- Location
- Nairobi, Kenya 1.2950° S · 36.8081° E
- Type
- Chapel of a religious house, with the tomb of a Blessed A modern internal chapel within the Consolata Missionary Sisters' compound, built for the community and its guests rather than as a public church
Where the Church keeps her
Blessed Leonella is one of the Church's martyrs, and her body is here. A Catholic comes to this chapel to pray at the tomb of a woman who spent nearly forty years nursing and teaching nurses in Africa, who went to Mogadishu when others were leaving, and who said that she forgave the men who shot her. The chapel is small and belongs to a working religious house. That is the right scale for her.
From Mogadishu to Nairobi
Leonella Sgorbati was born at Rezzanello di Gazzola near Piacenza in 1940 and entered the Consolata Missionary Sisters in 1963. Kenya held most of her life: hospital nursing, the formation of young nurses, and six years as Regional Superior of her institute. In 2000 she went to Mogadishu to found a nursing school, so that Somalis could be trained to care for Somalis. The first group graduated in 2006. On September 17 of that year she was shot walking the short distance from the hospital where she worked, and died there; those with her heard her say that she forgave. She was buried in the Consolata Sisters' cemetery at Nazareth, Limuru. In the course of her cause her remains were exhumed on September 30, 2017 and brought to this chapel beside her institute's house in Nairobi, so that she would rest where people could pray. The Holy Father recognized her martyrdom in hatred of the faith that November, and she was beatified in Italy in May 2018.
Pope Francis recognized her martyrdom in odium fidei on November 8, 2017.
She was beatified on May 26, 2018 in her native Diocese of Piacenza-Bobbio, in a celebration presided over by Cardinal Angelo Amato.
Her institute, the Consolata Missionary Sisters, keeps both the chapel and the house beside it.
Kenya, not Somalia, holds her tomb: she gave most of her working life to Kenyan hospitals and to the formation of Kenyan nurses.
She was killed in Mogadishu and said that she forgave. The Church calls her Blessed, and her body was brought to the city where she had spent most of her life.
This is a chapel inside a religious house, kept by the Sisters of her own institute and used by them and their guests. It is not a public shrine and has not been designated one. What it holds is her body and the ordinary daily prayer of the community that received it.
Do Not Miss
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Her tomb
The reason the chapel matters to a pilgrim. Her body was brought here so that she could be prayed with.
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The chapel itself
Small, internal, and used daily by the community that received her. It was not built to be visited.
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Her last words
She said that she forgave. Everything the Church recognized in her martyrdom runs through that sentence.
- That she is remembered for four decades of nursing and teaching, and not only for how she died
- That her tomb is in Kenya, the country she served longest, and not in Somalia where she was killed
- That the place is a working house of Sisters, and a visit is a guest's visit, not a tourist's
Visit Plans
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Prayer at the tomb of Blessed Leonella
4 ordered stopsA brief and quiet visit to the tomb, made as a guest of the Sisters who keep it.
- Write or telephone Flora Hostel beforehand and ask what is possible.
- Pray at the tomb of Blessed Leonella Sgorbati in the chapel of Our Lady of the Universe.
- Pray for nurses, for the sick, and for missionaries who remain in dangerous places.
- Leave the community to its day.
How to Visit
Flora Hostel stands on 5th Ngong Avenue, off Ngong Road in the Kilimani area of Nairobi, roughly fifteen minutes from the city center. The hostel is run by the Consolata Sisters and receives guests, and the chapel is internal to the compound. Access for visitors who are not staying there is not publicly guaranteed, and the hostel does not publish Mass times. Write or telephone Flora Hostel before coming and ask the Sisters what is possible.
- Prayer at the tomb of Blessed Leonella Sgorbati
- The daily prayer of the Consolata Missionary Sisters who keep the house
- Intercession for nurses, for the sick, and for those who train them
- Intercession for missionaries in dangerous places, and for Somalia
A religious house, not a public shrine.
The chapel belongs to the Consolata Missionary Sisters and sits inside the Flora Hostel compound on 5th Ngong Avenue, Nairobi. Neither the Sisters nor the hostel publish a public visiting arrangement or a Mass schedule for outside pilgrims. Contact Flora Hostel directly and ask before you plan a visit to the tomb.
- What is here
- The tomb of Blessed Leonella Sgorbati, in the chapel of Our Lady of the Universe
- Kept by
- The Consolata Missionary Sisters, whose house adjoins the chapel
- Where
- Flora Hostel, 5th Ngong Avenue, off Ngong Road, Kilimani, Nairobi
- Before you go
- Ask the Sisters; access for outside visitors is not publicly guaranteed
Current access
- Write or telephone the hostel before traveling and ask what is possible.
- Do not assume that arriving at the gate is enough.
- Her feast falls on September 17.
Prayer and custody
- Keep the visit quiet and short unless the Sisters invite otherwise.
Relics, Tombs, Sacred Objects
Tomb and Burial
- Blessed Leonella Sgorbati rests here. She was shot at Mogadishu on September 17, 2006, first buried in the Consolata Sisters' cemetery at Nazareth, Limuru, and translated to this chapel after her remains were exhumed on September 30, 2017 in the course of her cause.
Relics and Sacred Tradition
- Her mortal remains, in the chapel itself.
Sacred Objects
- The tomb of Blessed Leonella Sgorbati
- The chapel of Our Lady of the Universe
Connected Saints
Map
Created 2026-09-17 to give Blessed Leonella Sgorbati a truthful principal sacred destination. Tomb location reconciled across sources: the Missionari della Consolata state she is buried in the church of Our Lady of the Universe beside the Consolata Missionary Sisters' regional house in Nairobi; Global Sisters Report and other accounts of the September 30, 2017 exhumation name the same place as the Flora Hostel Chapel on Ngong Road. Flora Hostel's own site confirms it is run by the Consolata Sisters at 5th Ngong Avenue, off Ngong Road, and lists an internal chapel. These are one place, not two. Coordinates from OpenStreetMap way 125334571, mapped as 'Flora Hostel Chapel', 5th Avenue Ngong, Kilimani. No reusable photograph of the chapel or the tomb was identified, so the record carries the shared destination placeholder rather than a stand-in image of an unrelated Nairobi church. No Mass schedule, opening hours or public-access guarantee is asserted: neither the Sisters nor the hostel publish one. The chapel is not described as a shrine, because no Catholic authority has designated it one.
September 17, 2026