By Paschal Norbert
NAIROBI, APRIL 15, 2024 (CISA) – Fr Antonio Bianchi IMC, the oldest Consolata Missionary has died. The late Fr Bianchi, described as a passionate and lively missionary passed away in his sleep at the Consolata Regional House, Westlands, Nairobi, Kenya, on Sunday, April 14, 2024.
According to Fr Peter Makau, the Regional Superior of the Consolata Missionaries Kenya/Uganda region, Fr Bianchi was suffering from a mild lung infection and coupled with his advanced age, he died in his sleep at around 2:20 pm after taking his mid-day meals.
Born on June 13, 1922, in Verbania, the Feast Day of St Anthony of Padua, on the shore of Lake Maggiore, north-west of Milan, Italy, Bianchi was the oldest Consolata Missionary in the world having clocked 101 years.
In an interview with CISA in 2023 while celebrating his 101th birthday, Fr Bianchi who joined the Consolata Missionaries 84 years ago said “I didn’t know 83 years ago that I would meet so many people around me celebrating with me a life which I chose to live. I was 17 years old when I joined the Consolata Missionaries. Well, now, my bones are weak but I have always been happy. I found superiors who were very understanding and cooperative – supporting me in my weaknesses.”
Fr Bianchi was ordained a priest for the Consolata Missionaries on August 15, 1945, after the end of World War II in Europe. He worked in Europe, in different countries including Portugal before he was commissioned to Kenya.
He arrived in Kenya in 1955 at the age of 33 during the country’s struggle for independence. He had initially been posted to Ngandu, in Murang’a , now, a diocese, at the time a volatile and active ground of the Mau Mau fighters but was later, recommissioned to Ichagaki still in Murang’a diocese.
“It was a very beautiful place with mountains and plains. Plenty of people, mixed races and natural coexistence. We were going around on foot seeing people and addressing challenges. I enjoyed it fully,” Fr Bianchi reminisced in 2023.
In 1956 he returned to Ngandu where his greatest contribution was to the girl child education, which had been ignored. For the three years he worked there and with “little contribution” saw the establishment of a girls’ secondary school, the present-day Bishop Gatimu Ngandu Girls High School.
Fluent in the Kikuyu language and with a razor-sharp memory, the soft-spoken Italian Consolata Missionary said learning the local Agikuyu language earned him the pass to better concentrate on his pastoral work in the Central Kenya: Rumuruti Parish in the Catholic Diocese of Nyahururu and Makima Parish in the Catholic Diocese of Embu.
“A priest is a priest because he grows with his people, not only prayers, not only religious activities but every activity is intended to perfect the life of the people… Kenya has been thriving over years despite the challenges of tribalism and corruption. I urge Kenyans not to stick to this private conditioning but instead concentrate on issues that affect people in communities. To support schools, and construct more colleges and universities,” he said at the time.
Fr Makau eulogizes Fr Bianchi as a great missionary with a heart for the people and Mother Earth. He says the late priest always encouraged his confreres to be happy despite the challenges they faced in life.
Fr Bianchi died at the age of 101, two months shy of his 102nd birthday. He lived his vocation wholesomely: 82 years of religious profession and 78 years of priesthood.
