The Flying Priest, St Christopher and Other Traveller’s Tales

At the end of July I attended an international MIVA meeting in Stadl Paura, Austria hosted by MIVA Austria. Attending the meeting, besides myself, were representatives from all the European MIVAs: Netherlands, Switzerland, Poland, Slovenia, Slovakia and Croatia.

It was a German Priest, Fr. Paul Schulte O.M.I. (Oblates of Mary Immaculate) who founded ‘Missionalium Vehiculorum Associatio’ in 1927 following the death of his childhood friend, Father Otto Fuhrmann, in Africa. Fr. Fuhrmann had pneumonia, complicated by malaria, and it had taken him five days to reach a hospital, where he died. Fr. Schulte was known as the ‘Flying Priest’ because he was a pilot who brought medical aid and supplies to remote Oblate missions, particularly north of the Arctic Circle.

The various branches of MIVA were spawned from Fr. Schulte’s initiative, except, that is, SURVIVE-MIVA. We were founded quite independently, possibly with our founders being unaware that any other organisations linked to the Church were funding transport. Our original name was ‘SURVIVE International Mobile Medical Aid’ and it was not until 1980, when we were invited to join MIVA, that we became known as SURVIVE-MIVA.

MIVA Austria has one main fundraiser each year, on the Sunday nearest to St. Christopher’s (the Patron Saint of travellers) Feast Day, 25^th July. We celebrated ‘Christophorus Sunday’ at MIVA Austria whilst I was there (Sunday 27^th July) and children brought their bicycles and other modes of transport to be blessed (see photograph opposite). SURVIVE-MIVA differs from the other MIVAs in that our Patron Saint is not St. Christopher but St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus, who is Patron of the Missions.

Of course each MIVA has grown and developed in different ways depending on factors such as national culture, local church structure, historical links with countries overseas etc. It was interesting to compare and contrast, discuss and reflect on our ways of working.  Some MIVAs supply means of communication (radio masts, internet connections, computers) as well as a means of transport but we all have the same mission – to improve the lives of vulnerable people living in remote communities by giving them ACCESS to healthcare and other forms of support.

Theresa Codd