Situated by the seaside and nestled close to the foot of Ovalau’s undulating high-rise hills, Nasuku, the site of an old seminary’s ruins within Cawaci is replete with everything you’d wish for if you wanted to seek enlightenment, peace and of course, being close to nature.
It is no wonder then that in the early 1940s the Marist Fathers constructed the buildings of Nasuku and relocated there the minor seminary which was established in 1923 in Cawaci.
At the time, the minor seminary, consisting of two classrooms, was located next to the current St John the Baptist Church, near the long jump pit.
Nasuku is the first property you will come across if you are visiting Cawaci from the port town of Levuka.
You will spot its wooden buildings just before the famous Bishop’s Tomb and with a potent set of eyes, you might be able to catch a glimpse of a venerable-looking church on the hill.
From the main road, the place shows no visible signs of occupation, except for faint noises coming inside dust-coated windows.
Above the wooden buildings, partly obscured by trees, stand the remains of a church, which was built especially for the ordination of priests.
Today, that church, once was the pride of Nasuku, is just a shadow of its former glory –dilapidated, forgotten and desolate.
As you enter through the narthex, a church’s version of a hotel lobby, you can’t miss seeing hardwood pews in columns and a marble altar on a triple-tiered sanctuary.
During its heydays, it would have looked grand and elegant, and the liturgical services held inside it must have echoed through the hills, with the voice of worshipping priests and the melody of chorusing nuns.
The church was built with unique specifications to accommodate the ordinations and largely replicated the Gothic style of European architecture.
If you walk past the pews in the nave and make your way to the front of the church you will notice that the sanctuary area is quite large and spacious.
Back in the day, this was to allow priests-to-be to lie down comfortably before the altar during the ordination proper.
Ordination is a sacred ceremony in which someone has ordained a priest, enabling him to minister in Christ’s name and that of the Church.
During one, the ordained or ordinand lies prostrate on the floor. This symbolises the person’s worthiness for the priesthood and his dependence on God and the prayers of the Christian community.
According to St John’s College records, Nasuku’s senior seminarians used to seat facing each other in the sanctuary during mass while the junior seminarians had to sit behind the rails and face the altar.
There was a priest’s house behind the church and classrooms for the seminarians. There was also a wooden house in which the senior seminarians resided.
Above that house was a bure reserved for junior seminarians and another for the dining room and study.
Just like those who studied teaching at the St Bede’s College within the hills of Naserete, the seminarians fended for themselves and did their own cooking and washing.
No information was available to this newspaper to explain why the seminary was closed in 1946.
But it is understood some students had non-examinable secondary classes there before they moved to Namosau, Ba in 1947. When they moved to Ba, Father Clerkin and Father Foley stayed at the priests’ house in Nasuku.
Some local priests who attended the seminary included Father Tito Daurewa, the first Fijian priest, Fr Waqa, Fr Gabriele Eremasi, Fr Yavala and Fr Lui Raco.
It is understood Fr Waqa and Yavala were ordained into the priesthood in New Zealand on December 14, 1971, and were the country’s first Fijian Marists.
When the seminary shifted to Ba, nuns from the Sisters of Our Lady of Nazareth (SOLN) moved into the Nasuku premises in 1952 from Solevu in Bua, where the society had begun.
SOLN is a locally founded order of sisters. The other eight were founded in Europe, primarily France, and one is from New Zealand.
Although locally founded in Fiji, the SOLN is also international. It has a small community of sisters in Hanford, California, where the sisters minister to families from the South Pacific. Their sisters have entered from some of the nearby islands as well as Fiji.
With the help of Fr Clerkin and Bishop Foley, the SOLN Sisters built the novitiate in Nasuku which later became the renewal centre. The Sisters of Charity were brought in 1957 by Bishop Foley to educate the postulants and novices.
A novitiate is a house where a novice lives. It is also a period when a novice is involved in intense study, prayer, living in the community and deepening one’s relationship with God. The novitiate stage in most communities is a two-year period.
When the novitiate moved to Suva, the domestic training centre moved from Loreto in Tokou Village to Nasuku. The retired Sisters and bubu (old women/grandmothers), who were living in the old seminary buildings on the hill moved to Suva in the early 1990s.
The SOLN Sisters of Nasuku also accommodated a number of female boarders who attended St John’s College in Cawaci. This arrangement ended in 1997 when the renewal centre was established.
The renewal centre used to be hired out as a venue for spiritual training with the SOLN Sisters providing all the catering requirements for interested parties. In addition to this, visitors to Cawaci were also accommodated at a very affordable rate.
The famous Sister Lawrence, also known as Ilisabeta Turava said her education she was ‘brought up’ spiritually at Nasuku.
Sister Lawrence who now resides at the retirement for nuns in Wailoku outside Suva said: “Nasuku is still sitting, it’s very nice but we all left and those buildings are left empty and no one there filled it but there are some groups there that come for meetings and they also use it.”
“I remember Nasuku because I was brought up there spiritually. After Nasuku I was taught by the sisters of charity and I came to Suva to continue my education it was where I worked as well.
“The buildings at Nasuku are still there but before there was no building, we were just living in a tiny part of the house then they built big bures for us.
“Sisters of charity came from Australia and they were the ones that taught and looked after us. It’s a place for the nuns.”
Another Sister Ilisabeta Viro, said she was also trained in Nasuku and did her probation period at the Mary Hill (in Nasuku).
“I was there for three months of training and an extension of six months because when I went home for the holiday I wanted to return back home.
“We were usually on training and we had programs to follow besides attending the sacrifice of the mass and the program.
“We also had a little school there, down below in Nasuku.”
Today, Nasuku’s buildings are largely in ruins but they remain an important historical part of the catholic mission in Cawaci, a place where great church leaders were once groomed for their lifetime of service to God, the community and Fiji.
History being the subject it is, a group’s version of events may not be the same as that held by another group. When publishing one account, it is not our intention to cause division or to disrespect other oral traditions. Those with a different version can contact us so we can publish your account of history too — Editor.
