Sister Nyaatha, the nun bringing the world to sleepy Nyeri village

Father Peter Githinji, the coordinator of the Sister Irene Stefani ''Nyaatha''Beatification [right], and a catholic faithful at Mathari Central Chapel Church,place decorations on 23 April 2015, where remains of Sister Irene Stefanie had been preserved since 1995 after exhumation was done at Mathari Cemetery where she was buried on 31 October 1930. [PHOTO/ KIBATA KIHU/STANDARD].

Had it not been for the untimely death of her mother that forced her to take care of her young siblings, life would have no doubt led young Aurelia Mercede Stefani to a different path.

But the caring, strong and dedicated woman of God, popularly known as Sister Irene ‘Nyaatha’ Stefani, decided to retreat to a sleepy village in Nyeri where residents had not even seen, let alone tasted, modern-day sausages.

Nyaatha was known to the residents of Gikondi village in Mukurweini for her huge hat, no doubt to protect her from the unforgiving African sun, and military boots which were recently excavated with her rosary and rings 65 years after she was buried.

Sister Irene was born in Anfo, Brescia Province of Italy on August 22, 1891, the fifth in a family of 11 children.

Besides raising her young siblings following the death of her mother, Nyaatha also actively helped with the religious education of the youth in her parish. When she turned 20, she decided to follow her missionary vocation and was one of the first young women to be enlisted in the congregation of the Consolata Missionary Sisters founded by the Blessed Joseph Allamano.

She made took her religious vows on January 29, 1914 and was sent to Kenya the following year.

“While in Kenya, she joined other sisters and priests who had been called to assist the wounded and the sick in hospitals and camps in Kenya and Tanzania during World War I. After the war, Nyaatha did missionary work for 10 years at Gikondi Catholic Mission, where she selflessly dedicated herself to the people who nicknamed her Nyaatha,” said Nyeri Catholic Diocese Archbishop Peter Kairo.

Merciful mother

The name ‘Nyaatha’ is a Kikuyu word for ‘one that has mercy’. It is a contraction of the words Nyina wa tha, which mean the merciful mother. Locals named her Nyaatha because of her enduring acts of mercy and compassion to the poor and sick at Gikondi in Mukurweini, Nyeri County.

Nyaatha became prominent after a bubonic plague outbreak hit the hilly region of Nyeri County. Having treated wounded soldiers during World War 1, it was obvious that she would dedicate her time visiting and caring for sick people.

“She spent most of her time visiting the sick and treating them. She did not discriminate against their faith or denomination,” said Fr Peter Githinji of the Nyeri Catholic Archdiocese.

Ironically, the nun contracted the plague that killed her from one of her fiercest critics, a man called Ngare. On October 31, 1930, Nyaatha died of bubonic plague in her bed in Gikondi. Ngare had succumbed to the disease a few days earlier but not before he had been baptised by the sister herself, locals recall.

As the day of her beatification edges closer, and she moves one step from being made a saint, a story is told on how her extraordinary way of life saved hundreds of war victims in a remote church in Mozambique.

Surrounded by a mob baying for her blood, hundreds of helpless people escaping the war, among them a pregnant woman whose labour pains had just begun, locked themselves inside a Catholic Church in the Nampepe region of Mozambique. But they were soon to run out of drinking water.

“They had no water to drink and were afraid they would dehydrate to death. But a priest told them about Sister Nyaatha and asked them to plead to her to intercede to God so they could get water. To their utter shock, the baptism font inside the church was miraculously filled with water for three days,” said Githinji.

The water was also used to offer the first bath to the newborn baby, who was named Irene after Sister Nyaatha.

A Consolata Missionaries Father, Joseph Gitonga, said Sr Nyaatha baptised more than 4,000 people in Nyeri, mostly at the time of their death.

Elderly residents of Gikondi fondly remember her. With a smile on his face, Mzee John Mbuthia Baiye recalls how the soft-spoken nun used to give him pork sausages in exchange for terere (amaranthus), a flowering plant that yields nutritious grain.

“I used to uproot fresh terere weeds and take them to Sister Irene so she could feed them to her pigs. She used to pay me two cents and pork sausages. They were so delicious. I wish she was still alive,” Mbuthia told The Standard on Sunday at his home yesterday.

At 95, Mbuthia’s memories of Nyaatha are still fresh. He even remembers the Latin songs Nyaatha taught him.

Humble servant

“When I was about six, I left Gikondi for Nairobi. I came back several years later after I fell ill. I had an inflammation on my neck and was surprised when Sister Octavia came to treat me. I was then told that Sister Nyaatha had passed on,” said Mbuthia.

Bishop Kairo says Nyaatha worked and helped anyone regardless of their faith. Gikondi Catholic parish, which was founded in 1901, is beaming with the pride of being the second home to the nun.

But the parishioners and villagers here are yet to comprehend how the humble servant of God has made their sleepy agricultural village world famous, even in her death. Hundreds of thousands of people from Kenya and elsewhere around the world are expected to attend the beatification ceremony.

A Consolata sister, Gian Paola Mina, has written Nyaatha’s biography titled Gli scarponi della Gloria, (Boots of Glory).

In Turin, the Consolata Sisters, who are promoting the cause of her beatification, have also established a Sister Irene Study Centre, which is publishing books about her life.