On September 1, 1921, the Propaganda Congregation entrusted a new mission field to the Benedictine Congregation of St. Ottilien. It comprised Zululand and parts of Natal in South Africa. The first group of Benedictines arrived nine months later in Natal and on August 3, 1922, they started a new mission at lnkamana which was then just a farm with a few small buildings on it. These pioneers were experienced missionaries who had been working in East Africa before until World War I forced them to leave that country. Within 25 years they managed to erect 10 major mission stations in Natal as well as 4 hospitals and a great number of schools. Meanwhile, lnkamana became more and more the center of the Benedictines. The priests there served growing Christian communities in a vast area, the brothers intensified their gardening and farming activities and began to train Africans in the different workshops.