A Marian apparition is a reported supernatural appearance by Mary the mother of Jesus, or a series of related such appearances during a period of time.
Kibeho is a sector and small town in south Rwanda, which became known outside of that country because of reported apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ occurring between 1981 and 1989. It is also known for the Kibeho Massacre in April 1995, when several thousand internally displaced people were killed by the Rwandan Patriotic Army.
The Catholic Church in Rwanda is part of the worldwide Catholic Church.
Immaculée Ilibagiza is a Rwandan-American Catholic author and motivational speaker. Her first book, Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust (2006), is an autobiographical work detailing how she survived during the Rwandan genocide.
Veronica Lueken was a Roman Catholic housewife from Bayside, New York, who, between 1970 until her death in 1995, reported experiencing apparitions of the Virgin Mary, Jesus, and numerous Catholic saints.
A number of people have claimed to have had visions of Jesus Christ and personal conversations with him. Some people make similar claims regarding his mother, Mary. Discussions about the authenticity of these visions have often invited controversy. The Catholic Church endorses a fraction of these claims, and various visionaries it accepts have achieved beatification, or even sainthood.
Mary, the mother of Jesus in Christianity, is known by many different titles, epithets, invocations, and several names associated with places.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Gikongoro is a diocese located in the city of Gikongoro in the ecclesiastical province of Kigali in Rwanda. The diocese is home to the parish of Kibeho, where there were reported apparitions of the Virgin Mary throughout the 1980s. A shrine celebrating the apparitions of Our Lady of Kibeho now stands at the site and serves as a place of pilgrimage. The diocese also includes large Catholic parishes at Kaduha and Cyanika. Gikongoro was historically the poorest province in Rwanda. Gikongoro is now part of South Province.
Rosary-based prayers are Christian prayers recited on a set of rosary beads, among other cords. These prayers recite specific word sequences on the beads that make up the different sections. They may be directed to Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary or God the Father.
Christianity is the largest religion in Rwanda, with Protestantism and Catholicism being its main denominations. Around 3% of the population claims no religious affiliation, while another 3% practices other religions including traditional faiths. Approximately 2% of the populace is Muslim.
Mediatrix of all graces is a title that some in the Catholic Church give to the Blessed Virgin Mary; as the Mother of God, it includes the understanding that she mediates the Divine Grace. In addition to Mediatrix, other titles are given to her in the Church: Advocate, Helper, Benefactress. In a papal encyclical of 8 September 1894, Pope Leo XIII said: "The recourse we have to Mary in prayer follows upon the office she continuously fills by the side of the throne of God as Mediatrix of Divine grace."
Catholic Marian churches are religious buildings dedicated to the veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary. These churches were built throughout the history of the Catholic Church, and today they can be found on every continent including Antarctica. The history of Marian church architecture tells the unfolding story of the development of Catholic Mariology.
The Lady of All Nations is a Catholic Marian title sometimes associated with apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary to Ida Peerdeman of Amsterdam, Netherlands. Peerdeman claimed to have received 56 visions of the Lady from 1945 to 1959.
The Chaplet of the Seven Sorrows, also known as the Rosary of the Seven Sorrows or the Servite Rosary, is a Rosary based prayer that originated with the Servite Order. It is often said in connection with the Seven Dolours of Mary.
Augustin Misago was the Roman Catholic bishop of the Diocese of Gikongoro, Rwanda.
The Benebikira Sisters are a Roman Catholic religious institute of women founded in Rwanda in the early 1900s. Their Charisma is to evangelize by example. They do this by their diverse works of service, carried out with joy and love. Their mission is education, particularly for girls, care of the sick and the poor, especially women and children. Their spirituality is based on the Jesuit model of contemplation in action, seeing God in all things. However the expression of their Catholic faith and consecrated spirituality is formed by their Rwandan culture. The Benebikira are one with their people, sharing their Christian faith that calls them to be a people of hope and a voice for justice and love. Numbering almost 400 sisters, they have 55 communities located primarily in Rwanda but also in Burundi, Uganda, Congo, Kenya, and Rome. Their Kinyarwanda name means “Daughters of Mary” in English.
Our Lady of the Nile is a French-language novel by Rwanda-born writer Scholastique Mukasonga, originally published in 2012 by Éditions Gallimard. It is Mukasonga's fourth book and first novel. The English-language translation, published in the United States in 2014 by Archipelago Books, was done by Melanie Mauthner, a poet and writer from the United Kingdom.
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