Société des Missions Africaines - Province d’Irlande

né le 13 septembre 1912 dans le diocèse de Down & Connor, Irlande membre de la SMA le 19 juin 1932 prêtre le 21 décembre 1935  décédé le 30 mars 1992

1936-1941 préfecture de Kaduna, Nigeria 1941-1944 aumônier militaire 1944-1946 préfecture de Kaduna 1947-1955 US Province, plusieurs maisons 1955-1958 USA, malade 1958-1982 aumônier dans un monastère à Jemez Springs chez les Servantes du Paraclet 1982-1992 Albuquerque, home Saint-François décédé à Albuquerque, Etats-Unis, le 30 mars 1992 à l’âge de 79 ans

Henry Russell was born in Coates Street, Belfast, Northern Ireland, in the diocese of Down and Connor, on September 13, 1912. He died at St. Francis Gardens Nursing Home, in the care of the Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA, on March 30, 1992.

Henry (Harry) commenced his secondary education at St. Mary's Christian Brothers school, Falls Road, Belfast, and completed it at St. Joseph's college Wilton, Cork, which he attended between 1927-1930. In September 1930 he joined the Society's novitiate and house of philosophy, at Kilcolgan, Co Galway. Two years later he commenced his theological formation in the Society's seminary at Dromantine, Co Down. Harry was received as a member of the Society on June 19, 1932, and was ordained a priest by Bishop Edward Mulhern of Dromore diocese, in St. Colman's cathedral, Newry, on December 21, 1935. He was one of a group of twenty-one ordained on that day.

After ordination Harry was appointed to the Kaduna prefecture in northern Nigeria. This prefecture had been erected a year earlier when the old prefecture of Northern Nigeria was divided. The Kaduna jurisdiction, whose superior was Thomas Hughes, comprised the civil provinces of Zaria, Niger, Sokoto, Kano and a part of the French territory of Niger. Its area was 125,000 square kilometres, its population in excess of 5 million. Harry's first appointment was to Minna, one of the railway line towns, which had been first visited by missionaries in 1918. There was a Catholic community of 500 members and 50 catechumens, many of them Igbos from the east who had come northwards with the railway. After four months Harry was transferred to Kontagora (a busy Moslem town, north of Minna) and, six months later, to Kaduna district. During his first year in the prefecture Harry had learned Hausa and obtained faculties to hear confessions in that language. He had also been introduced gently to the missionary life. Now in October 1937 he was given his first substantive appointment, to Kano mission. Kano was the largest Muslim centre in Nigeria and also the capital of the prefecture. Harry was to spend the next four years in this station, looking after a Catholic community of over 1,000 members, many of them Igbos, living near the central station or in Kano's eight secondary stations. His first superior in Kano was John (Jack) McCarthy, later to become archbishop of Kaduna. Alphonse Schahl, an Alsatian member of the Society, was his next superior.

Harry went on his first home leave in August 1941. Due back to Nigeria a year later, he found it virtually impossible to get a sea passage because of the world war. Then another very different type of mission presented itself. At that time Allied commanders were seeking chaplains to minister to their troops and requests were being made regularly to bishops and superiors to release staff. In July 1943 Harry was one of a number of SMA missionaries who volunteered and was released by the Society. He became a chaplain to the Royal Air Force, serving in England and in Northern Ireland until June 1944. He returned to Kaduna after the war, taking up a posting at Argungu, near Sokoto. But like a number of missionaries who had served as chaplains, he found it difficult to settle back into the work.

In 1947 the American Province of the Society, founded in 1941, made a new appeal to the Irish Province for personnel. Harry was asked by his superiors to join a number of confrères who had agreed to go to America. Harry sailed to America on the Queen Mary, arriving in New York on January 16, 1948. Peter Harrington, the Provincial, assigned him to the mission promotion staff at Tenafly, New Jersey. Harry worked for the American Province until 1955 when his mental health broke down. In 1956, needing rest and rehabilitation, he lived with the Servants of the Paraclete in their monastery at Jemez Springs. From time to time his condition worsened and he entered other institutions. But such episodes, however unpleasant and painful, ran their course and he was able to return to the monastery. He spent the last decade of his life at St. Francis Gardens nursing home, Albuquerque.

Harry made a particular contribution to the missions through his well-researched historical publications. He commenced writing when he took up residence at Tenafly, completing most of his texts by 1955. He wrote many pamphlets and a number of books. Among the titles are: Heroines for Christ; One Man Against Africa; Human Cargoes; Death! but Victory, a story of the Catholic Adventure in the African Jungle; West Coast Saga, Irish Province of the S.M.A; , Pioneers in Africa; and perhaps the most important Africa's Twelve apostles. A contemporary of Harry's wrote of him after his death: 'he was a very learned man, and noted for his deep humility. He was also a keen sportsman and an especially good soccer player, reaching professional standards as a goalkeeper. He was a very impressive preacher, too, who was praised by the Bishop of Down and Connor.' However the spectre of mental illness was never far removed from his life especially when he reached middle age. And, given the great limitations this imposed, his contribution to the Society and the Missions, especially through his writings, was remarkable.

He is buried in the community cemetery of the Monastery of the Servants of the Paraclete, Jemez Springs, New Mexico, USA.