Sango Pius Epie: centenary of his reception of baptism

+Paul Verdzekov
In June 2008, the Catholics of the Bamenda Ecclesiastical Province will piously recall, and, hopefully, joyously celebrate, the reception of the Sacraments of Christian Initiation by Sango Pius Epie, a man who was destined to become one of the most outstanding and exemplary Catechists this country has ever known.  Father Andrew Nkea informs us that in 1906, Sango Epie traveled from Nyassoso, in the Bakossi country, to Bonjongo where the German Pallotine Missionaries had opened a Parish in 1894, the Parish of Our Lady of the Angels. They gave that locality the name Engelberg.

Father Andrew Nkea informs us that in 1906, Sango Epie traveled from Nyassoso, in the Bakossi country, to Bonjongo where the German Pallotine Missionaries had opened a Parish in 1894, the Parish of Our Lady of the Angels. They gave that locality the name Engelberg.       At Bonjongo, Sango Epie entered the Catechumenate, a period of intensive preparation for the reception of Baptism. It is very important for everyone to remember that, even as a Catechumen, Sango Epie was already joined to the Catholic Church.

In fact, the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) tells us that "Catechumens are already joined to the Church, they are already of the household of Christ, and are quite frequently already living a life of faith, hope and charity. With love and solicitude mother Church already embraces them as her own" (CCC, n.1247).
      It was on 17th June 1908 that Sango Epie received the Sacrament of Baptism from the German Pallotine Missionary, Father Brey. By his reception of Baptism, in which he took the name Pius, Sango Epie received that which constitutes "the basis of the whole Christian life, the gateway to life in the Spirit, and the door which gives access to the other Sacraments" (CCC, n.1213). Very soon after his Baptism, "through which we are freed from sin and reborn as sons of God" (Ibidem), Sango Pius Epie received Christ in Holy Communion. On the day after his reception of Baptism, he received, along with his fellow newly-baptized, the Sacrament of Confirmation from Bishop Heinrich Vieter, the Vicar Apostolic of Kamerun. Thus Sango Pius Epie completed his reception of the three Sacraments of Christian Initiation.

Early Collaboration with Sango Mathias Effiem
2. Almost immediately after his Baptism, Sango Pius Epie became a very close associate, dependable and competent collaborator of a distinguished Catholic leader and Catechist: Mathias Effiem. It was to Mathias Effiem, formerly a Seminarian at Sasse, that the German Pallotine Fathers handed over the keys of the Mission at Einsideln (Sasse) in December 1914 at the time they were obliged to leave Kamerun on account of the outbreak of the Great World War. They appointed Mathias Effiem to take care of the Church, to organize the Catechists, and in general, to organise Christian life.

With regard to Pius Epie's collaboration with Mathias Effiem, here is the testimony of a competent historian, Anthony Ndi:       
"The catechizing zeal of Sango Mathias Effiem along the Coast was more than complemented by the labours of Sango Pius Ebong Epie, his erstwhile school mate at Sasse in the Tropical Rain Forest area. Epie of a Bakossi royal family had turned down with impunity the attempt by his tribesmen to have him crowned as a local chief after his baptism in 1908.

Instead he took up evangelization, preaching the 'Good News' of his new Master, Jesus Christ, whom he claimed was a greater chief with such passion and vigour that turned the entire traditional set-up furiously against him. They took him up to a hill-top and were about practically crucifying him on a cross in the manner of his acknowledged 'Chief', Jesus Christ. He was only rescued by chance. Together with a team of zealous catechists some of whom had been baptized at Sasse such as: Paul Ekinde, the pioneer 'lay missionary' of the Fiango and Kumba parishes, John Ngwene who opened up Tombel and Francis Elondo who taught at Nyandong; they combed all of present day Kumba, Ndian, Bakossi land and Mamfe Divisions seeking souls for Christ.

From 1926 until his death in 1969, Sango Pius Epie, the intrepid, enthusiastic and indefatigable soldier for his acclaimed 'Chief', Jesus Christ, was the militant Catechist of Baseng Mission" (Anthony Ndi, Mill Hill Missionaries in Southern West Cameroon, Nairobi, Pauline Publications Africa, 2005, pp 25-26)       

Sango Pius Epie and Cecilia Ahone get married

3. It was in 1920 in the Catholic church in Douala that Pius Ebong Epie and Cecilia Ahone were joined together in holy wedlock. On that occasion, acting, canonically, as ministers of the Sacrament of Matrimony (CCC nn. 1625-1631), they received that sacrament of Christian Marriage which, in a manner similar to Holy Orders, is a Sacrament at the service of communion. In fact, "Christian spouses are fortified and, as it were, consecrated for the duties and dignity of their state by a special sacrament" (Second Vatican Council, Pastoral Constitution GAUDIUM ET SPES, n.48).

Mill Hill Missionaries Arrive
4. After the forced departure of the German Pallotine Missionaries, there were no Catholic Priests, for several years, in the territory which would later become the Prefecture Apostolic of Buea, British Cameroons. During those priestless years, it was Catechists like Sango Mathias Effiem and Sango Pius Ebong Epie who kept the Catholic Church alive in these parts.       On March 26th 1922, the first team of Mill Hill Missionaries, led by Mgr. Joseph Campling, arrived at Bota, Victoria, to take over the Catholic evangelization of the territory which the German Pallotine Missionaries had been forced to leave in December 1914.       

On their arrival, they found that the territory had forty-four (44) Catechists, that a number of Chiefs were asking for Catechists, and that some Plantation Managers had expressed a desperate desire to have Catechists for, otherwise, they could not keep their labourers.       According to a Mill Hill Missionary, Father Robert O'Neil, one of the forty four Catechists whom the Pioneer Mill Hill Missionaries found on their arrival was Sango Pius Epie.

"He was one of several Bakossi men who had become acquainted with Catholicism at the coast and returned to 'act as real missionaries among their own people.' Father Peter Ham recalled in 1948 that Pius was 'a second John the Baptist, preparing the way of the Lord'" (Robert J. O'Neil, Mission to the British Cameroons, London, Mission Book Service, Saint Joseph's College, Mill Hill, 1991, p. 17).

Saint Michael's Parish, Baseng, Erected
5. In the course of 1926, Mgr. Peter Rogan, the Prefect Apostolic, decided to erect a Parish in the Bakossi country. He appointed Father Piet Ham, a Dutch Mill Hill Missionary, to be the pioneer Parish Priest. The seat of the new Parish was to be at Baseng.       "As soon as Bakossi country heard of Father Peter Ham's appointment, Catechist Pius Epie went to find their priest at Bota Mission. Father Ham left with thirty carriers and arrived at Muetuk on July 28th 1926.

Baseng Mission was responsible for Kumba and Mamfe Divisions and 110 Catechists………… He (Father Ham) left Baseng and Cameroon for good in 1931. His years were few in Africa but had such an influence on his outlook that he always considered himself a Cameroonian missionary. He spoke about Pius Epie as if he were his best friend………… In his memoirs he wrote that he would like 'to die in Nkosse and have Bakossi buried around my grave... but I think we must wait till we meet in heaven'" (Robert O'Neil, op. cit., p.43).

Tribute to Pius Epie by Father Francis Kelly, MHM
6. In 1936, seventy-two years ago, a long article entitled: The Epic of Pius Epie, appeared in Saint Joseph's Advocate, a Quarterly Magazine of the Mill Hill Missionaries, published in London. The writer of the article was Father Francis Kelly, the same priest who would later become the pioneer Rector of Saint Joseph's Parish, Bafut, in 1938, two years later       In his article, Father Kelly narrates the tribulations which Sango Pius Epie courageously underwent on account of his uncompromising fidelity to Christ, sufferings and tribulations during which he "had felt the martyr's palm within his grasp."       
When Sango Pius Epie died in 1969, the Catholic Monthly Magazine of the Diocese of Buea, CAMEROON PANORAMA, used some excerpts from Father Kelly's article to write up an Obituary of the departed Catechist. (cf CAMEROON PANORAMA, No 92, August 1969, pp14-15). Sango Pius Epie at Shisong in July 1949 7.
The seventh Sunday after Pentecost, 24th July 1949, was a red-letter day in the annals of the then Vicariate Apostolic of Buea, the same territory that would later become the Bamenda Ecclesiastical Province in 1982. It was on that day that the Right Reverend Peter Rogan, O. B.E, ordained the first African Priest of the Vicariate, Father Aloysius Balon Wankuy.       Sango Pius Ebong Epie was there. He participated in the festivities marking the priestly ordination of Father Wankuy on Sunday, 24th July; in the festive celebrations marking the Ruby Jubilee of Bishop Rogan's own priestly ordination which took place on Monday, 25th July; and in the festive celebrations which marked Father Wankuy's first public Solemn Mass on Tuesday, 26th July.       

When he addressed a huge crowd of Christians gathered in front of the presbytery at Shisong on one of those days, Bishop Rogan had himself surrounded by some veteran and outstanding Catechists without whom he would not have arrived at the point at which he could ordain a local Christian to the Catholic Priesthood. Among the Catechists whom Bishop Rogan gathered around him on that occasion were Sango Mathias Effiem, Sango Pius Epie, Sango Simon Nguti, Paul Mbiybe Tangwa, and several others. Father Leo Onderwater, a Mill Hill Missionary, immortalized this scene of Bishop Rogan surrounded by his veteran Catechists in a photograph which has appeared in a number of publications.

Sango Pius Epie's Death
8. Pius Epie died on 25th July 1969, at the age of 79. He had served the Catholic Church in what was to become the Bamenda Ecclesiastical Province for a total of fifty-five (55) years! In the obituary mentioned earlier, the Buea Diocesan Monthly Magazine, CAMEROON PANORAMA, said, inter alia:       "To Mrs. Cecilia Ahone Epie, Sango Pius'widow, and to their children Rev. Sister Therese Marie of the Holy Rosary Sisters, Mrs. Christina Ajebe-Sone, Mr. Michael Epie of the Legal Department, Buea, and their brother Ignatius Epie, we extend our deep and prayerful sympathy."       
A Solemn Mass by which the period of mourning for Sango Pius Epie's death was closed was celebrated at Baseng on one of the Sundays of Eastertide in 1970. The Main Celebrant on that occasion was Father Alphonsus ter Beke, Parish Priest; concelebrating with him at that Mass were two Cameroonian Diocesan Priests: Fathers Henry Diobe Mesue and Paul Verdzekov.

Powerful Co-worker of Several Priests
9. In the course of his ministry of five decades and a half as Catechist, Sango Pius Epie served as the powerful co-worker of many Priests who also participated in the evangelization of the Bakossi country. Without any intention to be exhaustive, one would like to recall here that Sango Epie worked in Baseng Parish alongside such Priests as: Piet Ham, Maurice McEvoy, Christian van Dal, Leonard Jacobs, Francis Woodman, Michael Moran, Simon Peter Staats, Gerald O'Sullivan, Nicholas van Bilderbeck, Nicholas Groot, Bernard Stukart, Clemens Ndze, Terence O'Farrel and Alphonsus ter Beke. Deep and Abiding Gratitude to Sango Pius Epie 10.

It was on Monday, 12th August 1985, that the Christians of the Bamenda Ecclesiastical Province welcomed His Holiness Pope John Paul II, Successor of Saint Peter, at Bamenda Airport. On that occasion, the Holy Father presided at a Solemn Concelebrated Eucharist.       In the Address which they presented to the Holy Father immediately before the celebration of the Eucharist, the Catholics of the Bamenda Ecclesiastical Province mentioned their deep and abiding gratitude to Sango Pius Epie and to his fellow Catechists. Here is part of what the then Archbishop of Bamenda told the Holy Father on that occasion:       "Most Holy Father, the Local Church which receives You today owes very much to the generous collaboration of the Laity, and, in particular, to those powerful co-workers of the priestly order known as Catechists.

Animated by an apostolic spirit, our Lay Catechists have made an outstanding contribution to the growth of the Church in this Ecclesiastical Province. Permit me, Most Holy Father, to mention just a few of them 'who have gone before us marked with the sigh of faith.' They are: Mathias Effiem, Pius Epie, Joseph Takor, Ferdinand Ako, Martin Atang, Andreas Ngongbi, Gabriel Basebang, Joseph Ngah, Andreas Ngah and Paul Mbiybe Tangwa. These are some of our Lay Catechists who spent their entire lives, not without undergoing persecution, in planting the Church in what is now the Ecclesiastical Province of Bamenda."

The Mass which the Holy Father celebrated at the Bamenda Airport was the Mass for Families. Perhaps it is here that we ought to pay warmest tribute to Sango Pius Ebong Epie and to his spouse, Cecilia Ahone Epie, for their quiet and solid witness to the sanctity of Christian Marriage, witness to its Unity and Indissolubility. Apart from their daughter, Sister Therese Marie Epie, who is a Holy Rosary Sister, one of their grand daughters is a finally professed Sister of the Congregation of the Sisters of Saint Therese of Buea. She is Sister Margaret Ajebe-Sone.

Did Sango Pius Epie leave us A Message?
11. After receiving Baptism at Bonjongo in June 1908, one hundred years ago, it would seem that Pius Epie heard, in his heart, the voice of the Lord saying: "Whom shall I send? Who will be our messenger?" The whole of his post-baptismal life seems to indicate to everyone what his answer to that question was. "Here I am, send me" (Isaiah 6:8).
In his courage and unflagging determination to undertake the evangelization of the Bakossi country, even at the cost of martyrdom, he would seem to have perceived the assurance: "Do not say, 'I am a child.' Go now to those to whom I send you and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to protect you - it is Yahweh who speaks" (Jeremiah 1:7-8).       On 25th July 2008, that is, in a few months time, it will be exactly thirty nine (39) years since the death of Sango Pius Ebong Epie.       
Before he died, did this outstanding and highly revered Catechist leave an explicit Message for us, Cameroonian Catholics? I do not know. In this regard, your guess is as good as mine.       However, it would appear that by his life of fifty-five years as a faithful and loyal Catechist to the very end, Pius Epie did leave an implicit Message to his fellow Catholics of the Bamenda Ecclesiastical Province. That Message, it would seem to me, is encapsulated in verses two and three of Hymn 207 of the present Cameroon Hymnal:

+Paul Verdzekov Archbishop
Emeritus of Bamenda.