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Tshimangdzo Daswa was a Jewish man who became a Catholic Christian, served as a catechist, and was martyred for the Faith.
Tshimangdzo was born on June 16 1946, the eldest of five children. His family, members of the Lemba tribe, practiced the Jewish faith. As a young child, he helped care for cattle.
When he began school, his parents gave him the name Samuel. When he was in secondary school, his father died in an accident. Because he was the eldest child, he went to work to help send his sister and three brothers to school.
While working to support his siblings, Samuel was exposed to the Catholic Faith and, when he was seventeen, he became a Catholic Christian and took “Benedict” as his new baptismal Christian name.
When he was able to go back to school, he studied education and, in time, became a teacher and principal. In his area, he worked as a catechist and became a highly respected member of his community. Benedict also founded the first church in his area.
In 1974, he got married to Shadi Eveline Monyai, and the two had eight children together. Benedict was a very devoted family man who helped his wife with the household tasks. That was unusual in those days. His family also celebrated the family by giving each other gifts each year on December 16.
Benedict also established a soccer team called the Mbahe Eleven Computers. However, when team members decided to start using drugs to win their games, he left the team and started a new one, the Mbahe Freedom Rebels.
Beginning in November of 1989, heavy rains and lightning storms came to the area, and they appeared once again in January 1990. Unfortunately, belief in witchcraft and magic were very common in Benedict’s community, and the elders decided that all the people should pay a special tax to discover who was the witch in their community bringing all the bad weather to their area. Benedict, as a Christian, refused to take part in the tax, for he did not believe in magic or witchcraft. He said storms were just part of nature.
On February 2, 1990, Daswa drove his sister-in-law and her sick child to a physician. On the way home, he was blocked by fallen trees. A group of young men ambushed and killed him. Before he died, he said, “God, into Your hands receive my spirit.” Benedict was forty-three years old.
At Benedict’s funeral, the priests wore red vestments, indicating their belief that he was a martyr for the Faith.
On September 13, 2015, thirty-five thousand people attended the beatification ceremony of Benedict Daswa. In the crowd were his 91-year-old mother, his eight children, and the priest who baptized him. And in all the nations of Africa, millions of people watched the beatification of Benedict with great pride.
Blessed Benedict Daswa’s feast day is February 1, and he is a patron against the occult and witchcraft. He is also a patron of persecuted Christians, teachers, school principals, and fathers.
