Cyprien Rugamba
1935-1994 20th century
Joy given back to God: art, dance and a whole life turned into praise.
Who was Cyprien Rugamba?
A Rwandan poet, historian and composer, director of a national ballet troupe, long estranged from the Church. Healed without explanation of a serious illness in the early 1980s, he returned to God and turned his art to praise; with his wife Daphrose he founded the Emmanuel Community in Rwanda in 1990 and a center for street children. On 7 April 1994, in the first hours of the genocide, they were murdered with six of their children; their cause for beatification is open.
In their own words
If ever I come to be called, I beg you, do not grieve. I will answer the call full of joy, and I will enter heaven dancing.
We have only one party: that of Jesus.
The Lord is wonderful.