Mariannhill is a cluster of suburbs and townships south of

Pinetown Pinetown is a city that forms part of the eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality, based just inland from Durban in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The city is situated 16 km (10 mi) north-west of Durban and 64 km (40 mi) south-east of Pieterm ...

in eThekwini Municipality in

KwaZulu Natal KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN) is a Provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the government merged the Zulu people, Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu language, Zulu) and ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

. In 1882,

Trappist The Trappists, officially known as the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance (, abbreviated as OCSO) and originally named the Order of Reformed Cistercians of Our Lady of La Trappe, are a Religious order (Catholic), Catholic religious o ...

missionary Father

Franz Pfanner Franz Pfanner, CMM (1825 – 24 May 1909), also anglicised as Francis Pfanner, was an Catholic Church in Austria, Austrian Catholic monk and founder of what would become the Mariannhillers. He was a member of the Trappists, from whom the new orde ...

established Mariannhill Monastery 16 km west of Durban. He promoted local development and opened schools, health clinics, craft workshops, printing presses and farms providing work for hundreds of religious workers and others. The name is derived from those of the Virgin Mary and her mother

Saint Anne According to apocrypha, as well as Christianity, Christian and Islamic tradition, Saint Anne was the mother of Mary, mother of Jesus, Mary, the wife of Joachim and the maternal grandmother of Jesus. Mary's mother is not named in the Bible's Gosp ...

. The Mariannhill Toll Road, a section of the N3 national route, begins in the area. Due to its location close to the industrial townships of

and

Durban Durban ( ; , from meaning "bay, lagoon") is the third-most populous city in South Africa, after Johannesburg and Cape Town, and the largest city in the Provinces of South Africa, province of KwaZulu-Natal. Situated on the east coast of South ...

, Mariannhill has attracted people from around the province of KwaZulu Natal who are seeking employment. This has led to the development and growth of several townships in Mariannhill: Mpola, Thornwood, Dassenhoek, Tshelimnyama, Mariannridge, KwaMamdekazi, St Wendolins, and others. In 1909 the St. Francis College was founded in Mariannhill, combining separate schools for boys and girls that had operated since the mid/late 1880s. Its faculty included the Zulu writer and poet

Benedict Wallet Vilakazi Benedict Wallet Vilakazi (6 January 1906 – 26 October 1947) was a South African people, South African novelist, linguist, a descendant of the Zulu royal family, and a radically innovative South African poetry, poet who created a combination ...

References

Suburbs of Durban {{KwaZuluNatal-geo-stub

See also

References