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Father Esmond Louis Klimeck O.P.

MA.,Ph.D., Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice

Waihola, established as a settlement since 1860, is some 35 kilometres south from the city of Dunedin and claims a strong hold on the hillside facing a lake of the same name. Lake Waihola, otherwise known to the local Maori as "Waihora", meaning simply 'spreading waters,' stretches elongately past the settlement and beyond. One would be mistaken for Lake Godziszewo back in the home country then controlled by the hands of foreigners for just over a century. Prayers, you see, were not uncommon here for the return of their dear Poland. A good proportion of families in this small farming community had come from an area far from the other side of the world, known as the Marienwerder Province of West Prussia. To the hearts of these people it would always be their Poland, in an area ethnically called Kociewie, situated some 20km south from the great city of Gdansk, known then as Danzig.

At this time Poland, a country far removed from New Zealand, was divided, suffering cruelly under the rule of three hard masters - Prussia, Russia and Austria. The victorious German leaders were determined to retain their position of pre-eminence in Europe, and so, actuated by a burning desire to better themselves and rise above the poverty, many Poles grasped the opportunity for a better life to the other side of the world.

In 1870, Sir Julius Vogel, a member of the local Government in New Zealand, introduced his public works and immigration scheme. A large scale drive for immigrants not only from the United Kingdom but also from other parts of Europe was decided. There, it appeared that people accustomed to the woods and forests, as well as adverse climatic conditions, such as the Poles, would provide the right element to clear and farm a wilderness such as existed in many parts of the country.

In the last quarter of 1871 the Government entered into an agreement with Messrs. John Brogden and Sons of England to build the remainder of the Dunedin - Clutha line, a portion of track across the Taieri extending a distance of 34 miles 55 chains. Here a number of Poles found work and a safe haven among their own kind.

One of these families was that of Martin & Minnie Klimeck, who had just given birth their fifth child, a tiny baby boy on the 29th of May 1895. He was baptized Martin Joseph, in the Parish of Milton, on the 14th of July of that year. Unfortunately as yet, the township of Waihola was still without a Catholic church. Both parents came to New Zealand as young children in 1874, the journey remaining with them as a memorable highlight throughout their lives. They had already settled here for some twenty-one years and had adapted well to their new way of life.

Martin Klimeck (senior), as a small ten year old, came out with his parents, Mathias Klimek & Anna (nee Smolinska), and brothers Frank & Felix, leaving the village of Rokittken (Rokitki), in the Parish of Dirschau (Tczew). From Hamburg, Germany they set aboard the ship "Gutenburg" arriving in Lyttleton, Canterbury, New Zealand on the 25th of October 1874.

Minnie Klimeck (nee Barra), at the age of only six, also came out with her parents, Peter Barra & (Emma) Ellen (nee Maash), and brothers Franz & Bernard, and sisters Teresia & Maria, leaving the village of Schwanzhof (Czarnocin), in the Parish of Schoneck (Skarszewy). From Hamburg, Germany they set aboard the ship "Reichstag" arriving in Wellington, New Zealand on the 6th of August. Both families of course soon found themselves heading south to Waihola.

Martin Klimeck Snr. had worked as a plate layer with other Polish settlers and was boss of a working gang on the Waikaia railway line employing workers prior to going to Australia for a short period to work with his brother Theodor (Phil). On returning to New Zealand he married his fiancee, Minnie Barra on the 22nd of February 1887, at the Catholic Church in Milton.

The family remained and settled at Waihola, raising their growing family until Martin's railway work was broken at times by his attempts at farming, first at Chrystals Beach, Glenledi, then called Bull Creek, 12 miles east of Milton from 1897 - 1900. On the farm at Bull Creek, before school every morning, the children would collect the water from the well for the day to be heated on the open fire. They would then round up the cows to be milked by hand. All this before a two-mile hike up the hill to school which usually took them all of half an hour. At night there was only one lamp used to light the whole house. Also on their farm they had four horses that they greatly cherished. At home they apparently didn't have much time to play games because of their daily chores and were allowed one new outfit a year.

The family, still involved in farming, moved to Laudens Gully, Akatore around 1901 and stayed until 1907. Here the children attended the Akatore Public School from 1900 to 1905. They then moved to the town of Milton where Martin Senior worked as a Platelayer from 1907 until 1911. It was while here that the family experienced the sad loss of their Grandmother, Emma Barra, who died on the 11th of September 1909.

Around the age of 13 or 14, Martin regularly visited the Catholic Presbytery at Milton where the Priests had a horse. During holiday time, the Priest would visit his parishioners in a horse and trap, so Martin would go along to open and shut the many gates. Rosalie, a younger sister, recalls asking her brother "Would you like to be a priest." He answered, "Yes I would." "I'm sure, that all he was thinking of at the time was if he was a Priest he also would have a boy to open all the gates." So around 1910, a small chubby boy at the age of 14 left for the Seminary at Mosgiel, Holy Cross College. Later in life he maintained that he never went away from that final yes.

In 1911, the property at Loudens Gully was sold and the rest of the family moved to 61 Clyde St, Dunedin where Martin Snr. did a variety of labouring work, finally taking on Hotel Keeping. First Martin occupied the Empire Hotel at Naesby, Central Otago, where he was owner and publican from 1912 until 1914. They then moved to Aberdeen St, Georgetown near Oamaru as publican from 1914 until 1915. Then back to Dunedin firstly as a Quarry Manager while residing at Cumberland Street and then 12 Queensburry Street, North East Valley, before taking over the Normanby Hotel on the 7th of June 1920 until 1922, being from here that he retired.

• Father Esmond Klimeck, Ordination 1920:
  It was around this time, at the age of 25, that Martin Joseph Klimeck was ordained Father Esmond Louis Klimeck on the 8th of December 1920 having the distinction of being the first Catholic Priest in New Zealand of Polish origin.

After having been a curate in Dunedin for four months after his ordination, he was asked to go on exchange to the Archdiocese of Wellington which he accepted without question. While serving as Parish Priest of Takapau, Upper Hutt and Marton, he took his BA degree. Rosalie moved north to housekeep for her brother Martin (Fr Esmond Klimeck).

Rosalie recalls, "He was a man of his word and just this once that I know of, they tripped him up. Upper Hutt was a small Parish but rapidly improving. The church was not big enough and needed extending. A bazar and sale was orgnised, which proved very successful, with several hundreds of pounds being raised. One evening at about 6.30 the proceeds were brought to him in a hard round white cotton bag. He didn't want to keep this in the house and so decided to take it to the secretary who had a safe. He insisted he would be back by 8 pm as he had a man coming to see him. The man arrived on time but no Father. He waited until 9 pm and then said he must go as his wife didn't like being left on her own. I had rung all the people I knew but no one had seen Father. Ten & eleven o'clock came and naturally my anxiety mounted. I was sure he had been bumped off with that white bag. The phone closed down at midnight, so at five minutes to midnight I rang the police. He agreed to go and look for him and I offered to go to. I said I would get a coat and meet him at the gate. I went up stairs for the coat and as it was a summer night the windows were wide open. Just then I heard voices at the gate. I called out, and it was himself. He replied he would be in soon. Just then a police car arrived, and I stood to listen of course. His inquiries to the police was, "What are you looking for at this time of night?" "Looking for you" - "For me why?" "Your sister is very worried." "Why is she worried, I told her I would be in at 8 pm." "Yes, that's why she is worried, as it's now after twelve." The man he had been talking to exclaimed, "After twelve?, my wife will be looking for me-I'm off." The policeman replied, "You had better go in. Your sister is worrying." Father replied, "She called out before, she knows I'm here." I quickly scurried off to my bed as I had had enough that day. But there was no storm the next day."

From the North Island Father Klimeck was sent back to Holy Cross College, to be vice-rector and a professor, he took his MA and went on to Rome to take his PhD at the Angelicum University. When her brother moved overseas Rosalie met and married Thomas Prescott. Thomas inherited the family farm being the only son. They purchased another farm at Kopua and after some time brought out some Cistercian Monks from Ireland. Tom and Rosalie decided that all the land be given to the monks in order to build a monastery, naming it the "Southern Star Abbey." Rosalie, in her 104th year has since passed away on the 17th of July 2003, just four days short of her 104th birthday and is buried on the Abbey site with her husband Tom. Their son John is well and being cared for by the monks.

While Father Klimeck was studying in Rome, he visited Ireland and met the late Frank Duff, founder of the Legion of Mary. He was over whelmed by its possibilities and, on his return to New Zealand, he set up, with the approval of Bishop Whyte, the first praesidium of the Legion in New Zealand. It met in Dunedin on the feast of the Immaculate Conception, 1933. A year before, Father Klimeck experienced the lose of a family member, being that of his father, Martin Klimeck, on the 8th of July 1932 at their family home in St. Kilda, Dunedin.

In 1936, Father Klimeck felt strongly drawn to the Domincan Order, but it seemed so much a step into the unknown, considering the security that he was enjoying in New Zealand. He had at this time, a widowed mother with whom he had great rapport. To leave her would be to bring much sorrow to her, as the parting could be final. As he was in his forties, it would be difficult for a senior ex-seminary professor to go through the Dominican training routine of the postulancy and novitiate with young men in their late teens and early twenties. Also, he had been vice rector of Mosgiel and administrator of the Dunedin Cathedral. However, all this counted for naught to Father Klimeck once he became convinced that the Lord was asking him to go to England. He was the first New Zealander to join the Dominicans and the English Province at a time when it was rich with eccentrics and characters.

After three years, Father Klimeck was able to wear the white habit of a Dominican. It was 1939, and soon he was swapping the habit for the blue uniform of an Air Force chaplain. He served in England, Africa, Greece, Italy and Malta. He left Dunedin for the North Island, to set sail on the "Wanganella" from Wellington on March the 12th for the East, America and England, where he joined the Domincan Order of Preachers. Thus covering some 25,000 miles in eight steamers.

At Sydney Rev. Dr. Klimeck joined the N.Y.K. Japan mail line steamer, the "Kitano Maru", to places such as Manila, the Philippines and Shanghai. "The Philippines had just elected their first president, Manuel Quezon, as he landed at Davao, in the southern part of the territory. The day we arrived," he recalled in a chat with the 'New Zealand Free Lance,' "I had recently purchased the cine-camera, and in proper newspaperman style I clambered up on vantage points to photograph him. I got quite a good picture, which I still possess. Even at this time there was a great deal of alarm over the Japanese infiltration in the Davao area and fear that Japan would take 'protective' steps. The Philippines were becoming very jittery." He spent some of his time in Manila at the house of the St. Columban Mission. It has poignant memories, for many of those he met here, including Father Vernon Douglas, a New Zealand priest, who was tortured and murdered by the Japanese during the war.

Subsequent traveling took the peripatetic priest through China and Japan, visiting Catholic Missions as in Shanghai and the region of Peiping where there was lively evidence of Japanese influence. Apart from this he saw the many views of culture and way of life in these countries. Incidentally it was Japan where he could not use a camera, for fear of being imprisoned. He tells with a smile, that he did preserve the continuity of the pictorial record by taking some cine-pictures as the ship pulled out for America, where he spent a leisurely six weeks before leaving for England aboard the "Queen Mary".

Long before the raid on Pearl Harbour he had observed at first-hand unmistakable signs of Japanese territorial ambitions.

"I have always had the greatest interest in the missions and the propagation of the Faith. I always placed the needs of the foreign missions as the first and most important duty of the Catholics of today who live in a land where the Church is already well established and flourishing. It is but natural, then to wish to have, if possible, first-hand knowledge to aid me in furthering this work in future. Another object which will receive my attention during my travels is work on behalf of the Legion of Mary. My work in that regard was begun in Dunedin. The results of it are well known, but I have no intention of it being finished there. I have indeed authority from the Council of the Legion in Dublin to try and spread the knowledge of the society in the lands I shall visit. In America the Legion authorities have placed certain funds at my disposal for the purpose of organising work, if time and circumstances permit. I hope to be able to do something to carry out this commission. My final destination is still England and the Dominican Order. Whether the vocation of which I go to make trial shall be realised, no one but God knows. I feel that it will be. If perchance it be not, my time abroad will give me further valuable knowledge and experience. Both in America and England I shall make a close study of Catholic Action and social organisation".

Adventures, they say, are to the adventurous, and judged by that standard Father Esmond Klimeck, O.P, Ph. D. M.A. is an adventurous priest. His greatest adventure, however, at this time, has been the campaigning for Christ not only in the Order of Friars Preachers, but among the members of the Royal Air Force.

Well known in New Zealand as vice-rector of the Provincial Seminary of Holy Cross at Mosgiel and as Administrator of St. Joseph's Cathedral, Dunedin, in which city he founded the Legion of Mary (1934), Father Klimeck attracted to the Dominican Order chiefly through the reading of "The Life and Letters of Father Bertrand Wilberforce, O.P.", therefore left for Blackfriars, Oxford in 1936. After his profession he was placed in charge of the Parish of Woodchester, Glos, becoming a chaplain in the Royal Air force early in the war. "It was grand work," he said, "helping the thousands of R.A.F. and W.A.A.F. boys and girls who passed through" the large station of which he was in charge.

At the same time Father Klimeck did some remarkable and far-reaching work in conjunction with the Sword of the Spirit movement, organising not only Catholic and non-Catholic cooperation but enlisting the sympathy and support of local body government and of secular societies. His efforts in this field were crowned with much success, and though the removal of the danger of war has resulted in a certain amount of cooling off, Father Klimeck considers that an appreciable amount of solid grain will remain, binding together Catholic and non-Catholic Christians in England in worthwhile social effort and in forming a stand for God against the encroachments of neo-paganism.

He returned to New Zealand, where he received a very warm welcome not only in Dunedin, but while on the "Rangitata", which carried the wives and children of a number of New Zealand servicemen and which was affectionately called the "Stork Ship." During the voyage he was described as a tower of strength, and with funds collected from the passengers did a grand shopping tour in Port Said which enabled every child to have a present off the Christmas tree. Stockings made from muslin by women passengers were filled with an orange, banana and sweets and the sight of 16 pink-frosted Christmas cakes was almost too much for the children. In Dunedin he enjoyed a reunion with members of his family including his sister Mrs. T. G. Prescott, of Takapau, a sister who met him in Wellington, and his mother who at this time was well in her seventies.

He looked back with satisfaction on his pre-war experience in England. In the course of a good deal of historical research at Oxford he used his camera extensively, photographing architectural relics and reconstructing scenes from the past. When war came he did not discard the camera, making a film of fire-fighting methods at Oxford, simulating real events. "Sometimes I had to take part myself, and in one scene I'm supposed to be lying moaning under a piece of masonry. You can't hear me, of course, but you can see it, all right! Of course, I had to get someone else to work the camera for those shots." He finally brought back about 1000 feet of cine-film shot by himself in many of the countries he visited.

Oxford was not subjected to organised bombing, and in the earlier years of the war he joined the R.A.F in 1940. Nevertheless, he had the doubtful pleasure of being in London during the first big raid on Croydon on the 15th of August, 1940, and also for the last and biggest attack in the Battle of Britain, a-dusk-to-dawn affair. While in England he was one of the first directors of the R.A.F. Catholic leadership courses.

A new and interesting chapter of events unfolded when, as Squadron Leader Klimeck, he went to North Africa towards the end of the Allied campaign. "I caught up with the advancing forces in the campaign in Italy, being attached to the Tactical Air Force. I was in Rome for four days after its capture. I was pretty keen to keep up with the front-line troops, but I ended up by being stationed in Rome for six months. I knew the city pretty well and could speak Italian, and when they said a chaplain was required to stay there I seemed the logical choice. I virtually acted as liaison officer between other denominations."

"Part of my duties was to arrange for audience with the Pope by 'higher-ups' such as air-marshals and similar ranks. As a result, I had practically daily audiences with the Pope, many of them in his private study as well as in public. I remember in particular arranging the audience for Lieut, General Freyberg, who invited me, as the only R.N.Z.A.F. chaplain in Italy at the time, to be present. General Freyberg was most popular with all our men, and I never heard a critical world about him. "The 'Old Man's' all right, the men used to say."

Since his earlier trip abroad in 1930, Squadron-Leader (Rev. Father E. L. Klimeck, Italy Star, 1939-45 Star and Defence Medal), had visited practically every part of the world except Russia. Few New Zealanders, for example, could parallel his experiences of enjoying practically daily audiences with the Pope. He wore out two motor-trucks as a chaplain with the forces, driving himself 25,000 miles, at a conservative estimate. After a couple of "prangs" with motor cycles without injury to himself, he picked up his first truck in Tunis, and took it to Bizerta, eventually driving aboard a landing-craft for transport to Italy. Snow, gales, flooded rivers and ignorance of the routes held no terrors for the resourceful priest, who made his own repairs when the distributor became flooded and other ills occurred. Travelling alone he recalls only one major hold-up when he was stuck in the snow in an Italian village for three or four days.

• Father Klimeck 1946:
  On the 25th of February, 1946, Minnie Klimeck (nee Barra) died at the age of 78. She is buried with her husband, Martin Klimeck Senior, at the Andersons Bay Cemetery, Dunedin.

In 1947, he was elected Prior of Leicester, and organised the now famous British national pilgrimages to the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham. In 1948, from 14 different points in England, groups of pilgrims converged on the shrine, praying the Rosary and carrying in turns a heavy wooden cross weighing 100 lbs. Father Klimeck's group walked 230 miles. This national pilgrimage is now become a major annual event in English Catholic life.

The apostle in Father Klimeck saw him outfitting an old Morris van, and soon he was criss-crossing the length and breadth of the United Kingdom, preaching and spreading devotion to the Rosary.

Appointed Provincial of Malta in 1956, one of the oldest Provinces in the Order, he used his time to good purpose. He initiated and saw the completion there of the shrine to Our Lady of the Rosary. Not just a small shrine, but a large church with a tower, a priory and novitiate for seminarians.

There was just enough time to admire the grand new building in Valetta before fresh orders arrived sending him to the University of Cape Town as chaplain. Later, he was to spend 14 years teaching at the seminary at Nairobi, which gave him a very perceptive insight and knowledge of the Black clergy in Southern Africa. Once, during a Rosary renewal Crusade through East Africa, Father Klimeck took time out to climb Africa's highest mountain, Mt. Kilimanjaro. He was then a sprightly 70 year old, and apparently one of the oldest to climb the mountain.

For his missionary work in different parts of Africa, mainly in East and South Africa he received from Pope Paul, the Papal Cross. His travels in most parts of the world over 34 years gained him a fellowship of the Royal Geographical Society of Great Britain, awarded to him in 1954. Where he went he proudly proclaimed that he was a genuine Kiwi.

Later that year, he returned to New Zealand, and no sooner had he unpacked his bags, he was looking around for ways to be an apostle. A campervan was purchased, and throughout the early seventies, Father "Klim" was an inspiring figure, travelling the road and preaching on the Rosary in hundreds of Parishes. At the age of 76 he had decided to go no more a-roving beyond the shores of New Zealand. He was often seen wearing robes which dated back to 1216-his normal ecclesiastic dress, he said jocularly. "I must take first prize as the oldest living relic of antiquity to be found in these parts today." He was also known to cycle everywhere while on his prayer mission around the country. He remarked. "I did have a car with my cycle on the back. People used to think I was a bit of a pessimist: carrying my bike round, but I used to tell them I would tow the car if it had broken down." So at the age of 77 Father Klimeck was seen cycling everywhere he went.

When failing health put an end to the van, he developed his apostolate around his beloved St Ben's, the Dominican Priory in Auckland, blessing the sick, saying Sunday Masses, running first Friday all-night vigils, and giving spiritual advice to Catholics, particularly those in the Charismatic Renewal. Through all this, as his health weakened, he made hundreds of Rosaries.

After nearly two years of travelling up and down New Zealand since his return, Father released his publication of the Rosary, aptly named "The Royal Rosary Road." The introduction gives a brief history of his Rosary campaign, begun in England before the last war, and carried on in Malta, Africa and now New Zealand. The bulk of the booklet is a discussion on the doctrinal basis of the Rosary by Fr. Hilary Carpenter, formerly English Assistant General of the Dominicans, and Fr. Klimeck's lifelong friend. He outlines the main doctrinal basis of the Rosary and gives some lines of how this is developed in the individual mysteries. Father believed that the "Rosary" as being an excellent preparation for us to be able to use with greater spiritual benefit Holy Mass and the other public liturgical offices of the church.

• Father Klimeck, the "Rosary Priest":
  Father Klimeck, a well known figure throughout New Zealand and the world died on the 11th of May 1983 at Auckland, aged 87 years. He was buried on the 16th of May, at the Southern Star Abbey Cemetery, Kopua, Takapau, Hawke's Bay. At his Requiem Mass, Father David Halstead OP, delivered the homily, based on John, Chapter 7, vs 16-18. He said that Father Klimeck was a man of obedience who respected authority. His vocation, as he saw it, was to pass on the message that he had himself received.

Father Aquinas McComb, OP, told The Tablet that Father Klimeck often preached the Fatima message. He stressed the hope that lay beyond the initially gloomy tidings for the world. He wanted people to put into practice Our Lady's instructions, but was always constructive in his approach.

"'Klim' was always inventive, imaginative," said Father McComb, "Always wrapped up in new ways to present Christ and His Mother. In his last months, he was studying the Infant of Prague and trying to spread the devotion. To him, it was a fitting devotion for children, so put upon and deprived in these days."

"In his last year, he gave us the impression of a man on the job now, and when he spoke of the past, it was to reinforce with that experience what new form of apostolic work he had embarked upon."

Father McComb has no doubt that the major work and legacy of Father Klimeck's life was to renew the ways of looking at the saying the Rosary. "He opened up the riches of the Rosary to Scripture in an imaginative and resourceful way. From mind-freezing repetition, where people try to think of the Mystery whilst saying something quite different, and end up in confusion, he made the Rosary mind-freezing-building up the picture of the Mystery. He opened the Rosary up for Scripture, discussion groups, Charismatic Renewal meetings and ecumenical gatherings."

All who met "Father Klim" were struck by his enthusiasm, but most of all by his childlike simplicity. World-weariness and cynicism were not for him. He was obviously aware of them, but to one so conscious of God's goodness and grace, and His wonderful ways, such attitudes were a waste of time. There was simply too much to be done getting on with doing God's will to be cynical.

"Dear John, Thank God I can still write legibly in spite of just entering my 90th year. If I type, the head and fingers don't coordinate... And now to business, for this isn't a health bulletin."

These among the last words Father Klimeck wrote when writing to the Tablet. The "business" of the letter was a request for The Tablet to give publicity to his booklet, "The Royal Rosary Road", which at that time had sold more than 3000 copies in New Zealand, with publications translated for West Germany and Holland.

Auckland correspondent, Bernard Moran, for the Tablet wrote an obituary which began; "Such was the enthusiasm which Father Klimeck displayed in living his priesthood that it is difficult to write about him dying. He is obviously running around happy as a sand boy in heaven."

Possibly his strength as a priest sprang from his humility and obedience. He later recalled his first mission since his ordination; "Because I went without question when another priest had refused, I was immediately (for that reason) entrusted with a parish by the Archbishop. Although few these days are brave enough to defend authority, it is worth saying en passant that on this simple act of obedience (which really cost me nothing), the whole of my future life, with its interesting and important work in many countries, has depended."

He was the embodiment of what Jesus meant when he said that unless we become like little children, we are not of His Kingdom; that and his love for God and for his fellows.

May he rest in peace.

He who begets a stupid son begets him to his sorrow; the father of a fool knows no joy.

PROVERBS.

Klimek Family Information
Klimek Family Tree