A Jaguar Attack, a Kenyan Nun, and the Miracle that Led to Canonization of Consolata Missionaries’ Founder, Allamano

All the tribe wanted was for their kin to die peacefully, and to “join the spirits,” Sr. Felicita recalled, adding that with a fractured skull, and a huge chunk of the brain ripped off, they saw no chance for Sorino’s survival.

The attack found the Kenyan-born MC member alone at the mission dispensary as other missionaries serving the Brazilian indigenous community had gone to the regional capital Boa Vista, a distance of 350 kilometers. 

Credit: Archdiocese of Nairobi (ADN)

“I remember it was at around 9 a.m. when I saw Sorino’s brother-in-law come running to the dispensary. He told me, ‘Sister, could you kindly give me a gun or a Pistol.’ I said I didn't have any of those things,” Sr. Felicita recounted in her address at the event November 9 Thanksgiving Mass.  

Curious to find out what Sorino’s brother-in-law wanted to do with the firearms, Sr. Felicita ran after him to his home and found a man lying on the ground, covered in blood.

“I was trembling as I washed the man. I had realized that a large part of his head, including the skin, the skull and the ear was missing. A part of his brain was also on the ground. I summoned courage, washed the brain and placed it little by little back to the skull. I also put the detached part of the skull and the skin black to its place. But he continued to bleed profusely,” the MC member narrated, adding that she used her blouse to wrap the head of the injured man.

Credit: Archdiocese of Nairobi (ADN)

Meanwhile, a Toyota car came and Sorino, the injured man, was rushed to the mission dispensary, where first aid was done on him as Sr. Felicita called for flying doctors from Boa Vista.

The plane took five hours to land. 

Meanwhile, Sorino’s family had arrived at the dispensary, accompanied by their traditional healers, who also served as their priests. 

They started performing their rituals, including singing and summoning spirits, Sr. Felicita recalled, and added, “They said that the spirits had promised to take Sorino’s spirit by 2 p.m. that day.”

Credit: Archdiocese of Nairobi (ADN)

At the time that Sorino was supposed to die, according to the traditional priests and community leaders, the plane came. But there was resistance from the community leaders, who insisted that Sorino be allowed to die peacefully with his people.

On insisting that Sorino be taken to hospital, the Yanomami pointed their arrows at Sr. Felicita, threatening to kill her. Meanwhile, Sorino, who had regained some strength after the first aid, begged the Kenyan Nun to save his life. 

Sr. Felicita recalls defying the men’s warning, saying, “I was a young sister and so, I carried Sorino on my shoulder and took him to the plane which took off to a hospital in Boa Vista”

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Credit: Seed Consolata

Alarmed by the sound of the plane that was taking off, the Yanomami approached the MC member and said, “What have you done Sister Felicita? You have made such a big mistake since we will no longer have peace here. The spirits were already coming to take Sorino. But you have interrupted their plans. Now, Sorino’s soul will leave him while he is on the plane, or in a town far away from his people. His soul will not find its way to the spirits, and he will come back to the village and start disturbing us. Women and children will die; his soul will never find rest.”

Credit: Archdiocese of Nairobi (ADN)

They locked Sr. Felicita in a room, promising to kill her the moment Sorino died.

“I was so scared,” Sr. Felicita said, and continued, “I prayed crying, and in my head, I saw the image of Allamano in our chapel.”

Fortunately for Sr. Felicita, and for Sorino who needed divine healing, it was the first day of the novena to Joseph Allamano.

Credit: Christ Our Joy

“I told Father Allamano, ‘Today is the first Day of your novena. You have always accompanied your missionaries, and I know that today, you are here. Please, how can I work with these people who are so difficult?’” Sr. Felicita recalled.

“When I said those words, I felt a strong presence in the room and I knew Allamano was there with me. I said, ‘Father, you have come now. I ask you to help heal this man because you see the difficulties I have caused this community. I pray for complete healing so that Sorino comes back a normal person to return to the forest where he will continue hunting and fishing. If not total healing, then let him die and I will face with courage the arrows that await me outside this room,” Sr. Felicita recounted her plea to St. Allamano that led to the healing of Sorino. 

Credit: Christ Our Joy

While Sorino was being treated in the ICU, MC and IMC members in the Brazilian mission waited with the man’s wife, praying with a relic of Blessed Allamano for his intercession. 

Ten days after his operation, Sorino woke up without any neurological damage and suffered no long-term consequences of the attack, Sr. Felicita said in her testimony during the November 9 Thanksgiving Mass.

“Sorino was attacked 28 years ago. But today, he is a normal person,” the MC member, who currently animates vocations based at Rufano Parish of the Catholic Diocese of Ugento-Santa Maria Di Leuca in Southern Italy said.

Credit: Archdiocese of Nairobi (ADN)

Encouraging those who participated in the November 9 Eucharistic celebration at the UoN Grounds never to give up in prayers, the Kenyan MC member said, “God is here with us. Jesus is here with us. Our saints are here with us. Joseph Allamano is here. They are all present whenever we pray. We only need faith.”

Blessed Joseph Allamano was canonized on October 20 alongside 13 others, including Mother Elena Guerra (1835–1914); Mother Marie-Léonie Paradis (1840–1912); and 11 Martyrs of Damascus in Syria (m. 1860). 

Credit: Seed Consolata

The founder of IMC and MC, has been described as “a Diocesan Priest with a passion for the missionary work of the Church.”

The Apostolic Nuncio in Kenya has described the November 9 Thanksgiving Mass in honour of MC and IMC founder, who remained a Diocesan Priest in Italy’s Catholic Archdiocese of Turin his entire life,  as a great day for the Church in Kenya.

Archbishop Hubertus van Megen. Credit: Archdiocese of Nairobi (ADN)

In his homily, Archbishop Hubertus van Megen said that although St. Allamano did not come from Kenya, without him, “the Church in Kenya would not be where it is today.”

“Maybe Kenya as a country, in terms of development, would not be where it is today,” the representative of the Holy Father in Kenya since February 2019 said, recalling the significance of the Italian saint, who sent the first four missionaries of IMC to Kenya in 1902, a year after he founded the Institute at Consolata Shrine in Italy.