Today, October 31, is the memorial of Blessed Irene Stefani.
Irene Stefani was born Aurelia Stefani in 1891, Brescia, Italy. In 1911, she joined the Consolata Missionary Sisters, founded by Blessed Joseph Allamano.
During World War 1, the Sisters worked in Kenya and Tanzania to take care of the wounded in the hospitals and in the camps. Blessed Joseph assigned Blessed Irene to Kenya, where she served as a nurse. She did her duties with so much love that the people highly regarded her. The people nicknamed her “Nyaatha,” which means “mother of mercy.”
Irene took on various assignments along the way and became Superior of the Consolata Missionary Sisters at Gikondi, Kenya for eight years.
In 1930, a bubonic plague broke out and Irene contracted a disease from one of her patients. Although she herself had lost weight and was physically weak, Irene chose to visit the sick. She died a few days later at the age of 39.
She was beatified in 2015 by Cardinal Polycarp Pengo in Nyeri, Kenya.