The comprehensive rehabilitation of the Common Novitiate House in Andranokobaka strengthens a shared formation mission at a decisive moment in the Congregation’s restructuring and reconfiguration.
A house of formation is never only a building. It is a place where young confreres learn to follow Christ the Redeemer, deepen their vocation, grow in fraternal community, and prepare to proclaim plentiful redemption, especially to the poor and the most abandoned. In Andranokobaka, in the Diocese of Moramanga, this mission now has a safer, more dignified, and more functional home.
With the support of the Redemptorist Solidarity Office for Africa & Madagascar (RSO), Aid to the Church in Need International and the Redemptorist Vice-Province of Madagascar, the comprehensive rehabilitation of the Common Novitiate House has been completed. Responding to a concrete local need, the project also strengthens the wider Redemptorist formation mission in Africa and Madagascar.
“A renewed house of formation is an investment in the future missionary life of the Congregation.”
From a deteriorated building to a rehabilitated formation house
Before the work began, the Novitiate House was affected by structural cracks, water infiltration, deteriorated floors and walls, damaged openings, outdated sanitary and electrical installations, and weakened exterior service areas. These conditions compromised the safety, functionality and capacity of a house entrusted with the canonical formation of novices.
The rehabilitation addressed the building as a whole. Masonry repairs and protective treatments strengthened the structure; roofing and waterproofing reduced the risk of further humidity damage; rooms, corridors, stairways, and access areas were repaired and finished; and plumbing, sanitary and electrical installations were upgraded. The outdoor kitchen, water tower, drainage, wash areas, and related service facilities were also restored.
Spaces that support prayer, community, and daily life
The rehabilitated house now provides 16 places for novices, compared with 9 functional places before the work. It includes the essential spaces required for a complete novitiate community: a chapel with sacristy, classroom, refectory, laundry, visitor areas, rooms for formators, parlour, recreation, and equipment rooms, as well as improved sanitary and service facilities. The chapel is a dignified place for liturgey, prayer, and accompaniment. The sanitary facilities have been improved for hygene and daily living conditions for novices and formators. The kitchen and the service area provide a cleaner and more functional space for shared community life.
Chapel 
Sanitary facilities 
Kitchen and service area
These improvements serve the deeper purpose of formation. They offer young Redemptorists an environment conducive to prayer, recollection, study, fraternal life, and personal accompaniment, while fostering human maturity, spiritual depth, apostolic availability, and missionary identity.
Formation in a time of restructuring and reconfiguration
The rehabilitation of the Common Novitiate House in Andranokobaka comes at an important moment in the life of the Congregation. The ongoing process of restructuring and reconfiguration calls for greater collaboration, shared responsibility, and missionary availability beyond the boundaries of individual units. Its future depends in large part on serious, faithful, and increasingly common formation.
The Common Novitiate welcomes candidates from Madagascar, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola, and remains open to other units of the Conference of Redemptorists of Africa and Madagascar (COREAM). Its international and intercultural character enables young confreres to discover from the beginning that they share one charism and one mission, lived in diverse cultures and pastoral contexts.
Today’s Church needs missionaries who are deeply rooted in Christ, faithful to the charism of Saint Alphonsus, capable of living and working in intercultural communities, attentive to new forms of poverty and abandonment, and ready to go where the mission is most urgent. The Common Novitiate is called to form this new generation of Redemptorists with fidelity, discernment, and missionary courage.
Redemptorist solidarity made concrete
The successful completion of the rehabilitation reflects close cooperation among the local community, the Vice-Province of Madagascar, RSO and its partners. Supervision by the Vice-Provincial leadership ensured that the work remained closely connected to the practical needs of formation and community life.
For RSO (Redemptorist Solidarity Office), this project makes Redemptorist solidarity concrete: resources, relationships and professional accompaniment placed at the service of formation and mission. The rehabilitated Common Novitiate House is therefore not simply a completed infrastructure project, but a long-term commitment to the future of Redemptorist missionary life in Africa and Madagascar and throughout the Congregation.
Forming missionaries for today’s Church
The renewed Common Novitiate now stands ready to welcome and accompany young Redemptorists called to follow Christ the Redeemer, live the charism of the Congregation with fidelity and creativity, and proclaim plentiful redemption among the poor and the most abandoned.
Br. Leon Masiala Phuati, C.Ss.R.
