Online Reporter
Isdore Guvamombe
Assistant Editor
In 1984, I enrolled at St Edward’s Chimufombo Roman Catholic Mission in Guruve for youth Catechism.
The priest-in-charge was Russian born, but German-educated Father Georg Hipler – a deeply religious man, as soft as wool, calm, cool as a cucumber and loving.
At birth he had baptised and Christened me Isdore, the only first name I carry up to now.
In fact, he later baptised and Christened all my siblings born after me from Isdollah to Isabellah, Innocencia, Illuminator and Opitato.
Back then in 1984, I so believed in Fr Hipler and wanted to go beyond being an altar server to becoming a Catholic priest. It was my big dream. Whatever happened to that dream later in life is a story for another day.
I was born in Rhodesia, son to a teacher Ephraim Guvamombe and wife, Ethel Agnes Guvamombe (nee Masakara).
Ephraim had graduated from Kutama Teacher’s College, a Catholic citadel in Zvimba in 1959 and became one of the first qualified black teachers in the village and beyond.
He was deployed to the Catholic-run Chimufombo Primary School in Sipolilo (the white settlers failed to say Chipuriro) now Guruve.
There he taught for many years and ran life as a bachelor until he came across my mother and married her about a decade later.
My mother was from Farm 29 Nyakapupu across the Mupinge River, a spitting distance from St Edward’s Mission.
Her father had bought a farm under the Small Scale Commercial Farming Scheme, reserved for progressive black farmers in Rhodesia. Acquiring such a farm for a black Rhodesian was no mean feat.
Between graduation and marriage my father had built the first ever European house, an iron sheet roofed brick house in the village. It became a referral point. Kuimba yemarata.
Fr Hipler had helped him much in transporting the roofing material through the Road Motor Services (RMS).
True to Rhodesian Catholic rules, teachers were not allowed to stay with their spouses at schools unless they wed. In the case of my father a double white wedding was held, at the in-laws first and at my father’s village.
Many people, by their own admission, ate cake for the first time, courtesy of that Catholic white wedding.
“I first ate a cake in 1967. The occasion was my sister Ethel Agnes’ wedding to Ephraim Guvamombe. The wedding had two legs. It was quite a spectacle. Up to now, I vividly remember the incident,’’ Petros Masakara journalist and former ZBC Radio One Head of Station.
Masakara has remained a devout Catholic.
When I was born a year later, my father was now teaching at St Jerome’s Mamini Primary School in the Kachuta Tribal Trust Lands. TTLs are now called Reserves (maruzevha). It was land reserved by Government.
Fr Hipler changed the perception of the Catholic Church in Guruve, a place where traditional beliefs are difficult to break.
One of my cousins Fidelis Mazani was born in Fr Hipler’s car as he rushed his mother to hospital for delivery. Here is the story of Fr Georg Hipler SJ who died on January 5, 2026 in Harare at the age of 91.
Fr Georg was born on April 10, 1935 in Rosengarth, Ostpreußen (East Prussia).
After completing his schooling in Fulda, Germany, he obtained his university entrance qualification and entered the Society of Jesus at Jakobsberg, near Bingen when he was 21-years-old. He undertook philosophy studies in Munich from 1959 to 1960.
From 1961 to 1963 he served at Marymount Mission in Rushinga, Zimbabwe, marking the beginning of a lifelong commitment to missionary service in Southern Africa.
He then studied theology at Heythrop from 1964 to 1967, where he obtained his Licentiate in Theology.
Fr Hipler was ordained to the priesthood when he was 31-years-old on August 28, 1966 and completed his tertianship in Berlin in 1967.
At 38, he was invited to Final Vows at St Albert’s Mission in 1973.
After ordination, Fr Hipler returned to Zimbabwe and spent time at Canisius House in Harare from August 1968 to February 1969, where he studied Shona.
He was then missioned as parish priest to St Edward’s Mission Sipolilo, where he served from 1969 until 1986. During this long period of service, he also spent a short time at Umvukwes (Mvurwi) in 1979.
From 1987 to 1994 he served as parish priest at Chitsungo, followed by service as parish priest at Chishawasha from 1995 to 2001.
Between 2001 and 2003 he was Superior and Pastor at St Boniface Mission. From 2004 to 2005 he served as assistant pastor and assistant treasurer at Mount Pleasant.
In 2006, he was assigned as assistant pastor at Mabelreign, and from 2007 to 2012 he served there as pastor.
In 2012, Fr Hipler moved to Braeside, where he served as assistant parish priest until 2014. He was then appointed chaplain at Macheke from 2015 to 2016.
From 2017 he served once more at Mount Pleasant as assistant priest, before transferring in 2018 to Emmaus House. While based there, he assisted at Our Lady of the Wayside until August 23 2019, when he moved to Richartz House.
Fr Georg Hipler is remembered above all as a builder of missions. He gave himself patiently to communities over many years, laying foundations not only in buildings and parish structures, but in people’s faith, resilience, and sense of belonging.
He remained faithful to places often marked by hardship and isolation, trusting that steady presence, ordinary pastoral care, and perseverance were themselves a form of proclamation. Through this quiet fidelity, he helped communities take root and endure.
Fr Hipler remained at Richartz House until his death on January 5, 2026.
In his later years, his health gradually declined, and he eventually became confined to a wheelchair and dependent on constant care. In this final stage of life, he lived the Ignatian call to obedience in a new way: receiving rather than doing, allowing himself to be cared for as part of his continued service to the Lord.
He bore this time with humility and quiet trust. He was surrounded by the attentive, compassionate, and faithful care of the carers at Richartz House, whose kindness and dedication allowed him to live his final years in peace and dignity.
For this gift of care, the Society of Jesus and all who knew and loved him remain deeply grateful.
May his soul rest in eternal peace.
