocèse de Cork, Irlande membre de la SMA le 2 juillet 1931 prêtre le 21 décembre 1934 décédé le 26 avril 1952

1935-1951 missionnaire au Nigeria, préfecture de Jos Shendam, Udei 1951 USA 1952 Cork, malade décédé à Cork, Irlande, le 26 avril 1952, à l’âge de 41 ans

Le père William Patrick HOLLAND (1911 - 1952)

A Cork, le 26 avril 1952, retour à Dieu du père William Holland, à l'âge de 41 ans.

William Holland naquit dans le diocèse de Cork, Irlande, en 1911. Il fit toutes ses études dans les maisons de la Société et fut ordonné prêtre en 1934, après avoir émis le serment en 1931. Nommé en Nigeria du Nord, dans la nouvelle préfecture de Jos, il va y travailler une quinzaine d'années. Il travailla en particulier à Shendam et à Udei, où il fut supérieur.

Revenu épuisé par son laborieux travail apostolique, il accepta la mort avec une parfaite résignation.

Father William Patrick HOLLAND (1911 - 1952)

William Holland was born in Cork City (the family lived in 46 Shandon Street), in the diocese of Cork, on 26 April 1911. He died in the Mercy hospital, Cork, on 26 April 1952.

William ('Sonny') studied first with the Christian Brothers, at Our Lady's Mount ('the North Monastery'), Cork and then at St. Joseph's college, Wilton, Cork (1926 1929). He entered the Society's novitiate and house of philosophy, at Kilcolgan, Co Galway, in 1929 and went to the Society's seminary, at Dromantine, Co Down, for his theological formation in September 193l. After taking his permanent oath of membership on 2 July 193l, he was ordained a priest by Bishop Edward Mulhern of Dromore diocese, in St. Colman's cathedral, Newry, on 21 December 1934. He was one of a group of twelve ordained on that day.

After ordination William returned to Dromantine to complete his theological training. He was then appointed to the prefecture of Jos, in northern Nigeria. The mission to northern Nigeria had been pioneered in 1907 when three S.M.A. priests travelled to Shendam and established a station. A prefecture had been established in 1929 (the prefecture of Northern Nigeria). In 1934 this jurisdiction was divided into the separate prefectures of Jos and Kaduna. The prefecture of Jos comprised the provinces of Bauchi, Plateau, and parts of Benue, Adamawa and Bornu provinces, as well as a part of the French Sudan. Shortly after his arrival William penned the following description of his mission. 'Here in Jos we are high, high up. We never see the sea, being the best part of a thousand miles away from it, but it is consoling in a hot land to be told that we are 4,000 feet above it. The prefecture of Jos embraces a territory almost three times the size of Ireland. Ten Fathers in five pairs have care of all this. Each pair has a separate section, and in these sectional districts, towns and villages with Catholic communities are far apart and can only be visited now and again. All, except the central one, which is the nominal residential station of the Fathers, are called outstations. They each have a mud church, which acts as a school on week days. A catechist is in charge. He conducts the morning prayer, for which the 999Christians faithfully gather, and he it is who gives the catechism class in the evenings. With courage, enterprise and organisation each pair of Fathers do the work of ten. Huge areas are covered, contact made and maintained between the remotest village and the central mission. This is a life that can satisfy the hopes and aspirations of any man.'

William spent most of his first tour of duty (1935 1939) in the town of Shendam, where William Gannon was superior. Shendam had a Catholic community of some 200 members with 250 catechumens. It was also the home of the vernacular training college, which provided teacher catechists who were trained through the medium of Hausa. This institution had been established by Mgr. William Porter in 1932 and extended in 1935 by Mgr. William Lumley, first prefect of Jos. William spent the last six months of his first tour at Odegin Kassa (Odeigi Kasa), near Keffi. On his return to Africa from his first home leave, in December 1940, William was assigned to Allogani, a station which had been founded a year previously and had witnessed the tragic death of Andrew Geraghty in April 1940. Fr. Geraghty had died very probably as a result of a fall from a horse, having founded the station with Mick Harrison. During this tour, which lasted until October 1945, William also served in Jos, and Pankshin where he was superior. William spent the whole of his third tour (1946 1950) in the town of Udei, among the Tiv people. This vast district, which had many far flung secondary stations, had been founded in 1934 under the patronage of St. Patrick, and had a Catholic membership of 1,000 and almost 700 catechumens. As well as the ordinary pastoral ministry, and trekking for days on end to visit outstations, William had to supervise the work of the Tiv training centre also known as the catechist teacher elementary training centre a boarding school for young men from the outlying villages and towns, who wanted to become teachers and catechists. There was also a training centre for girls, where hygiene, cooking, handsewing and weaving were taught.

In the spring of 1951 William became seriously ill and returned to Ireland. In August 1951, feeling better, he visited America but again fell sick. He returned to Cork on 9 March 1952, when he was admitted to the Mercy hospital. There he was given little hope of recovery. He faced the end with exemplary courage, dying on his birthday. During the last week of his life his confrères kept constant vigil at his bedside. William's obituary in the African Missionary records that he had a passionate love of everything Gaelic music, song, sport and play.

He is buried in Wilton cemetery.