President of the Republic of Kenya William Ruto, with Italian Ambassador Roberto Natali and numerous religious and secular authorities from Africa and Italy, will also be present at the beatification ceremony of Italian Cottolengo nun Maria Carola Cecchin, who dedicated a good part of her life in the early 1900s for the poor people of the Mount Kenya regions in the Consolata missions where the sisters from Turin did their merciful work in the field. Maria Carola, whose beatification will be officiated by the Cardinal of Kigali, Antoine Kambanda, representing the Holy Father, this morning at 10 a.m. at Kinoru Stadium in Meru, a town at the foot of Mount Kenya, a region where Sister Maria Carola served, in various missions from 1905 to 1925 when she died while returning to Italy on a steamer due to poor health. For generations the memory of the cottolenghina nun's tireless work was passed from generation to generation not only among religious men and women, but among ordinary people. Until ten years ago a miracle occurred in her name, a baby born lifeless in the eyes of an obstetrician and a nun who, after invoking Sister Maria Carola's name and her intervention, saw the baby regain his breath. From there, the beatification process began and was successfully concluded last March.
Sister Maria Carola Cecchin is the third Italian nun beatified for the dedication expressed on Kenyan soil. Before her it was the turn of Sister Irene Stefani and Sister Leonella Sgorbati.