Father Christopher Shepherd-Smith began his missionary life at Saint Paul’s Mission. On February 6, 1977, he planned to leave the mission, but due to a dead battery in his motorcycle, he could not leave as planned and instead decided to stay the night at Musami. Sadly, his decision turned out to be a fatal one.

On February 6, 1977, nationalist guerillas arrived at the mission, rounded up the white staff (which also included five Dominican sisters), and took them a short distance away. In the words of Father Dunstan Myerscough, a priest who survived by throwing himself to the ground when the shooting began: “Finally, three of them turned on us and raised their guns…we didn’t know they were going to shoot us until the firing started…when the firing stopped I looked up and saw that the other seven were dead and that there was nothing I could do for them.”Father Christopher Shepherd-Smith was just 34 years-old.

Sources: http://www.independent.ie/regionals/kerryman/lifestyle/tragic-brother-remembered-at-st-johns-27364874.html

http://archive.catholicherald.co.uk/article/11th-february-1977/1/seven-missionaries-killed-in-rhodesia

http://www.dsiop.org/web/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=294:news-from-dominican-sisters&catid=33&Itemid=56

http://newsaints.faithweb.com/new_martyrs/Zimbabwe.htm

http://www.jesuit.org.uk/features/musami.htm