Hanga Abbey
| Monastery information | |
|---|---|
| Full name | Abbey of St. Maurus |
| Order | Missionary Benedictines of St. Ottilien |
| Established | 1956 |
| Mother house | Peramiho Abbey |
| Dedicated to | Saint Maurus |
| Diocese | Songea |
| People | |
| Founder(s) | Abbot-Bishop Eberhard Spiess, O.S.B. |
| Abbot | The Right Rev. Octavian Thomas Masingo, O.S.B. (effective 1 August 2016) |
| Prior | Jerome Mlelwa, O.S.B. |
| Site | |
| Location | Hanga, Ruvuma, Tanzania |
The Abbey of St. Maurus is a Tanzanian Benedictine monastery of the Congregation of Missionary Benedictines of Saint Ottilien in Hanga, Ruvuma Region. Established in 1956 by Abbot-Bishop Eberhard Spiess as a formation house for African monastic candidates, the monastery is currently home to 122 monks. The abbey operates schools and a dispensary for the people of the local village and a seminary for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Songea.
Since their early days in German East Africa, the Missionary Benedictines focused exclusively on establishing Roman Catholicism among African communities. The work of the missionary-monks, which included the creation of parishes, schools, and hospitals, did not allow for a concerted effort in recruiting African monastic vocations. However, a few individual Missionary Benedictine monks did take the initiative. Fr Severin Hofbauer, who had created a minor seminary in 1926, attempted to recruit those seminarians who expressed an interest in monastic life. By 1948, Hofbauer's successor, Fr Otmar Morger, knew of several young men interested in joining the monastic community at Peramiho. However, the Congregation's Archabbot Chrysostomus Schmid denied them this request, desiring that Africans form their own monastic congregations rather than become Missionary Benedictines.
Abbot-Bishop Eberhard Spiess was more receptive to the desire of Africans to join the Ottilien Congregation. However, he realized that the existing Tanzanian communities of Ndanda Abbey and Peramiho Abbey, exclusively European and predominantly German, would not be ideal locations for the formation of African monks. Therefore, Spiess chose to create a foundation separate from these abbeys, a monastery that would allow African monks the opportunity to adapt the Rule of Benedict to their own cultural circumstances. With this in mind, in 1956 he formed a team of Missionary Benedictines who would act as formators for African monastic candidates. The next year, an "African monastery" was opened at Liganga, Tanzania. This early foundation was quickly overwhelmed with numerous candidates, and soon relocated to Hanga village, within the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Songea, 80 km east of the Abbey of Peramiho and 70 km north of Songea.
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