PADUA – Farewell to the Pope’s seamstress: mourning in the Congregation of the Dismissed Sisters. Sister Ida Lagonegro, 81 years old, a religious of the order founded in the second half of the 16th century by Father Antonio Pagani, passed away on Sunday in Kangemi, Kenya. She was born in Voltabrusegana, daughter of Italo Lagonegro and Ida Nardetto who had given birth to seven daughters, after her religious profession she left very young as a missionary in Kenya where she remained for 57 years. In 2015, Sister Ida was one of the most active in preparing Pope Francis’ visit to the church of St. Joseph the Worker, a parish run by the Jesuits, in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. Here, in the slum of the African metropolis, the largest slum in Africa, where hundreds of thousands of people live in truly difficult conditions, Sister Ida coordinated 24 seamstresses and 6 tailors who were part of the Worker Women’s Project, the collective had designed, sewn and decorated the vestments worn by the Pontiff during Pope Bergoglio’s visit to Nairobi.
«For Francis we prepared albs, stoles and chasubles, drawing on the tastes and traditions of this corner of Africa» Sister Ida said at the time, interviewed by newspapers and television. Thanks to the work of this team of tailors led by the nun from Padua, many of the women in the project have managed to rebuild their future by escaping the network of prostitution exploitation.
Furthermore, also thanks to the demand fueled by the Pope’s visit, orders from the clergy increased exponentially: 2000 stoles, 70 chasubles and 370 albes were made in the tailoring shop of the Dimesse nuns, an activity which has continued up to the present day.
THE MEMORY
“Sister Ida Lagonegro leaves an unbridgeable void in her family, in the congregation, in the large circle of missionary friends, volunteers and benefactors, and in the communities in which she provided her generous and tireless service”, recalls the Dimesse Community of Padova, who continues: «Her smile, joy, courage, prayer, her passion for the mission ad gentes, her commitment to the promotion of women and the various activities characterized her life given to the Lord, to the poor and to her sisters, especially African ones, whom she loved and accompanied so much.”
THE LAST GREETING
The funeral will be celebrated on Monday at Gatundia Hope Center (Dimesse Sisters Cemetery, Rumuruti Road, Kenya), presided over by Monsignor Joseph Mbatia, bishop of Nyahururu, the diocese of Kenya which has seen the active presence of priests from Padua for almost half a century and for a long time at some time the leadership of the diocese was also entrusted to Monsignor Luigi Pajaro, a priest from Padua, later appointed bishop in Kenya. After the funeral the body will be buried in the Gatundia cemetery in Laikipia. Tomorrow evening at 6 pm a memorial mass will be celebrated in the church of the Mother House of the Dimesse Sisters in Padua and on Saturday 22 June at 10.30 am in the parish church of San Martino in Voltabrusegana, where Sister Ida was born.
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