The joy of being a Nigerian is the people, not the country – Brother Lucas O.P.
There are priests, and there are priests. Brother Stephen Lucas O.P. (Order of the Priests), is a priest created by God solely for God and for God’s purpose and pleasure alone.
In a world of matter where men go to war to conquer territories and plunder nations, Stephen willingly took a vow of poverty, of celibacy and of total obedience to the Provincial, three principal areas man is naturally known to rigidly resist onto death.
Even when he was called to proceed to Africa at age 26 in the days when Africa was a scary Continent for adventures, he did not hesitate. He sailed all the way from America to Nigeria; his destination proper was Yaba, Lagos. His mandate was to help spread the gospel.
57 years later, the Dominican brother who has raised and nurtured two generations of practicing Catholics in Nigeria, raising infrastructure, evangalising, teaching, and implanting parishes, is all of 83, full of age and is now going home in obedience to the same Provincial that sent him.
As he sets to retire home this August, two generations of the Catholic faith trooped out last Saturday to celebrate him and present a detailed testimony of his sojourn here in Lagos as an inspiration to all, but no one can tell your story better than yourself, so let us take the account from Stephen Lucas himself:
Early childhood
I came from America, from the state of Wiscosin, close to Chicago. I was born on the 6th of July, 1932 in Racine, at the lake of Michigan. It takes five days to cross the lake. We have five lakes like that. My parents were Engr. Walter and Marcella Lucas. My other sibling was Virginia Mary. She later became Mrs. Norman Chester. We were brought up in a strict Catholic home. I was baptized and given the name Donald in 1932 and later confirmed in 1942.
Education
I began formal education in 1938 at St. John’s Nepomick School, Racine run by the Sisters of St. Francis. I graduated in 1949 with a ninth grade after which I proceeded to St. Catherine High School, racine where I spent three years.
It may interest you to note that most of the teaching staff of the school were Dominican Sisters. I believed they had a great influence in my decision to become a Dominican Brother.
Joining the Dominican Order
I had always had a deep yearning to serve God. I got my calling from God. My early contact with some Religious communities only intensified that yearning. While I was still in the secondary school, I was already in the lookout for the various religious communities and the one that I would best fit in. When I told my parents about my intention, there was no objection. In fact, my father chose to take me round the various Religious Orders. On the 25th of February, 1951, I, my dad and mum went to Dominican community in River Forest for inspection. On our way back, my father had a stroke He died that same day at a young age of 46. It was a very sad day for us.
The next year, 1952, at the age of 19, I joined the Dominican Community in River Forest, Illinois and in 1953, I made my first profession at the Dominican Community in Dubuque, Iowa. I was later transferred to the Provincial House of St. Pius Priory in Chicago and also to Aquinas Newman Centre at the University of New Mexico. I took my solemn vows on July 29, 1959. The vows were of poverty, chastity and obedience. I chose to be a Dominican Brother because I want to take care of the sick and the poor. Priests are too busy taking care of the spiritual needs of the people, hence I wanted to assist in attending to the temporal needs of the poor.
Initial assignment
I was first sent to a place in Iowa, USA to teach. I was at the University of New Mexico for three years. I was at the Provincial House in Chicago where I am going back to now, and I was also at another place in Chicago where we have our studio.
Missionary work begins
Initially, my ambition was to be a doctor or a nurse. I worked briefly in a hospital after my secondary education. Unfortunately, my calling as a Dominican did not allow me to fulfill that ambition. About seven years after I joined the Dominican Order, I was called by our Provincial, Fr Marr, that I was to proceed to Yaba, somewhere in Africa. I was amazed because I had never been to Africa before. But I cannot say no since I have taken the vow of obedience. So I concurred. But I asked him what I was going there to do. He said, ‘Your mission is going to assist the four Dominicans we have in Nigeria to grow vocations and to train them.’ My major assignment was to help promote vocations to the Dominican Order.
I left the US in the company of four others: rev. Frs. Dan Carter, O.P. Peter Otillio, OP, Mathew Walsh, O.P and John Marr. The others went to the North while I proceeded to Lagos and arrived Yaba on October 17, 1959.
Welcome to Yaba
I was 26 when I arrived Nigeria. I was welcomed by the following Dominican Priests: Frs. Michael Dempsey, OP; Gregory Moore, OP; James McHatton, OP; Columba Leahy, OP; and Ambrose Windbacher, OP. At that time, Herbert Macaulay road was just a narrow road with two lanes. There were few motorable roads at that time.. Right here, all the way to the lagoon at the present site of the University of Lagos was just a vast land with trees all over. Just bushes! I used to go all the way to the lagoon to have a swim. At that time, many of the people had not seen someone like me before. They were very curious. The original Church, that is in the first Church that was built here was called St. Patricks, but the Archbishop later changed it to St. Dominics. In all the years that I have been around, we have had to build the church three times. Today, we have over 200 Afro Dominicans from Nigeria.
Initial challenges
The needs of the people were enormous. They didn’t have opportunities and the place was congested You know Lagos was the capital of the country and everyone was coming to Lagos because that is where the money was.The joy of being a Nigerian is the people and not the country. The people are outstanding.
Enter St. Jude’s Apostolate
When I arrived Yaba, I met severl enthusiastic youths who, unfortunately, were not educated. So, one of my first major priorities was how to assist these youths to have access to some basic education. I helped some of them to enter the primary school here and sent some of them to late fr. Slattery’s school at Bariga. On 28thOctober 1959, Feast of St. Jude, erected a shrine of St. Jude Theddeus, the saint that handles difficult cases. I commenced a nine-day novena for direction on the way forward. In view of the difficult tasks ahead of me, I knew I needed divine intervention to succeed. That marked the commencement of the spread of the devotion across Lagos. Primarily, the St Jude apostolate was founded to help promote devotion to St. Jude and support vocations to the Priesthood and religious life. I also travelled to Cotonou in 1971 to open a branch of St. Jude Apostolate there.
Mass evangelism
When I came, the Archdiocese was small, just like ten parishes. Today we have over 200 parishes. I use to move from one neighbourhood to another to evangelise. Within a short time, I began to teach catechism to grops of people, including the Egun fishing community, the original settlers of the very spot that the University of Lagos is now located.
I recall that I stared with two altar boys, John Nwanze, who is now a Dominian Priest and Gaston Santos who both used bicycles and canoes to reach the people in Egun villages, Onike and Makoko to teach them catechism. Also, among the first set of catechists who worked with me were messrs: Clement Idudia, late Pa Joseph, Madam John, Linus Onumonu and Charles B. Akpan. Two of the catechists who later joined me were Bihop Ayinde fashina of Ijebu-Ode and Msgr. Sylvester Osigwe.
While taking care of their spiritual needs, I was also concerned about their education and health. Due to my love for medicine, I helped found a medical centre at Mafoluku, Makoko and also here at St Dominics. In 1965, we began to look for land to buy because we were expanding and knew that the future was going to be bright. I helped facilitate the purchase of 30 acres of land at the cost of 4,500 Nigerian pounds. We received money from various foundations in Europe. I went to Europe to help facilitate the disbursement of these funds. We built primary schools, a College and two sisters Convent. There is also a health centre.
Effects of the civil war
The civil war of 1968 affected our work here. You know most of our parishioners who were of the Eastern extraction travelled back to their home lands and the entire nation was placed under alert. Lots of our friends and priests died during that war. I was here throughout the war there is an army barracks just across the road but they were very cooperative. The people had so many needs; they didn’t have much food to eat the life expectancy then was about 47.
Working with Archbishop John Aggey
Leo Taylor was a great missionary. After him came Archbishop John Aggey. He ordained our Pastor here Fr. Dempsey as Bishop in America and appointed me to serve as his (Aggey’s) secretary for three years. Aggey was a great man of God. I remember we once travelled to America to see the President together. We travelled a lot together. I have also enjoyed the support of cardinal Okogie and Archbishop Martins.
Landmarks
I feel gad when I look back and see some of the projects I have been involved in across the Archdiocese of Lagos. For instance, I helped to nurture the St. Dominic’s Book Centre, Director and founder of Dominican publications, St. Catherine of Siena Medical Centre, Dominican Nursery and Primary School, Mafoluku, Veritas Studio, Society for Vocation Support, St. Martin De Porres Clinic, yaba Community Centre, amongst others. In July 1967, I gathered some youths together to form the Young Christian Movement It is an affiliate of the international organisation founded by Cardinal Cadjan to encourage young people to embrace the Catholic faith. The projects that I have been involved in are quite much. All I can say that I am glad to have contributed my little quota to the growth of the church in the Archdiocese of Lagos.
Work of Dominican brothers
Being a Brother is a special vocation. We have Brothers who are lawyers and even Doctors. They undergo similar training like priests. Brothers teach most of the time. I, for instance, taught catechism classes. I also taught Religion at Yaba College of Technology for some years. Their work is to assist the priests in their different endeavours. We have six Brothers in our community. Two of them died recently; one of them, Paul, was a Ghanaian.
We live and work together with people. Some days are good, some days are bad, some days are hectic. We try to live a holy life, We pray every day; we recite the divine office which is the prayer of the Church. I try to find time to rest. We used to go home every three years, but after the war, we go home every year. I was obedient when they asked me to come and now that I have been called back, I must also be obedient.
How to be remembered
I want to be remembered for loving the poor; people who don’t have anything. I always like to see people have a turn-around in their lives. I like to see people who are jobless to be gainfully employed. But it is one thing to employ someone and another for the person to be able to deliver. So it is important that the person be empowered with the ritht knowledge to deliver thee are people who have one or two degrees from the University and they cannot do anything. And there are people with no degree and they can do everything.
The Daily Times felt the minds of his fellow priests. Where will he stay after spending all his life in Nigeria? What would he be doing back home and, does he really have a home to call his own?
“They will put him in old people’s home specially prepared for retired priests and they will take care of him until God calls him home finally,” one volunteered.
Are there such priests today? Would any of you here thread the path of Dominican Brother, Stephen Lucas…?
No one volunteered an answer.
