Maison St Benoit is a small

Benedictine The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, th ...

nunnery in Kigufi,

Rwanda Rwanda, officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of East Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator, Rwanda is bordered by ...

Location

Kigufi is a village in

, in central

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

, adjacent to

Lake Kivu Lake Kivu is one of the African Great Lakes. It lies on the border between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda, and is in the Albertine Rift, the western branch of the East African Rift. Lake Kivu empties into the Ruzizi River, which ...

, one of the great

Rift Valley lakes The Rift Valley lakes are a series of lakes in the East African Rift valley that runs through eastern Africa from Ethiopia in the north to Malawi in the south, and includes the African Great Lakes in the south. These include some of the world's ...

. Kigufi is situated in the Western Province of Rwanda, in the

Rubavu Rubavu District is one of the seven districts (''akarere'') in Western Province, Rwanda, with a total surface area of 388.4 km2. Its capital is Gisenyi, a large beach resort and border city. The Rubavu Urban area, which includes Gisenyi, Rug ...

District, in the Nyamyumba Section, in the Kiraga Cell. It is located at the North end of Lake Kivu on one of a number of small promontories just south of Rubavu, the nearest significant town. This places the village close to

Goma Goma is a city in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the North Kivu, North Kivu Province; it is located on the northern shore of Lake Kivu and shares borders with the Bukumu Chiefdo ...

, at the border with the

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as the DR Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Republic of the Congo), is a country in Central Africa. By land area, it is t ...

History

During colonial times a British man named Jack Mat Wilson Poelaert established the premises and constructed the building that comprises the main facility for the Nunnery.Correspondence with Sister Beata of the Maison St Benoit Benedictine Nunnery, 2019-07-24 He laid out gardens that include a range of good trees and have led to current descriptions of the Nunnery as "paradisaical green lakeshore grounds that support plenty of colourful birds and also offer good swimming".Briggs, P., 2018
Rwanda with Eastern Congo
Chalfont Saint Peter: Bradt Travel Guides Poelaert gave the property to the Benedictine order in December 1970.

The Nunnery today

Nowadays the Nuns of Saint Benedict live there praying and working as advised by Saint Benedict, who said: ''Ora et Labora''. They operate a guest house with 30 rooms that make it "one of the best-value and most attractive places to stay in the Rubavu area". Sister Beata, one of the five nuns presently running the guest house, explains: "Nuns like to have visitors, to receive them is not a business it is a part of the mission. They want you to feel at home". Visitors indicate that the sunset is a joy to behold and one feels a sense of peace once you reach Kagufi.Google map reviews o
Benedict Nunnery
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References

{{Subject bar , portal1= Africa , portal2= Catholicism Benedictine nunneries Buildings and structures in Rwanda