October 31, 2023
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ELIZABETH GSTALTMEYR PUT TO REST
Today, 26th October 2023, His Excellency Archbishop of Lusaka Archdiocese – Most. Rev. Dr. Alick Banda celebrated the requiem mass of Elizabeth Gstaltmeyr.
The mass was concelebrated by ZCCB Secretary General- Very.Rev. Fr. Francis Mukosa, The Vicar General of Ndola Diocese- Very Rev. Fr. Lewis Mutachila, Itinerant Presbyter of the Team of the Catechists for Zambia, Malawi and Namibia -Rev. Fr. Juan Carrasco Guijarro and other Clergy from across the country.
The mass was held at the Cathedral of Christ the King, Ndola after which, mourners processed to Francisdale mission where she was put to rest at the cemetery.
LIFE HISTORY OF ELIZABETH GSTALTMEYR
Elisabeth Schaffhauser was born in Vienna (Austria) on 15th October 1943.
On 10th October 1966 she got married to Franz Gstaltmeyr, with whom she entered the Neocatechumenal Way in 1976.
After showing for many years their availability to go for the mission, she and her husband they were sent to Zambia in 1987.
They left everything, their house and the high-profile job of her husband, to start living by the Providence of God, evangelizing in the dioceses of Ndola, Mansa and Mpika.
In 1999, they were instrumental to the opening of the Redemptoris Mater Diocesan Missionary Seminary of Kitwe, in response to the request of Bishop Dennis De Jong.
On 25th September 2006, her husband passed on while they were in Austria.
Now widowed, against all odds, Elisabeth continued her mission as team leader, visiting and opening the Way in Namibia and Malawi and preparing to evangelize Zimbabwe.
In this year, the Lord gave her the gift of opening, after many years, the Neocatechumenal Way in the archdiocese of Lusaka.
We thank the Lord for His power and the glory that He reveals through the witness of this gallant woman of faith.
Exhausted from long journeys, she recently fell victim to malaria, which ended her life just a few days after her 80th birthday, during the second National Convivences for the country’s communities.
The Lord fulfilled her desire to die in Africa while she was preaching the gospel.
According to her wishes, she should be buried in Zambia; her daughters respected her wish to stay there.
She leaves behind two daughters – who, with their respective families, are also in mission, one in Austria, and the other in Turkey and Bulgaria – and fourteen grandchildren, one of whom is a priest in Austria.
Besides, she leaves hundreds of spiritual children in Zambia, Malawi and Namibia.
May the good Lord grant her eternal rest.
