Sr. Leonella - 2006 (Sept. 17)

In the last post, I wrote about St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr. This post, we'll be skipping forward to very nearly the latest Christian martyr! She's not on my Get Holy or Die Tryin' t-shirt. She was still alive when it was made! In fact, Sr. Leonella only joined the ranks of martyrs a short three weeks ago, though she seemed to expect it for many years.

Thirty-eight years ago, Sister Leonella decided to consecrate her life to God, and become a nun. She made her perpetual vows and joined the Order of the Sisters of Consolation, and went to Kenya to work in a hospital among the poor and suffering just outside of Kenya's capital, Nairobi. Her infectious enthusiasm and love for her patients and all she met earned her great love and respect in her community. After working there for many years, her fellow sisters even elected her to Regional Superior at the hospital, which she did for 6 years! While she was in that position, she trained new sisters for the work of loving and caring for the poor, and trained them to be nurses in the hospital. During this time, she was able to get the World Heath Organisation to recognise the sisters in her order as validly certified nurses!

After 6 years, in 2001 she took a sabbatical, and travelled to Mogadishu, Somalia, to investigate starting a hospital there through the SOS Village organisation. Her vision became a reality the next year, and she was also in charge of the nursing school there.

In going to Somalia, ravaged by civil war for over 15 years, and still now in a state of uneasy peace and civil unrest, with an Al-Qaida cell vying for political power, Sr. Leonella knew the risks she faced as a Catholic nun. She would often joke, even back in Kenya, that one day there would be a bullet with her name on it. But the risk didn't deter her. Neither did her often poor health or the struggles with governments and bureaucracies. Through it all, she continued to work for and to love the people of Africa. But she wasn't naively unaware of the risks, either. One of her sisters had been kidnapped in the previous year. She was found and her kidnapper sentenced to one year, but this and other attacks and threats to their lives prompted Sr. Leonella to hire a bodyguard to protect her.

On September 17th, 2006, after making the rounds of the hospital she helped begin in Mogadishu, she and her bodyguard were crossing the street 30 feet to her home, where five of her sisters were waiting to have lunch. As she and her bodyguard crossed the street, three gunmen, lying in wait, shot her, killing her and her bodyguard execution-style. When her sisters heard the shots, they ran out of the home to see what was going on. As the gunmen fled, the sisters carried Sr. Leonella and her bodyguard back into the hospital, but it was too late. As Sr. Leonella lay dying, she kept repeating "Pardono, pardono, pardono..." which is Italian for "Forgive, forgive, forgive..." Just like St. Stephen, Sr. Leonella prayed to forgive her enemies, and, at the same time, instructed her fellow sisters, and everyone else around, that they must forgive her killers, too, and not become bitter and hateful.

At her funeral, the Bishop remarked on her life and on her love. He also remarked on the circumstances of her death, and her dying with her bodyguard. He said that if a man and a woman could die together; a black man and a white woman; a Muslim man and a Catholic nun, could die together, then it was a sign of hope that we could live together, in peace.

That's the vision that Sr. Leonella had for Somalia. And through her love, she lived out that vision daily. Pope Benedict XVI echoed Tertullian, when he expressed his prayer that "the blood shed by so faithful a disciple of the Gospel may become a seed of hope to construct authentic brotherhood among peoples."

Many in the news speculated that Sr. Leonella was murdered as a reaction to the Pope's remarks made in a lecture last month about how violence is incompatible with the nature of God, and cited Islam as an example of spreading the faith by the sword. It prompted many protests from Muslims throughout the world, but in Sr. Leonella's case, let's remember again, that she'd already been threatened, and a fellow sister had even been kidnapped, before the Pope had ever made his speech. She didn't have a bodyguard for nothing!

Let us remember Sr. Leonella's legacy of love and forgiveness, and her inspiring courage in the face of many tremendous obstacles! Let us be full of courage in our own lives, as we reach out to help others with the love of God.

Amen.