The Abdella Center for Ethics at Saint John's High School presents:
Immaculée Ilibagiza
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
6:30 p.m.
Coaches Pavilion
Saint John's High School
Register today!
Rwandan genocide survivor and humanitarian Immaculée Ilibagiza’s powerful story of survival, faith, and forgiveness began while she escaped almost certain death during the Rwandan genocide of 1994.
Immaculée was trapped for 91 days as members of the Hutu tribe slaughtered a million Tutsis, including her own family, in just three months. While in hiding with seven fellow Tutsi women, Immaculée’s prayers on the rosary her father left with her forced her to confront the question of revenge versus forgiveness. It was that turning point towards God and away from hate that saved Immaculée.
In addition to finding faith, peace, and hope during those three months of hiding, Immaculée also taught herself English. Immaculée was always a good student and already fluent in Kinyarwanda and French. Using only a Bible and a dictionary, she spent countless hours in hiding learning her third language.
Since her daring escape, Immaculée’s message of love, faith, and forgiveness in the face of hate and destruction has been shared around the world. After the genocide, Immaculée came face-to-face with the man who killed her mother and one of her brothers. After enduring months of physical, mental and spiritual suffering, Immaculée was still able to offer the unthinkable, telling the man, “I forgive you.”
In 1998, Immaculée emigrated from Rwanda to the United States where she continued her work for peace through the United Nations.
Immaculée’s first book, Left to Tell; Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust, released in 2006. quickly became a New York Times Best Seller. To date, it has been translated into seventeen languages and has sold over one million copies.
Immaculée’s story has also been made into a documentary:The Diary of Immaculée. She has appeared on 60 Minutes, The CBS Early Show, CNN, EWTN, CBS Evening News,The Aljazeera Network and in The New York Times, USA Today, and many other domestic and international media outlets. She was recently featured in Michael Collopy’s Architects of Peace project, which has honored legendary people like Mother Teresa, Jimmy Carter, Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama.
She has been recognized and honored with numerous humanitarian awards including The Mahatma Gandhi International Award for Reconciliation and Peace and the American Legacy’s Women of Strength & Courage Award.
Immaculée has written six additional books in recent years - Led by Faith: Rising from the Ashes of the Rwandan Genocide, Our Lady of Kibeho, If Only We Had Listened, Visit from Heaven, The Boy Who Met Jesus, and The Rosary (August 2013).
Today, Immaculée is regarded as one of world’s leading speakers on faith, hope and forgiveness. She has shared this universal message with world leaders, school children, multinational corporations, churches, and at events and conferences around the world, including a recent presentation to over 200,000 people in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Visit immaculee.com to learn more about Immaculée's amazing story.
Admission is free, but registration is requested by April 25, 2014. Register online, or email abdellacenter@stjohnshigh.org.
The Abdella Center for Ethics was established at Saint John's High School in 2003 by the Hon. Charles A. Abdella '60. The purpose of this annual lecture series is to encourage, promote and create a meaningful dialogue that appreciates the importance of individual ethical values in society, and provide a forum for the discussion, education and debate of ethical, philosophical and religious values in advancing social justice.
