Fr Tom Russell: Blanchardstown man made vital contribution to people and church in Zimbabwe

Born: February 8th, 1936

Died: July 14th, 2022

Fr Tom Russell was a Blanchardstown man who spent 59 years of his life as a Franciscan priest following in the footsteps of St Francis. He was based mostly in rural areas of Zimbabwe and, latterly, in various friaries in Ireland. In all these diverse clerical appointments, one common denominator shone through: Tom’s innate goodness, which touched the minds and hearts of those who came into contact with him. Tom, who died on July 14th, was tireless in the service of his parishioners and friends. He was multilingual, a published author and a regular contributor to St Anthony’s Brief. Fittingly, at his request, the prayers at his funeral Mass in the Clonmel Friary were said in Irish, English and Shona, the language of Zimbabwe.

Tom, who was born on February 8th, 1936, entered the Franciscan Novitiate in Killarney in 1953 and went on to study for degrees in UCG, Louvain and Rome, where he was ordained a priest in 1963.

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Shortly after his ordination, Tom returned to Ireland and was soon faced with a tragic family situation. His father, also Tom, the village schoolmaster, died unexpectedly and Tom’s first funeral Mass in October 1963 was that of his father.

In 1964, he left to join the Irish Franciscan mission in what was then Rhodesia. He began his missionary life in Murambinda and, subsequently, other far-flung parishes where he and his fellow friars and Irish nuns were later to witness, at first hand, the horrors of the Rhodesian war of independence. This country was renamed Zimbabwe in 1980. In 1981, Tom was appointed as a lecturer in sacred liturgy in the National Seminary of South Africa in Pretoria, where his older brother, Fr Myles OFM, was the rector.

On returning to Harare in 1990, he resumed pastoral duties and it was from this period onwards that his writing took off, as he translated articles, pamphlets and booklets into the Shona language for his Christian followers.

Such was his ability in Shona that a Franciscan colleague at his removal in Clonmel referred to him as “being as fluent in the language as an Elder”. His enduring legacy to the Zimbabwean church was to write the first book in the Shona language on the subject of theology.

However, not all Tom’s writing output was restricted to spiritual matters. Like all missionaries of his era, he perfected the art of letter writing home to his extended family and friends. His last book, published in 2020, John Randal Bradburne, 1921- 1979, Servant of God, was his private initiative to promote the poetry and writings of an ascetic second World War British army veteran (one of Chindits Raiders in the Burma Campaign) who forsook his military past and finally settled in Rhodesia where he worked tirelessly in running the Mutemwa leper colony as a lay Franciscan Brother. He was murdered by guerillas late in the civil war, to the utter consternation of Tom and the Irish friars who supported him in this most difficult mission. The more recent announcement by the Zimbabwean bishops that John Randal’s process of beatification has been opened was warmly welcomed by Tom and the Irish friars who witnessed his selfless work on the ground.

Words and music were inextricably linked in Tom’s life. He was widely known for his well-crafted homilies, which were widely appreciated by all who listened to them. It was Tom who introduced his singing friends back in the 1970s to the Missa Luba, the wonderfully traditional African Mass from the Democratic Republic of Congo. With his trained tenor’s voice he was part of the Bel Canto Choir in Ballyshannon, Co Donegal, when he was based in the nearby Rossnowlagh Friary. More recently, at his mother’s funeral Mass in 1998, Tom was speaking of her great love for singing and the piano and he mentioned that her favourite song was the beautiful Queen of Connemara ballad. Without further ado, he sang it from the pulpit, much to the astonishment of the packed congregation. There was hardly a dry eye in the church.

Tom never forgot his Blanchardstown roots and his many friends in the church choir and the GAA club, both named after St Brigid. Even when in Africa, he was a great follower of the Dublin football team and Clare hurling, his father’s county. To say that he left an indelible mark on life is an understatement.