The injunction of Jesus Christ to go therefore to all nations preaching the Goodnews was the motivation of the missionaries in their endeavour to bring Christianity to Aguleri. The Catholic Mission in Aguleri was strategic, humanly influenced and providential. It was strategical because the mission in Aguleri started not up to three years the missionaries landed in Onitsha. It was humanly influenced because right from 1887, Chief Onyekomeli Idigo on different occasions went to Onitsha imploring the missionaries to come to Aguleri to establish the Catholic Mission. Above all, it was by design of Providence in that Aguleri being a coastal town with a waterway reaching Onitsha, the missionaries were able to find their way Aguleri early on.

In 1888, Fr. Lutz with his companions travelled to Aguleri and were received by Chief Idigo who was anticipating their coming. Thus, Chief Idigo was disappointed to be told by the Reverend Fr. Lutz that the missionaries had not fully settled in Onitsha and that the mission in Aguleri would wait for the time being. And they left same day. Our God being a God of providence, a few days afterwards, the missionaries returned, settled down for good and began the Catholic Mission in Aguleri.

Towards the end of 1889, a school was established in Aguleri. Other services such as orphanage, dispensary, and welfare homes were established too. Many people in Aguleri embraced Christianity and were zealous about the faith. It came to a point when overzealous Christian adherents began to desecrate the pagan shrines and this angered Aguleri people to the point of protests, and finally drove out the white man and his companions from Eziagulu Aguleri. To arrest the situation, Chief Idigo made a site available to the missionaries on the hilltop of the town. And that was how the famous Aguleri Christian Village later called UGWU NDI UKA was established in 1890.

By May 27 the same year, Fr. Lutz paid the first formal pastoral visit to Aguleri. On June 1, Fr. Lutz, Fr. Bubendorf, and other accompanying missionaries, Chief Idigo and new converts went to mark a site for the new mission house. The next day June 2, Brother Hermas started to build the Mission House in Ugwu Ndi Uka.

In 1894, the school that was informally organized in Eziagulu Aguleri, the place where the missionaries had been driven out from became formally relocated to Ugwu Ndi Uka Aguleri. The school was built under the supervision of Brother Hermas while Mr. Abraham from Sierra Leone was appointed the first headmaster of the school. The school in question is the present Premier Primary School Aguleri. Here, a church was built in 1895 and later was expanded because of the growing population in 1897.

In 1914, a permanent and befitting church was built to the glory of God and that church is the (well preserved) old church building beside the present Cathedral church. The church was named St Joseph Catholic Mission, Aguleri. Having established the church, there was need for a Presbytery for Priests; hence, with the help of local artisans in the Christian village and a few professionals from Onitsha, Fr. Lejeune constructed the present presbytery in 1920. The church and the Father’s house were at that time an architectural masterpiece that commanded the admiration of people that visited the site.

In the 1930s there was a decline in the population of the Christian village. This situation was occasioned by the flourishing businesses of The Royal Niger Company, John Holt, and later C.F.A.O. People were migrating to the coastal area for casual labour along with artisans and traders. These, however, maintained their Christian faith. In response to this situation, the missionaries established St Raphael’s School, resulting in further migration coastwards.

With growth in numbers, there was need for a larger church. But the Christians wanted the church to be built at Amaeze where the majority of Christians were living at that time. Rev. Fr. Joseph Delaney, the priest in charge then, strongly opposed this, arguing that the bones of the priests and missionaries buried in the Christian village would be abandoned if the church was to be sited in another place. Therefore, the foundation of the new church was laid in 1937 near the resting place of the missionaries. In April 1940, St Joseph Church was dedicated.

Throughout the 1940s there were no structural changes of the site in and around the Christian village except the construction of Clinic named Immaculate Heart Child Welfare in 1953. This place was later expanded, reconstructed and updated by Chief Willie Obiano in 2019 and was named Immaculate Heart Multispecialty Hospital Aguleri. Then came Father Joseph Memorial High School. This school was established by Archbishop Charles Heerey in 1956 under the name Preliminary Training Center. In 1958, it was renamed Elementary Teacher’s College. Later it was named Father Joseph Grammar School in the 1960. The present name Father Joseph Memorial High School was given after 1970. In 1989, what started as a catechism class in Immaculate Heart Sister’s Convent Aguleri, metamorphosed to St Joseph Nursery and Primary School, Aguleri. The podium in front of the church which was used from the early 90s called Ama Tansi was given its present shape in 2010, the present Diocesan Secretariat built by Aguleri people which though started in 1997, was completed in 2010. Michael Tansi Secondary School started in 2002 and The Chapel of Perpetual Adoration constructed by Chief Mike Ejoh in memory of Madam Theresa Ejoh was built in 2010. Other developments included the renovation/reconstruction of the Father’s House in 2012 and completion of the Bishop’s House in December 2015 where Bishop Denis Isizoh resided as the Auxiliary Bishop of Onitsha Archdiocese.

Still on providence, the 1940 church was demolished in August 2016 and the new one which is the present-day Cathedral was built as it stands today through the instrumentality of Chief Willie Obiano. Some parts of the old structure were preserved such as the belfry, the two towers and two pillars which can been seen inside the Cathedral. The church was dedicated on January 09, 2019 by His Eminence, Francis Cardinal Arinze with Archbishop Valerian M. Okeke and Bishop Denis C. Isizoh being the bishops working in the Archdiocese of Onitsha.

Structures notwithstanding, the Catholic mission in Aguleri has an outstanding spiritual heritage from the beginnings. One of the very first historic baptisms administered in Aguleri was on December 3, 1891 being the feast of St Francis Xavier. In that extended ceremony, Chief Onyekomeli and other catechumens were baptized. Onitsha Catholic Community led by Father Reling came in their numbers to witness that ceremony. After the ceremonies, one of the missionaries noted that Aguleri Christian village was the most flourishing of the three existing Christian villages in the Eastern Nigeria. Another spiritual heritage of Aguleri Catholic Mission was the Communion of Reparation introduced by Father Lichtenberger. This spiritual exercise is what we know today as the first Friday devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. This spiritual exercise drew crowds to the Christian village and its effects never left the people. Another spiritual moment in Aguleri worthy of note was the times of Father Michael Iwene Tansi who is now Blessed Cyprian Michael Iwene Tansi. Father Tansi as he was fondly called lived and saw life in the Christian Village. He brought back the semi monastic life of the Christian village, of prayers, devotions, hardwork and singular faith in God. All these are summed up in his motto in life which reads: “entirely for God.” And till date, Father Tansi has lasting effect on the Christians and non-Christians in Aguleri.

In God’s own time, the mission which started in 1888 and flourished through thick and thin of times and seasons saw this very place pronounced a Diocese on Sunday, February 12, 2023 by Pope Francis with Bishop Denis Isizoh as the first Bishop. The inauguration of the diocese and the installation of the Bishop took place on March 17, 2023 and in attendance were the Papal Nuncio to Nigeria Archbishop Antonio Guido Filipazzi, 3 Cardinals, 57 Bishops, about 600 Priests, Religious men and women, in their numbers Government officials, Traditional Rulers and thousands of Christian Faithful.

Aguleri Diocese at its creation has a landmass of 1.388 km2 and about 400,000 Catholics, 64 Parishes, 60 Priests, 52 Seminarians, 151 Catechists and a good number of Professed Religious. Preserving the faith and motivations of the foundation members of this Christian Mission and the holy examples and instruction of the holy pastors and teachers of faith of this mission, we live and work as a diocese Entirely for God.