Our Lady of Lourdes

The theme for the novenas of feast of the Nativity Our Lady last year was on the lesser known apparitions of Our Lady. Each area/group shared their reflections of the apparitions. Our faith got stronger and we became aware of a lot of things about these apparitions. In our first reflection in this series of posts, parishioners from Sahaney Sujan Park, Lullanagar and Kubera Park shared about Our Lady of Kibeho.

The story of Our Lady of Kibeho began when the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared in Kibeho, Rwanda. 

The first Apparition occurred on November 28 1981 and then subsequently on January 12, 1982, and March 2, 1982 up until the last one on 28 November 1989.  

The Apparitions occurred in the town of Kibeho which is a small village located in the south-western part of Rwanda, in the administrative district of Nyaruguru.  Today, Kibeho is best known as a place of apparitions and pilgrimages and a chapel was built on the location of the Apparitions as the Blessed Virgin had requested and today it is a shrine dedicated to “Our Lady of Sorrows”

The first apparition of Mary was on November 28, 1981, when Alphonsine Mumureke, a young student of the Kibeho High School, saw a lady of incomparable beauty who presented herself under the name of “Nyina Wa Jambo,” which means “Mother of the Word.” Alphonsine immediately recognized her as the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of Our Saviour Jesus. The phenomenon occurred subsequently and several times in succession, at long or short intervals.

At the beginning, Alphonsine was viewed as a mad girl, or an unhappy girl possessed by evil but after a few months, marked by unbelief and derision, two new alleged seers appeared in the high school, one after the other, and in close proximity to Alphonsine notably Anathalie Mukamazimpaka on January 12, 1982, and Marie Claire Mukangango on March 2, 1982.

The reported apparitions began on November 28, 1981 at a time of increasing tension between the Tutsi and Hutu groups.   They occurred at Kibeho College, a secondary school for girls, and included an apocalyptic vision of Rwanda descending into violence and hatred which many believe foretold the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

Several times in the 1980s, the Virgin Mary was said to have appeared to three young women and the teenaged seers reported that the Virgin asked everyone to pray to prevent a terrible war. In the vision of August 19, 1982, they all reported seeing violence, dismembered corpses, and destruction.

The Blessed Mother presented herself to Alphonsine as the “Mother of the Word” and told her that the world is on the brink of disaster and that we must meditate on the sufferings of Our Lord Jesus and on the profound sorrow of His Mother to receive the grace of repentance.

The Virgin Mary taught Marie-Claire the Chaplet of the Seven Sorrows and entrusted her with the task of spreading it.  The way to recite the chaplet is to pray 5 Our Fathers, 7 Hail Marys and the Prayer: “Most Merciful Mother keep always present in our hearts the Sorrows of Jesus in His Passion.”

The Virgin spoke often to Anathalie of the value of suffering in Christian life especially if was offered to God for the salvation of sinners.  “You must pray intensely for the world and the souls in Purgatory and receive sufferings for which you will pray.   Pray for people to change, pray that sinners may return to God.”  The message was an urgent appeal to repentance, conversion and prayer without which one would fall into the abyss of sin.

Only Alphonsine continued to have visions on November 28 every year until 1989 when the Virgin encouraged her children to pray and follow the Gospel of Jesus and put it into practice and in doing this bring about one’s salvation. 

The visions included an apocalyptic vision of Rwanda descending into violence and hatred which many regarded as an ominous foreshadowing of the 1994 Rwandan genocide and particularly the second Kibeho massacre in 1995. The school where the visions occurred became a place of slaughter during the genocide, as dozens of children were shot and hacked to death by Hutu terrorists. The visionaries had either managed to flee the violence or were among the casualties.  800,000 died including one of the visionaries, Marie-Claire. 

The blessed Mother wished to give humanity the help and the means not to fall into the abyss created by sin, renouncing evil and changing our lives always keeping in mind Jesus’ suffering on the cross and its importance in our lives as Christians and in the Church.  Our Lady’s message was to pray the rosary and spread the rosary and help bring peace and commitment back into our lives.

Pope John Paul II, during his visit to Rwanda, encouraged the faithful to turn to the Virgin as “a simple and sure guide” to conversion and acceptance of the sorrow all face in life. He asked for prayer and greater commitment against local political and ethnic divisions.