St Peter’s Major Seminary in Malawi is an inter-diocesan and national theological seminary, offering a five-year formation program. With help from Missio supporters and sponsors, the light of hope shines despite the challenges both the seminary and the country currently face.

The seminary rector, Fr Dr Daniel Kamanga JCD recently shared with us the highs and lows of 2024:

Founded by the Catholic Bishops of Malawi in January 1977, the seminary has been training priests for 47 years under the motto Duc in Altum (‘put out into the deep,’ Luke 5:6). Our mission is to provide thorough human, spiritual, intellectual, and pastoral formation for future priests serving Christ and His Church. In particular, candidates are invited to take seriously their mission as future priests in the Church and in her evangelising mission.

Work and pray

Wherever we can, the seminary strives to be self-sufficient. Seminarians are engaged in various kinds of services within the seminary community such as pig rearing, fish farming, chicken rearing, and vegetable growing, to mention a few. This is to encourage them to appreciate manual work and self-reliance.

Borrowing one famous dictum from the Benedictine spirituality, ora et labora (‘to work is to pray’ or ‘work and pray’), the seminarians take part in caring for the common home through manual work. Through manual work, not only do seminarians help to make their own home habitable but also help in a concrete way to provide seminary necessities by their own hands.

Through every challenge

The year 2024 has been yet another very challenging year. Firstly, the country has been hit with untold hunger due to poor rains in the last growing season. Most of our seminarians and formators had family members who were affected, which brought us a lot of grief. Hunger is widespread, and the continuous devaluation of local currency has caused market prices to nearly triple, making sustainability difficult. The cost of goods on our market – even up to now – has become very unpredictable, which makes it difficult to plan properly. And we worry that we won’t be able to fulfil our basic budget.

Looking ahead to 2025, we anticipate further challenges with the unstable economy and upcoming General Elections in September.

Signs of hope

Yet we celebrate many achievements. In 2024, we witnessed the ordination of 24 new deacons and 19 priests. For the 2024/2025 Academic Year, we welcomed 130 seminarians, including 13 Capuchins and two Missionaries of Mary Immaculate, supported by 9 resident priest teachers and 22 staff members. We expect to ordain 36 deacons this year – our largest class ever.

Despite such a sad and sour economic front, we are joyful for the continued growth of faith and vocations, as testified by the huge numbers of young men wanting to study for priesthood. In 2024, we saw the highest number of seminarians ordained deacons in quite a few years. In 2025, we expect to have the highest number of seminarians ordained as deacons, in the history of the seminary.