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Name: BARTELS, Leo (Rev. Father)
Birth Date: 13 Jan 1899 Venlo
Death Date: 1983
Nationality: Dutch
First Date: 1930
Profession: Mill Hill missionary. Taught clay modelling
Area: Asumbi, Kisii, 1927 Nyabondo Kisumu
Book Reference: Red 31, Hut
General Information:
Ordained priest in Westminster Cathedral 20 July 1924
Father Leo Bartels MHM was a Dutch missionary priest and the first parish priest of St Joseph’s Nyabondo, Archdiocese of Kisumu. He began the parish in 1935 and served there for 48 years. During his tenure he started three schools which now have an enrollment of 600 pupils each. Fr Leo was an expert in clay modeling, some of his works still decorate the parish house. A small fellow by the name Gerry Olewe used to watch him in this work, acquired an interest and eventually became a specialist with a studio in Nairobi and today he is the one who sculpted the larger than life size statue of Fr Leo.
An Irish nun called Mother Kevin, who founded a congregation, the Franciscan Missionary Sisters for Africa, and who had begun around 20 schools and hospitals in Uganda was asked to do something in this part of the Vicariate. Bishop Hall and Fr Leo convinced her to come to Nyabondo, a beautiful spot on a hill overlooking the Kano plains about an hour from Kisumu city, and to start a hospital there in 1955. Her Process of Beatification is ongoing and her life story is well worth a read.
Although initially there were just three nuns in the hospital and no doctor, the local people began flocking to the mission hospital. Today after 70 years it stands as another memorial to the vision of the pioneers of this parish. Buildings continue to rise on the site. It is now the largest hospital run by the Archdiocese of Kisumu.
In later years Fr Leo suffered from diabetes. He foresaw his own demise and planned his funeral and burial. He chose a burial spot close to the church he had helped to build and where he daily celebrated Mass. But God had other plans. His superiors requested him to return for treatment to Holland, the country of his origin. There after three days he passed away. His last act of virtue was one of obedience.
Some years later when an adoration chapel was to be built, the altar was placed at the very site of what was to be his burial plot. The statue of St Joseph which was to be the headstone of his grave now stands at the entrance to the adoration chapel, a few meters from his statue.