NAIROBI, Kenya – Consolata Missionaries sisters working in Kenya are thrilled to have one of their own recognised by Pope Benedict XVI for her heroic virtues.

The Servant of God Sr Irena Stefani, was among those recognised by Pope Benedict XVI for her heroic virtues when he met with the Prefect of the Congregation for Saints' Causes, and approved advancement of 35 causes.

Sr Emilia Paris, Secretary of the Consolata Missionary Sisters in Kenya said, 'We are very happy to have a Consolata sister recognised. We feel very blessed.'

Sr Stefani was born at Anfo in the province of Brescia on 22 August 1891. She was one of the first young women to enter the congregation of the Consolata Missionary Sisters founded by Blessed Joseph Allamano.

She made her religious profession on 29 January 1914 and in the following year she was sent to Kenya. There she joined the other sisters and fathers who had been called to assist the wounded and the sick in the hospitals and in the camps in Kenya and Tanzania during World War I.

After the war she did missionary work for ten years in the Gikondi Catholic Mission in Nyeri central Kenya, where she so generously dedicated herself to people that the Kikuyu nicknamed her Nyaatha (contraction of Nyina wa tha, 'the merciful mother').

On 31 October 1930 she died at Gikondi of bubonic plague she contracted while visiting and giving medicine to the people affected by the disease.