Customer Reviews

Our Lady of Kibeho: Mary Speaks to the World from the Heart of Africa

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Our Lady of Kibeho is a well-written account of the visionaries of Kibeho and their apparitions. This book relates the stories of eight visionaries who the Blessed Mother and/or Jesus appeared to. Our Lady of Kibeho is the first and only Vatican-approved Marian site in all of Africa. To date the Church has authenticated the visions of three of these eight visionaries, Alphonsine, Anathalie, and Marie-Claire. While thousands of people witnessed the apparitions of the other five, at this time the Church has not investigated these.

Most of the apparitions were beautiful and peaceful. They describe the Blessed Mother as bathed in soft light, wearing a dress that must have been made by angels. Her skin shines like polished ivory, but it isn't white or black. There simply are not words to describe her beauty. There were other apparitions, however, of rivers of blood, destruction, torture and tree exploding into flames. The Blessed Mother was warning the people of the horror that awaited Rwanda.

Three of the visionaries experienced mystical journeys through time and space in which they were given glimpses of heaven and hell. These accounts are very special to read.

Included in this book are prayers and instructions for saying the Rosary of the Seven Sorrows, which the Blessed Mother taught to Marie-Claire and asked her to reintroduce to the world.

If you have read Immaculee Ilibagiza's other books, you won't want to miss this one. I highly recommend this book to all Catholics, especially those devoted to Mary.

Our Lady of Kibeho is a fantastic book! Immaculee Ilibagiza tells the story of the only Vatican approved apparitions on the continent of Africa. The style of this book is very similar to Immaculee's first two books, Left to Tell and Led by Faith. She give a very personal account of how the apparitions in Kibeho shaped her faith.

Immaculee draws on personal interviews with some of the surviving visionaries and members of the medical and theological Vatican commisions. She also tells her own personal witness from her times assisting during the apparitions.

I've read a number of books on apparitions but none as personal and inspiring as Our Lady of Kibeho. I highly recommend this to Catholics, Christians, and anyone who is open minded enough to say, "If Mary and/or Jesus is truly appearing on this earth, what are they saying. Why is it relevant to me?"

I purchased three copies of this book and my family took them all from me at Christmas and are asking for more copies. This book brought me closer to our Mother Mary. I read a lot of religious books and found this one to open my heart and speek to me in my need to pray and live a more devout life. It brought faith closer to home. I LOVE this book and would recommend it highly. It is an easy read.

Anyone of the millions of readers of Immaculee Ilibagiza's New York Times bestselling book, "Left to Tell" in which she relates the terrifying ordeal she endured, hiding in a tiny bathroom with 7 women, while the Rwandan genocide raged outside, is left with a burning question; where did she find the strength to endure those 90 days of torment? Her latest book, Our Lady of Kibeho is Immaculee's answer to that question, as well as a personal account of the only Church-approved Marian apparition in Africa.

No one who knew Immaculee as little girl would have predicted her role in the genocide and its aftermath: Immaculee had an idyllic Catholic childhood. Raised in a picturesque village in the mountains of Rwanda, her devout parents, Rose and Leonard were teachers, and were widely respected. Immaculee's earliest memory is of being rocked in her mother's arms as she prayed the rosary. The young Immaculee lived a holy life of prayer, study and innocent play until at age 11, when she was confronted by a crisis of faith. Not wanting to burden her loving family with her questions, Immaculee suffered silently until the day her doubts were put to rest forever, when her teacher told her the story of Our Lady of Fatima.
The story of three shepherd children from Portugal visited by the Queen of Heaven captivated Immaculee's imagination, and she convinced her friend Jeanette and her brother Fabrice to climb a local hilltop each day to tend their goats, where they prayed fervently for Our Lady to appear to them. Eventually the children grew discouraged and gave up their efforts, and were thrilled to hear, not a week later that Our Lady did appear to a young woman in Rwanda, in a convent school in a remote town named Kibeho.
The story of the apparitions of Our Lady at Kibeho has familiar elements to Catholics familiar with the stories of Lourdes and Fatima; simple children who receive the message, and are mocked at first by skeptical friends and authorities. Our Lady asks for increased prayer, conversion of hearts, and for a chapel to be built. But no other apparition gives such vivid detail of future tragedies to occur if the people do not repent. The prayerfully singing, rapturous crowd was abruptly silenced as the visionaries shrieked in horror at the visions of thousands of bodies hacked to death and rivers flowing with human blood revealed to them by a tearful Mother. All this is powerfully related to Immaculee by the tape recorder of her pastor, Fr. Rwagema.
The lives of Rwandans were deeply affected by the apparitions, with thousands of pilgrims, including Immaculee's father Leonard, traveling for weeks on foot, sleeping outdoors with little food or water in order to pray, sing and learn from Alphonsine, Anathalie, Marie-Clare, and the other visionaries. A chapel of Our Lady was built and thousands learned to pray a special rosary commemorating the Seven Sorrows of Our Lady. Immaculee describes how, although she was not able to travel to Kibeho until after the genocide, the visit of Our Lady steeled her for what lay ahead,
"Mary knew who her son was, and from his earliest days was aware of the pain that awaited him(and her). Yet through all those years, she supported him with the love of a mother, standing by him while he was whipped, beaten and crucified And she was there for him when he drew his last breath. I realized that Our Lady, whose soft and gentle voice enthralled the visionaries, has rock-solid strength. It was the rock upon which I would build my faith in God, the strength that would sustain me through whatever sorrows life held in store for me." P 97

Immaculee didn't realize until days before the genocide destroyed her village and wiped out most of her family that she and her people were being prepared for unimaginable suffering. In this she joins the exalted company of the saints, who though close friends of Our Lord, suffered the darkness of man's inhumanity to man and entered into the Passion of Christ.

I picked this up from the library and read it in one night and want to share it with others. It's message is simple: Mary Loves us personally and wants to bring us to her Son. We can draw closer through reconciliation and prayer - especially the Rosary of the Seven Sorrows. In a society in which people are frequently isolated, it is refreshing to read of African family customs, prayer and communal pilgrimages. It is marvelous to hear that thousands dropped everything and turned out to hear a visionary. Hopefully the developed nations can learn the importance of family and faith from its 'undeveloped' neighbors. This Vatican approved apparition deserves wider attention.

I found this book to be engaging and well-written and it is certainly based on a fascinating topic. I have concerns, however, about Hay House as the publisher (and presumably it was Hay House that selected Steve Erwin to assist Ms. Ilibagiza in writing this book). Hay House is well-known as a publisher of many New Age titles, such as Louise Hay's kooky affirmation books and Wayne Dyer's brand of self-help clap-trap. English is Immaculée Ilibagiza's third language and I have to wonder how much of a hand Hay House had in molding the content of this book. I had the same concerns about Hay House publishing Ilibagiza's first book (Left To Tell), in which she waxes poetic about the power of positive visualization (a common Hay House theme). Ms. Ilibagiza mentions that Our Lady of Kibeho warned the visionaries of what turned out to be the Rwandan genocide, but does not elaborate upon what the visionaries were told must be done to avert this tragedy. Our Lady of Fatima laid out very specific recommendations to the Fatima visionaries in order to avoid a second world war (daily rosary for the faithful, repentance from sin, penance and sacrifice for the conversion of sinners, etc.) but this book does not mention any specifics along these lines. It makes me wonder whether or not the specifics were not politically correct enough to pass muster with Hay House. We as Catholics have a right to this information! I would second what other reviewers have said -- this topic merits serious treatment by a _Catholic_ publisher.

Immaculee is amazing, I'm so grateful that she was able to tell the story of Kibeho. There is evidence of God's involvement in our lives everywhere, hopefully this book can change the minds of some non-believers.

I bought and read this book in one day. I had known about our Lady of Kibeho both before and after the genocide, but this book gave a good introduction, with nice color photos of the visionaries. As a Catholic, I am inspired by the faith of the Rwandan people. They are poor but we (i.e. America) are rich. But is that correct to say? Indeed, to me, it seemed that we were the poor ones. We have TV, movies, I-pods, and noise; they have the Rosary of Our Lady of Sorrows. They have "Igitaramo", where the family spends time together after dinner. They are people drawn to God. I will now give my book away to a friend and purchase the first two books which Immaculée Ilibagiza wrote. I am drawn to her writing and her spirituality. Anyone who reads this book with an open heart and mind will be entranced by our Blessed Mother, who loves us so much as if we were alone on this Earth.
In the Love of Jesus in Mary's Womb
Joe Cunningham

I could not put this book down. Very powerful. Bought several copies to share. A must read for me.

This is a book which you will want to pass on to all your friends, whether or not they are Catholics. It is written from the heart in a very simple style, which adds to its poignancy. The books includes some interesting photos of the young villagers and school children who actually had the visions from the Virgin Mary, few of whom unfortunately survived the bloodshed which took place 5 years later. I was very moved and occasionally say the novena (the Seven Sorrows) of which there is a nice explanation and commentary.