WESTERLY — New York Times best-selling author Immaculée Ilibagiza credits her survival to prayer and a set of rosary beads given to her by her father.
Ilibagiza, who spent 91 days hidden in a small room in a local pastor’s house during the 1994 Rwandan genocide, will tell her story to local audiences and sign copies of her new book, “Led By Faith: Rising from the Ashes of the Rwandan Genocide,” on Friday, Oct. 24, at St. Pius X Church in Westerly.
Ilibagiza will speak about the powerful lessons of forgiveness and transformation she learned after surviving her experience living in a cramped bathroom with seven other women.
When she entered her hiding place, she was a lively, 115-pound university student with a loving family. She emerged weighing 65 pounds. While she was in hiding, her family — with the exception of one brother who was out of the country — had been brutally murdered.
Ilibagiza credits her survival mostly to prayer and to a set of rosary beads given to her by her father, a devout Catholic, prior to going into hiding. Anger and resentment about her situation were literally eating her alive and destroying her faith, but rather than succumbing to the rage that she felt, she instead turned to prayer. She began to pray the rosary as a way of drowning out the negativity that was building up inside her, and eventually found it possible, and in fact imperative, to forgive her tormentors and her family’s murderers.
Her first book, “Left to Tell; Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust” was released in March of 2006, and quickly became a New York Times bestseller.
To date it has been translated into 15 languages worldwide. She has appeared in numerous media including 60 Minutes, CNN, EWTN, The Aljazeera Network, The New York Times, USA Today, Newsday, and many other domestic and international outlets.
She has received honorary doctoral degrees from The University of Notre Dame, Saint John’s University, Seton Hall, The University of St. Thomas, and Siena College. She has also been recognized and honored with numerous humanitarian awards. “Left to Tell” has been adopted into the curriculum of dozens of high schools and universities.
Today Immaculée is regarded as one of the world’s leading speakers on peace, faith, and forgiveness. She has shared her universal message with world dignitaries, school children, multinational corporations, churches, and at many conferences.
She works hard to spread her message and to raise money for her Left to Tell Charitable Fund which directly benefits the children orphaned by the genocide. To learn more about Immaculée, visit her website at: www.immaculee.com.
Her Westerly talk is scheduled for Friday, Oct. 24 at 7 p.m. at St. Pius X Church, 44 Elm St., Westerly. Tickets must be purchased by Oct 17.
For more information, visit http://www.faithled.com.
