Joseph Allamano. A light for the Yanomami
The story of Sorino’s miracle, which led Blessed Allamano to sanctity
by Marco Bello
Allamano’s miracle recounted by direct witness
Brazilian Amazon rainforest. A very “particular” mission. An incident like many. A man between life and death. Shamans discover that there is a spirit above it all. Chronicle and reflections on an exceptional happening.
Catrimani, Roraima, February 7, 1996. “Like every morning I had gone to the health post to work. In those days, only Brother Antonio Costardi and I were at the mission. He was taking care of the road that connected us at that time, through the forest, to Br170 leading to Boa Vista. My sisters were in town attending some meetings. Besides us, there was the cook”.
The speaker is Sister Felicita Muthoni Nyaga, a Consolata missionary and Kenyan nurse, in Catrimani from 1995 to 2000, then in Boa Vista until 2002 to coordinate the indigenous health sector, at the Roraima State level, particularly malaria prevention.
The incident
“Around 9 a.m. Sorino’s brother-in-law, a Yanomami who lived at the maloca (community house, ed.) near the mission airstrip, came to me. He did not ask for my intervention, but rather wanted a rifle or a pistol, saying that we “whites” always have firearms. I replied that no, we missionaries and missionaries do not have any. Seeing him running away in a daze, I became suspicious and ran after him. The cook saw me and she came too”.
Arriving in front of the maloca Sister Felicita was confronted with a shocking sight: “Immediately I saw a lake of blood, then I noticed that there was a wounded man still breathing. I had to do something. I asked for water and began to wash the man. I realized that his scalp was almost totally uncovered. Meanwhile, I sent for Brother Anthony”.
The man lying in his own blood was Sorino Yanomami. He had been attacked from behind by a jaguar while hunting birds about two kilometers from home. The animal had bitten his head off, opening his skull. Sorino had managed to fight back, however, held it at bay with an arrow, and then returned to the maloca, falling lifeless in front of the entrance.Sister Felicita continues, “We put Sorino in a hammock and, with Brother Antonio’s pickup truck, took him to the mission health point, where I was able to inject him with plasma. In the meantime, I spoke by radio (the only connection we had with the capital, nda) with Sister Rosa Aurea Longo in Boa Vista and asked her if she could send a plane urgently. Sister Rosa told me that all the planes were in the air, because that morning, there had been several emergencies. It was necessary to wait”.
Shamans
In the meantime, there had been word of mouth and, around noon, about fifteen shamans (spiritual leaders and healers, nda) and about two hundred yanomans from all the maloche in the surrounding area had arrived at the mission. They had realized that Sorino was about to die, and had come to do the shamanic ritual that accompanies the spirit of the deceased into the world of the ancestors. Meanwhile, other men had armed themselves to go hunting for the jaguar.
“I went to all these people and told them, ‘Sorino is still alive, let’s wait for the plane and send him to the hospital in Boa Vista.’ They replied, ‘No, he can’t go to the city. It is very serious, we saw his brain out of his head, and the jaguar ate part of it. But a person without a piece of brain cannot live”. I told them, “All this is true, but Sorino is still alive and we must try to save him.” But they insisted, “No because the spirits are coming for him, he has to say his yes to leave his body and go with them. This cannot happen outside the forest”.
I had recently arrived in Roraima and did not understand this concept. I was also getting translated because I still did not speak their language well.
In all this confusion, the men aimed dozens of arrows at me. I was afraid and started to cry. Then, the women who were with them surrounded me to protect me, “Felicita don’t cry, don’t be afraid, they won’t shoot arrows at you. They are very angry with the jaguar. They are shouting because you don’t understand each other”.
Sister Felicita managed to escape from that dangerous situation with the excuse of going to check on the wounded man in the infirmary. “Sorino had regained some energy thanks to the transfusion. He took my hand and was trying to shake it, but he couldn’t. I put my ear near his mouth and he whispered, ‘Felicita, you are my mom now. They say I have to go with the spirits, but I don’t want to, do some things because I want to live”.
So I was in the middle between him, who wanted to live, and the others who wanted to send him to the spirits”.
Meanwhile, around 2 p.m., the plane had arrived. The Yanomami had scattered. Only Kalera, a close friend of the wounded man, was left, and he asked if he could accompany him to Boa Vista. Sister Felicita and the cook took him to the plane and the two departed.
“I then looked for Sorino’s wife, who had gone to notify some relatives at a maloca three kilometers from there. When she arrived I told her, ‘Helena, your husband is very serious and I sent him to Boa Vista to the hospital.’ Sorino’s mother was also there with her and they started crying”.
“If he dies, we kill you”
But when Sister Felicita returned to the mission she found a surprise: “The Yanomami group was there again. They asked me, “Felicita where is Sorino?” I said, “I sent him to Boa Vista.” “Why? Don’t you listen to the shamans? Sorino cannot die far from the forest.” “Why?”, I replied. “Because that way his spirit will never find a home. The only door to the afterlife he will find if he is in the company of other spirits. But outside the forest, no one can accompany him. So he will come back here, he will not find the door, and he will be left wandering forever. He will be angry because he will never be able to rest and will cause trouble for us living ones”.
At that moment I realized that I had done serious violence to their culture. I had invaded a sphere that I should not have entered. When life is at stake, they are the ones who should act and not people from outside.
So the shamans told me, “Go into your house. We cannot kill you now because Sorino is not dead, but these arrows we leave here-they planted several darts in front of the house-and if he dies, we will kill you with these”.
I replied, “All right.” And I stayed under this threat. Some young people stopped to watch that I did not leave the house”.
Sister Felicita had notified the emergency room and explained the situation and also the risk to his life. The doctors were ready and, as soon as Sorino arrived, they operated on him for about four hours. Then, in a coma, he was put in intensive care.
The sisters in Boa Vista decided to follow the hospitalization closely, so Sister Maria da Silva Ferreira, from Portugal, stayed with him during the day, while Sister Lisadele Mantoet, from Italy, watched over him at night.
Sister Felicita, meanwhile was in contact with Boa Vista by radio every day for news.
The request to the father
Up to that point Sister Felicita had intervened mainly as a nurse. “I had not thought much, I had acted. Now, when I entered the house, I went directly to the chapel and looked at the picture of Allamano. At that moment I thought, ‘I have a father, he is here.’ I was angry, I was so afraid and I was shaking. I thought, “Allamano tell me one thing, when you founded this congregation, did you want it specifically for the unbaptized? Did you know that we would experience all these difficulties? And right now where are you? Are you there?” When I asked this question I felt like a blanket enveloping me, a different warmth. I had a high fever from stress and shock.
So I said, “Listen Jesus, through the intercession of Giuseppe Allamano I want to ask you just one thing. Sorino has gone to Boa Vista, he is very serious. If they can cure him there, I ask that he heal completely and come back as before. If he comes back with impairments, like a paralysis, he could not live in the forest as a hunter and fisherman. If he does not heal, it is better for him to die.
And if he has to die, I also ask for grace to bear this arrow that will hit me”.
Also, I wondered, “Is this really our mission place? Our charism? Only a complete healing of Sorino can give us an answer”.
This prayer I would do again every day without adding anything. I lit a candle that I would keep alive. And I felt I had done everything”.
It was Feb. 7, the starting date of the novena for the feast of Joseph Allamano, the 16th. In Boa Vista they dedicated it to the healing of the wounded man. In addition, Sister Maria Costa, superior of the house, gave a relic of the founder to Sister Maria da Silva, who placed it under Sorino’s pillow.
The imponderable
On the 16th evening Sorino was dying. All the instruments were giving his vitals close to zero. Sister Lisadele was with him, who thought, “I must hear from Sister Maria Costa to arrange for Sister Felicita’s recovery before it is known that the patient has died”.
On the morning of the 17th Sister Maria arrived and they talked to arrange the trip to Catrimani and save the sister.
Around noon Sister Maria felt something strange. She looked at the sick man and he turned his head and said to her, “Maria, why are you crying?” Then he added, “I am hungry.” Something incredible had happened.
Sorino was very weak and the wound was not improving. He had spoken, however.
Sister Felicita, learning of the improvement, arranged for Sorino’s mother and wife to travel to Boa Vista and join him on February 20. After intensive care, in March Sorino was taken to the indigenous care home, also in Boa Vista, for rehabilitation. On May 8 he returned to Catrimani, accompanied by Sister Giuseppina Morelli, the administrator.
“I called all the chiefs and shamans. Some said, ‘Only the bones are coming’; or, ‘We don’t know what’s coming.’ They came with their arrows, armed for war. Then the plane landed. Sorino got off slowly and immediately came to me. He said, “Felicita I want to show you the path I made from the incident to the maloca.” There were still tracks and there he told us precisely the dynamics of what happened”.
“These people are precious.”
The doctor who had operated on Sorino confirmed that the injured part of the brain was the motor coordination part, which should have made it impossible for Sorino to walk and talk. It is not explained scientifically, therefore, even how the injured man had managed to walk to the maloca.
“I think we were God’s instrument. Sorinus could have died at that moment when he was attacked, but instead He saved him. The Lord wanted to say something to these people and to all of us: “These people are precious to me, you are my people even if you are not baptized”.
Twenty-eight years have passed and Sorino is still alive. He and his wife Helena, who had no children, have been family to many Yanomami children who were abandoned, for various reasons, and for whom the sisters cared. “At least 15,” Sister Felicita recalls. Sorino also had her own mission.
In 1998 the shamans convened an assembly open to Catholic and Protestant missionaries and government agencies. During the meeting, one of them recounted the dream he had the night before (the Yanomami often rely on dreams to communicate messages): he was climbing a very long ladder to the sky, and at the bottom was a very strong light, more powerful than any light he had ever seen before. “That is the light that told Felicita to act as she did, which is to send Sorino to the city,” the shamans concluded. ”Sister Felicita is a shaman of this spirit, the most powerful of all.
Marco Bello
(Consolata Missions, Oct. 1, 2024)
Sources
Images
- Archivio fotografico Missionari della Consolata