As an Association, we decided to support Sister Barbara d’Osasco in the Congo, and thinking back a bit to Gilda’s story, it seems to us almost that reality that gathers the essence of what was also her will: the mission ad gentem. When we think of the Monastery of Notre Dame de Mvanda we are reminded of the will to support Gilda with the prayerful and continuous prayer of the Trappist consecrated women. And within this prayer we see every person who prayed for Gilda and allowed us to see beyond, to look with our eyes pointed upward.

A Monastery is like a tree whose vital element is invisible to the eyes.

The tree lives by roots deeply immersed in nourishing soil and in an invisible and silent way produces what is most precious to human beings: oxygen! And so it is with every contemplative monastery. It takes its substance from a life rooted in the Word meditated, celebrated and lived. The Word is a nourishing soil. It silently spreads, almost without having desired it, what human creatures need today like oxygen: the loving Presence of the Triune God.

The small Mvanda tree (of the Cistercian Order of the Strict Observance, better known as Trappists) was planted on Kikoti Hill in Kikwit, Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire) in 1991 at the request of the bishop of Kikwit, Mgr Eduard-Marie Mununu Kasiala, also a Trappist.

The group of founding sisters came from the Étoile Notre-Dame Cistercian Monastery in Parakou, Benin. At this time, the hill was not inhabited. After the Trappist sisters arrived, along the years, other religious communities established themselves around the Monastery, in the shadow of this tree that looked vigorous but still had to sink its roots into the soil before its branches grew. After courageous but difficult beginnings, as experienced in every foundation, a group of Italian sisters came to strengthen the present group during the Jubilee Year of 2000.

It is the Monastery of Vitorchiano, Italy, that answered the call during the General Chapter of the Cistercian Order of Strict Observance. Along these years, a synergy has developed between the nuns and the hillside population. Certain people found jobs at the monastery, which then provided water sources for the villagers and opened a road to the hill. However, it is a characteristic of monastic foundations in places of great poverty to become not only places of prayer, but also at the same time places of agricultural and industrial development. As of 2005, a large construction site opened.

It is about the construction of the Monastery: buildings to house the Community, a cloister and a Church that will mark an important milestone for the rooting of the Cistercian charism in the heart of the Community and, at the same time, for the people outside, because it is true that we form places, but it is all the more true that it is the places that form us! This is undoubtedly all the more true with regard to Cistercian monastic life. The building site will last about 5 years, providing the opportunity for a large number of people to find work, and of course, the dignity of earning one’s living and having reasons for which to get up in the morning! On February 11, 2010, Mgr Mununu, our bishop, could finally consecrate the Monastic church dedicated to Mary Gate of Heaven. A few days later, the Monastery will be erected into a Priory of the Cistercian Order of Strict Observance and the election of the Community’s first titular Prioress will be held.

As we can imagine, there is still a great deal of work to be done in this worksite of formation, particularly in Congo and Africa in general, but we can say that in the shadow of the Mvanda tree, God’s children love to come and learn … and humbly persevere in following Christ.

Extrapolated from the writing to Mvanda by Sr. Anna Chiara Meli, Prioress of the Community

The work of the community consists of the farm, manufacture of wafers, soap, candles, production of jams and a small workshop of pharmaceutical ointments.

Don’t worry whatever happens because that’s the way it has to be

Letter from Sister Barbara on June 1, 2024

Paola and Pasquale dearest, I repeat my and our emotion for the “doing” that Gilda asks of you and which you obey as those who live a received and unquestionable mission. Gilda is generating us all! Do you realize the fruitfulness of this short life and the mark it has left? Yes, I know you are aware of it and very proud of it, and the gratitude of the rest of us grows by leaps and bounds! Thank you, thank you very much and congratulations! A few days ago I was able to approach young Joseph, and talked to him for a few minutes. Mother has totally taken him on, and is supporting him like a son. Now, it is you who are doing it! And we have so much to thank your friends.

I don’t know if I had thanked you for the gift of Maria’s sewing machine. I never saw it, because I left, but I know that it had been purchased, and I don’t doubt that it is vital for her to be able to continue the cutting and sewing school. We also thank your friends for this, also counting on their perseverance, because…. high school lasts 5 years, hopefully…!

To Gilda we owe much. But much we also still want to ask. An hour ago, one of the 6 aspirants, received the news of the death of a cousin who, giving birth to her seventh child, who knows in which village dispensary, certainly without blood and without C-section equipment, died. Not even a week after her father. She grieves. She would like to be close to her parents, but she understands that if the monastery wants to help the family, it is with money from a journey as long as hers that it can do so… So stay in the monastery with this pain in your heart. He knows that prayer matters more. But it costs them! So we ask Gilda to watch over this poor, very poor family facing a difficult future.

I’ll stop now, but we have many more intentions and we already tell Gilda, you know! We well understood that you, up there, …. keep “doing”!!!! Give you a big hug.

Barbara