Immaculée Ilibagiza is a truly inspiring writer and witness to faith in the world. Born in Rwanda in 1972, she grew up with three brothers in a devoutly Roman Catholic family that harbored a commitment to education and hard work to give the children the opportunity to study in the best places. During the 1980s, Immaculée won a scholarship to one of the finest high schools in Rwanda, leaving behind her family and her village to prepare herself to one day enter college, to which she later earned a scholarship to the National University in Butare. Upon returning home from college one weekend in 1994, she found herself in the midst of the Rwandan Genocide, a horrific campaign where between half a million and one million Rwandan Tutsis and sympathetic Hutus were murdered by radical Hutus under command of the Interhamwe, a Hutu paramilitary group. Immaculée and her family were Tutsis, meaning that they were prime targets of the Interhamwe. The genocide itself lasted just one hundred days, and Immaculée and seven other women survived the massacre in a tiny bathroom of a local pastor's house. Her entire family was killed, except for her brother Aimable, who was studying in Senegal at the time and unaware of the events taking place. After the genocide, Immaculée would work for the United Nations, write books and give speeches, serving as a witness to both the horrors of the genocide and to a deep commitment to the Christian faith. She is married with two children and currently lives in the United States.
This past summer, thanks to my good friend Laura Barry, I had the unique privilege to read three books by Immaculée, and they certainly did their part to re-energize parts of my faith and to give me a better understanding of how the conflict emerged, what exactly happened as she was hidden in the pastor's bathroom, and how she dealt with the trauma in the aftermath. These books, Left to Tell, Led by Faith, and Our Lady of Kibeho, all illustrate different portions of Immaculée's life, with the third book describing a series of apparitions and events that strengthened her faith and inspired a religious revival in Rwanda. The first two talk more about the genocide and how Immaculée continued with her life afterwards. Each one is about 200 pages long, and the reader gains a picture both of her life and of Rwanda in general. One can pick up that Rwanda is a deeply spiritual nation, with pockets of Catholics, Protestants and Muslims maintaining coexistence throughout its lush terrain (Immaculée refers to Rwanda more than once as "The Land of Eternal Spring"). Large families also appear to be the norm, with plenty of uncles, aunts and cousins making part of the ordinary Rwandan's life. It seemed that during almost every chapter of the first two books, Immaculée crossed paths with either a cousin or a neighbor, not always knowing them well, but at least recognizing their faces.
Finally, through Our Lady of Kibeho, Immaculée shares a side of her life that helped her to strengthen her faith. In Rwanda between 1981 and 1982, it is believed that the Virgin Mary appeared to several Rwandan schoolgirls near the town of Kibeho, in the extreme south of Rwanda. This site became a popular place of pilgrimage over the next ten years, attracting Rwandans and non-Rwandans alike and prompting the attention of the Vatican. With the help of Bishop Augustin Misago, public devotion to the apparitions was approved in 1988, and the apparitions of three Rwandan schoolgirls were declared authentic in 2001. The site today is dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows, due in part to the nature of the apparitions and its role as a key site in the slaughter of thousands of Rwandans as part of the Rwandan Genocide. Immaculée shares at the end of the Kibeho book as well a form of the rosary made popular once again from the Marian apparitions at Kibeho. More information on the Rosary of the Seven Sorrows can be found HERE.
What inspires me the most about Immaculée's story is her constant commitment to prayer and virtue. She keeps her father's rosary with her throughout most of both books and prays it often, even in times of serious distress. Her constant attention to detail and prayer makes her story both a profound read and a powerful testimony to the strength that we can find through faith. The intensity of her faith is one thing I wish to attain one day through constant prayer, study, and making myself overall into a better man. This level of excellence however, comes with daily conversion, never deciding that a given level of faith and practice is enough or putting off prayer to tomorrow because you're too busy today. One day I may get to live like her example; probably I will not. However, I find this to be the ultimate exercise of faith: the life of a Christian is not like that of a civil servant, where you earn enough seniority and experience to be promoted to a better level of Christian over time. The best spiritual exercise over time is through improving each day over the one previous, paying attention to detail, and not losing focus of the final goal.
A life of faith is never complete; rather, one must find new ways to make himself or herself better than yesterday, and then turn that improvement into good fruit for the example of others. Immaculée Ilibagiza has become an example to the world through her story and witness, and her books were a great summer read to help re-energize my faith and understanding of major world events. I would recognize these books to anyone interested in Africa, spirituality or in the study of trauma after a catastrophe. It will truly make you think differently about the world and the people who shape it.
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