FROM THE PLACE OF HORROR TO THE PLACE OF PRAYER FOR MERCY AND PEACE
Fr. Louis Birabaluge, SX
In Burundi, the Xaverian sisters and missionaries have transformed a place of horror into a place of prayer for mercy and peace. It is the house where three Xaverian sisters, of Italian origin, had been murdered. On Sunday September 7, 2014, the bodies of the sisters Olga Raschietti and Lucia Pulici were found lifeless in their house. Then, on the night of 08, it was sister Bernadetta Boggian who was beheaded. It is this house of horror which has been nicknamed in Kirundi: “Agasengero k’ikigongwe n’amahoro” – ” The house of prayer for mercy and peace “. Today it is frequented by people who come for rest and prayer.
Having become a place of meditation, this house does not hide the scars of the drama that took place there in September 2014. As part of our continental meeting of the Center for African Studies which took place in Bujumbura, from 02 to 07 February 2020, we had the chance to gather there. A Xaverian missionary, witness to this honor, took the time to tell us, not without emotion, the story of the martyrdom of the Xaverian sisters.
According to him, that afternoon of sad memory, everything had happened as in an horror film. In fact, the first two sisters had their throats slit and struck with a stone on the head; as if their executioners were determined to make them suffer the worst of torments. Sister Bernadetta Boggian, who had accompanied the bodies of her sisters in the morgue, in turn was beheaded the next evening. So in less than 24 hours, the very busy Kamenge District where the sisters lived peacefully, had just suffered a shock from a crime of which neither the perpetrators nor the causes are known today.
In a country troubled by political unrest, one might quickly think that this crime had a political motivation. These are only indignant rumors that circulate from mouth to ear without evidence, in the words of Mgr Evariste Ngoyagoye, then Archbishop of Bujumbura at the time of the drama. However, a unanimous and unequivocal observation exists, continues the prelate: “The three sisters harbored a great love for God and for the inhabitants of this District of Kamenge in the midst of which they had lived for years” [1] .
On the basis of this testimony and so many others, it appears that the assassination of these three good nuns remains incomprehensible. It is a real horror in front of which one remains without words. We cannot understand that nuns who remained in solidarity with the Burundian people during all their years of crisis could end up being tortured and murdered like thugs. And yet, they were simple innocents serving the Lord in Burundi.
The account of their murder makes one believe that by tearing them from life, evil had triumphed. Far from it. The Christian faith traces another perspective. It shines a small light of hope even where the darkness of the evil reigns. Christ is our victor! By his death, he destroyed death. His resurrection is our victory. This cry has accompanied generations of Christians in the face of danger and especially in the face of torture and martyrdom. And it is this same conviction that seems to have guided the Xaverian sisters and missionaries working in Burundi when it came to deciding what to do with this house with sad memories.
In fact, after the assassination of the sisters, it was necessary to choose between despair and hope, between a spirit of revenge and that of mercy. Ultimately, it was the spirit of hope and mercy that triumphed. Transforming a house of honor into a place of prayer for mercy and peace reflects this desire to go forward, to look to the future with the eyes of faith. It is to reaffirm that evil never has the last word. It is refusing to let oneself be paralyzed by fear. Thus, to hope for a change of heart of the executioners who had cowardly murdered the sisters, and the wish to see lasting peace come to Burundi, this beloved land which had become the second homeland of the sisters Olga, Lucia and Bernadette continues to be the place where the Xaverian missionaries live out their missionary service in Burundi.
[1] TERESINA CAFFI, Raschietti Olga, Pulici Lucia, Boggian Bernadetta: Go, give life! History, Words, Death of three Xaverian missionaries in Burundi , Preface by Mgr Evariste Ngoyagoye, Bujumbura, Imobu, 2017, p. 1. The original title in Italian is: Và, dona la vita! Storia, speech and dead di tre missionarie saveriane in Burundi , EMI, Bologna; 2016.
