Image Number: APN358712
Media Id: 981_235
Path:
african.pictures /
Africa Imagery /
Roger de la Harpe
Description: St Andrews Church at Reichenau Mission on the banks of the Pelola River. Near Underbeg. KwaZulu Natal. South Africa. This historic mission, founded in 1886, was the first satellite station of the famous Mariannhill Mission near Durban. Abbot Francis Pfanner, of the New Reformed Cistercian order of monks, commonly known as Trappists, came out to South Africa during the early 1800s. He first established Mariannhill, and broke away from the monastic tradition of silence to serve and missionise the population of the early Natal colony. In Catholic litany, the Virgin Mary is called the Rosa Mystica and under Abbot Pfannerââ¬â¢s singular direction, a series of Mariann or Rosa Mystica mission churches were built. With its beautiful murals and unique, richly coloured stained-glass windows, Reichenau was modelled on the Gothic style of the original European church.
