Career
He arrived in Africa in July 1938 and was based at Mariannhill in Natal, South Africa. He was later transferred to Southern Rhodesia where he worked at Saint Patrick"s in Bulawayo before moving to Lukosi, near Hwange in 1939. In the North of Matebeleland, equipped with little more than a prayer book and a bicycle, he travelled around from Saint Mary"s Lukosi to Hwange, Victoria Falls, Matetsi and Gwayi River.
He built and established many schools, including those in Gwayi, Binga, Dete and Lupane and later went to Fatima where he opened a mission hospital and school.
With the help and support of friends in Germany, who were doctors, he opened Saint Luke"s Hospital in Lupane. In 1958, he returned to Bulawayo, where he was the parish priest at Saint Mary"s Cathedral.
He was appointed Provincial Superior of Mariannhill Missionaries, a post he held from 1970 to 1982. He was Parish priest for many years of the Hillside parish of Christ the King.
The archives of Fr Odilo Weeger are maintained in Bulawayo.
