After surviving 5 months of captivity, Sr. Suellen speaks to consecrated in New Orleans

 

Sister Suellen: During captivity, God called me to be 'peacefully patient'

By Peter Finney Jr.
Clarion Herald

A stunning surprise awaited the 120 women and men religious of the Archdiocese of New Orleans who attended the annual prayer service for the Catholic Church’s World Day for Consecrated Life.

For the first time since she was released in late August from five-months’ captivity in Burkina Faso, West Africa, Marianite Sister Suellen Tennyson joined in public prayer with the religious men and women from the archdiocese who had prayed so fervently for her release.

Almost no one who attended the prayer service at Schulte Hall on the campus of Notre Dame Seminary knew that Sister Suellen would be in attendance. After gaining her freedom in late August and flying back to the United States, Sister Suellen has spent the last five months regaining her strength, emotionally and physically.

She walked into Schulte Hall 15 minutes before the service, accompanied by several of her fellow Marianite Sisters. 

Mount Carmel Sister Beth Fitzpatrick, vicar for religious in the archdiocese, gave a reflection on how those in consecrated life say “yes” to God every day, and she mentioned Sister Suellen’s faith throughout her captivity.

“Suellen, you are witness to us of the possibility of seeing in the midst of utter darkness the presence of the God who loved us and continues to call us,” Sister Beth said.

Archbishop Gregory Aymond told the gathering that Sister Suellen’s safe return was “a miracle.”

“I introduce to you a miracle,” Archbishop Aymond said. “The fact that she is with us today, and the fact that she has been released and is living her consecrated life again among us, is truly a miracle. Suellen, you know that we prayed and we prayed and we prayed with many. And, it is a true blessing that you are back with us.”

A transcript of her remarks follows:

“Well, this is an opportunity for me to say a great, big, heartfelt thank you to all of you. When you say it's a miracle, you have to know that you're a part of that miracle. Without your support or your prayers, who knows where I would be? But I'm so grateful to be able to be here.

 “I told someone, ‘This is the first time I'm in front of a big group because I feel very comfortable with you.’ You are my sisters. And right now, I would ask my sisters, my Marianite Sisters, to please stand. They went through a lot with you, and I'm so grateful to all that they went through and accepted and did so beautifully in calling so many people to prayer. It's your prayer for me and your support in prayer for my Sisters that got us all through it.

 “There are a few things that God said to me during my time with these wonderful Muslim people, these Muslim men. They could not have been kinder to me and could not have treated me with more respect.

 “I knew from the very beginning, when that Muslim man washed my feet, it said something to me. God said to me at that moment, ‘Suellen, be at peace. I am with you. Something is happening here.’ Another time God said very clearly to me – and in this tone – ‘Now, Suellen, stop feeling sorry for yourself! This is not all about you. I am working in the lives of other people.’

“So, OK. I feel certain that God worked in the lives of many people because of this. Just the power of prayer is awesome. I still can't comprehend that. The power of people united around the world praying is an awesome, humbling experience.

 The other thing that God said, to me very clearly, is, ‘Now  Suellen, you've always trusted in divine providence, but usually you look in the past and say, “Oh, look what God did that helped in this situation?”’ God said to me, ‘You trust in my divine providence, but I want you to trust in it now – at this moment – not looking in the past.’ 

“And another thing God said to me is, ‘Now Suellen, you just have to be peacefully patient. I'm working. I'm working. But not in your time.’

“So (I said to God), ‘But I’m tired. I want to go home. I'm lonesome. I miss my sisters. I miss my family.’ 

“‘Suellen, be peacefully patient.’

“And so many times, that's what we have to be – peacefully patient.

 “One other thing. Again, I was feeling God had abandoned me, and God said, ‘Suellen, I have always loved you. I have called you. I have loved you with an everlasting love. Again, be peacefully very patient. I am with you.’ 

“So from my heart, I say thank you for all of the prayers. You were part of this miracle.

“Something happened between a Catholic nun and these Muslims. We became friends – really became friends. So again, God is working in some strange and mysterious way. That experience of peace I hope can spread throughout the world. 

“So once again, thank you, thank you for your prayers for me and for your prayerful support of my community during this time. 

“Archbishop Greg and Beth, thank you for all of your prayers. I know you were there with me all along. Thank you.

“Many blessings to all of you. May we all be peacefully patient.” 

Sister Suellen recounts 5 months of captivity, her faith and freedom

 

Sister Suellen: ‘Thank you!’

Note: To honor Sister Suellen's request for privacy, the only information available is the following story on the Clarion Herald website. (Photos by Peter Finney Jr., Clarion Herald) 

By PETER FINNEY JR.
Clarion Herald

During her nearly five months of captivity in Burkina Faso, West Africa, Marianite Sister Suellen Tennyson wondered aloud where God was hiding in the midst of her isolation and loneliness.

Then, in an instant, she looked down at her feet, where one of her toenails had been battered and bloodied during a harrowing post-kidnapping motorcycle ride deep into the forests of West Africa, after which she was turned over to a rival Muslim group.

Her new captor saw her gouged toe and, inexplicably, began washing her feet.

“He washed my feet,” Sister Suellen told the Clarion Herald Sept. 13. “I’m sitting there, and this Muslim man is washing my feet. And I said, ‘God, is something going on here?’ It was like God was using him in some kind of way. I was just taken aback.”

In a pre-dawn raid by 10 armed men between April 4 and 5, Sister Suellen, 83, was abducted from the medical mission residence in Yalgo that she shared since 2013 with two other Marianite sisters and several lay employees.

After five months of her congregation hearing nothing about her whereabouts or her condition, Sister Suellen, the former international leader of the Marianites of Holy Cross, was freed peacefully in neighboring Niger – to the east of Burkina Faso – and released into the custody of the FBI and personnel of the U.S. embassy and Air Force.

No ransom was paid, Sister Suellen said, another one of the inscrutable mysteries of her captivity and release.

Speaking from a safe haven in the Archdiocese of New Orleans – where she returned quietly on Aug. 31 via medical transport – Sister Suellen said she was full of gratitude that her life was spared and for her safe treatment in captivity and the invisible actions of the thousands of people who prayed and worked for her release.

“That’s what I want to say – ‘Thank you to all these people,’” Sister Suellen said. “I am truly humbled by all of this. And the only way I can say thank you is ‘thank you.’ My heart is filled with gratitude.”

Living nightmare unfolds

The kidnappers, part of the first Muslim group, grabbed her from her bed without her shoes, glasses or medicine. They blindfolded and gagged her to keep her from yelling out to the two other Marianite sisters – Sister Pauline Drouin, a Canadian, and Sister Pascaline Tougma, a Burkinabé – who were locked in their rooms.

“I thought maybe they were going to leave me sitting on the porch, but all of a sudden they wrapped me up and took me,” Sister Suellen said.

“Whoa, this was not what I thought was going to happen. But from the beginning, I was asking God to please use this for good. I don’t understand why it’s happening; I don’t understand why they took me. And a lot of good has happened – all these people praying.”

Sister Suellen was placed on the back of a motorcycle and told to hang on. Her captors rode through the night and for most of the early morning until she was handed over to the second group, which treated her reasonably well and did not physically harm her.

Her captor at one point gave her a few pieces of paper and a red pen, which she used to mark her days in captivity on a handmade calendar. Whenever she was moved to a new, unknown location, she would draw a horizontal line to symbolize the latest segment of her journey.

At the end of each week, she drew the numbers 7, 14 and 21 and circled them to keep track of her time.

She had absolutely no idea where she was.

“I told my caretaker, ‘I can’t run away – I can’t run, and I don’t know the way!’” Sister Suellen said, smiling.

Faith sustained her

Before the rainy season came in June, she slept outside under a hand-crafted, tent-like structure with branches and leaves for the roof and a cloth that could be moved to keep the direct sun out of her eyes. For most of her captivity, she had no books of any kind to read, so she relied on her Catholic formation to recite prayers she has known since childhood and Bible verses.

She also began every day with the prayers of the Mass – remembering what she could and reflecting on Scripture.

“Prayer sustained me,” she said. “I went through my Mass every day. I did each part of the Mass and received spiritual Communion. During the day, at least three or four times a day, I would do a spiritual Communion. That was the thing that kept me going because I had nothing.”

Yalgo is in northern Burkina Faso, not far from the border with Mali. Reliefweb reported in April that in the last two years, Burkina Faso’s northern and eastern regions had seen a “sharp deterioration in the security situation ... due to the presence of non-state armed groups.”

Sister Suellen said there was nothing very much out of the ordinary in the days leading up to her abduction.

“We had been having many problems with local terrorists who had been causing trouble, so I thought they were the ones who abducted me,” she said. “I thought they were just coming to rob.”

Sister Suellen said she contracted malaria and lost 20 pounds during her captivity. Her diet consisted of “spaghetti, rice, sardines; spaghetti, rice, sardines – but no Italian sauce or good Creole sauce. No red beans and rice. But, I did have my cup of coffee in the morning. I had a piece of bread every day, but I had the hardest time swallowing it. I have no desire for sardines any more.”

During her loneliest moments, Sister Suellen said she prayed for “peaceful patience,” because she saw no end in sight.

“I had many conversations with God,” she said. “I would say, ‘OK, God, what’s your word to me today at this moment?’ Sometimes it was a Scripture passage or a story from Scripture. But, after a while, it was just messages to me. And the one that stayed with me the longest was ‘peaceful patience. You need to be peacefully patient.’”

“I prayed the mysteries of the rosary and the Way of the Cross many times. And, you know, Jesus felt his father had abandoned him. I said, ‘Have you abandoned me, God?’ And he said, ‘Suellen, I have loved you with an everlasting love. I have called you, and you are mine.’ I said, ‘OK, I know you haven’t abandoned me, but I just don’t know how much longer I can go on.’”

Inching toward freedom

At some point, her captor found a sofa for her so that she did not have to sleep on the floor.

In August, without warning, she moved again, this time on a motorcycle ride in which she had to cross three rivers. She was so tired at the time she begged for a rest because she was barely able to hang on.

Then, finally, at a rest stop, she saw three men dressed in African garb along with another man dressed in a nice shirt and pants.

“I was thinking, ‘Oh Jesus, is this another group I’m going to have to start up all over again with?’” she said. “But the good news is they had a truck and not a motorcycle. One of the men came to me and said, you can take that jacket off. And he turned to me and he said, ‘You’re free!’ I said, ‘What? I’m free? Who are you?’”

They were now in neighboring Niger, where the men took her to someone’s house.

“We stopped to get something to eat, and the man said, ‘You need to take a shower. Let the woman of the house help you,’” Sister Suellen said. “Oh, I felt like I was in heaven. And then it dawned on me. That was the first woman I had seen in five months.”

Sister Suellen arrived back in the archdiocese on Aug. 31 and went for medical checkups. She is regaining her strength and using a walker to guard against falls, but she is getting stronger.

“I sang ‘Amazing Grace’ I can’t tell you how many times,” she said. “And I would just add the verse and put how many days I had been in captivity. But I still have just one day to praise the Lord – today.”

pfinney@clarionherald.org

Sister Suellen Tennyson has been freed

 

Sister Sullen freed after five months of captivity in Burkina Faso

By Peter Finney Jr. and Christine Bordelon
Clarion Herald
Marianite Sister Suellen Tennyson, who was kidnapped from the convent of her educational and medical mission in Yalgo, Burkina Faso, Africa, in early April, has been found alive and is safe after nearly five months of captivity, Marianite Sister Ann Lacour, congregational leader of the Marianites, said Aug. 30.

“She is safe,” Sister Ann told the Clarion Herald. “She is on American soil, but not in America. She is safe. She was recovered (Monday) morning. We have spoken to her. She eventually will get back to the United States.”

Sister Ann said she had spoken with Sister Suellen by telephone.

At least 10 armed men were involved in the attack in which Sister Suellen, 83, was abducted, the Marianites of Holy Cross said in an electronic newsletter at the time of the abduction.

Since then, there had been no news of her whereabouts or condition.

Sister Ann said when she spoke with Sister Suellen, the missionary did not actually “know where she was.”

“She’s totally worn out,” Sister Ann said. “I told her how much people love her, and she doesn’t have anything to worry about. I told her, ‘You are alive and safe. That’s all that matters.’”

New Orleans Archbishop Gregory Aymond said he received a text from Sister Ann earlier in the day and was overjoyed that she had been freed. When Sister Suellen was abducted – barefoot and in the middle of the night – she had left behind her blood pressure medication and her glasses.

The congregation said Sister Suellen, the former international congregational leader for the Marianites of Holy Cross and native of the Archdiocese of New Orleans, was sleeping when the men burst into the convent, ransacked the living quarters and kidnapped her, leaving behind two other Marianite sisters and two young women who also lived in the convent.

“There were about 10 men who came during the night while the sisters were sleeping,” Sister Ann said in an e-bulletin April 6. “They destroyed almost everything in the house, shot holes in the new truck and tried to burn it. The house itself is OK, but its contents are ruined.”

Sister Ann said she was told by the two younger women living at the convent that Sister Suellen was taken from her bed with “no glasses, shoes, phone, medicine, etc.”

The other two Marianites at the convent in Yalgo – Sister Pauline Drouin, a Canadian, and Sister Pascaline Tougma, a Burkinabé – were not abducted and did not see many of the details.

“They say the two young women who live with them saw what happened and told them (the details),” Sister Ann said. “They think there were more men on the road. They have heard nothing from or about Suellen since she was taken.”

Sister Ann said Sister Pauline and Sister Pascaline were quickly relocated to Kaya, Burkina Faso, about 70 miles from Yalgo.

Sister Ann said the Marianites contacted both the U.S. Embassy in Burkina Faso and the U.S. State Department and received assurance that this was “a high priority case for them.” The congregation also contacted the apostolic nuncios to the U.S., Burkina Faso and France as well as the Vatican’s secretary of state and the Leadership Conference of Women Religious in the U.S.

Yalgo is in northern Burkina Faso, not far from the border with Mali. Reliefweb reported in April that in the last two years, Burkina Faso's northern and eastern regions had seen a "sharp deterioration in the security situation ... due to the presence of nonstate armed groups.”

Sister Ann, who has visited the Marianites in the country, said Sister Suellen was serving as a pastoral minister, "to wipe tears, give hugs, import a smile. She really did support the people that work in the clinic that the parish runs.” People walked for miles to get help from the clinic, she said.

Bishop Theophile Nare of the Kaya Diocese, said Sister Suellen was abducted overnight between April 4 and 5 and taken to an unknown destination by Unidentified Armed Men (UAM). 

The bishop said the kidnappers vandalized the convent where Sister Suellen lived in community with other religious women before taking her to the unknown destination. 

According to media reports, Burkina Faso, one of the 10 countries in the Sahel region of Africa, has been facing rampant violence occasioned by political crises, which offer a fertile ground for the proliferation of extremist groups. 

The city of Yalgo borders the province of Soum, where armed groups are particularly active. In this area, attacks against civilians have increased according to reports. 

“I’m so thrilled,” said Ruby Faucheux Keefe, a childhood friend of Sister Suellen’s from Kenner, after hearing that Sister Suellen was safe in U.S. custody. “I’ve been thinking about her every day. This has made my day. We grew up together.”

Keefe, 85, and Sister Suellen attended Our Lady of Perpetual Help grammar school in Kenner.  Even after going to different high schools – Keefe to Kenner High and Sister Suellen to the Academy of the Holy Angels – the two remained friends and enjoyed jitterbugging at weekend high school dances. Keefe remembers visiting Sister Suellen at the Marianite Convent on St. Claude Avenue in New Orleans.

“Just remember we loved to dance,” Keefe said Sister Suellen would always say when the two talked over the phone or in person when Sister Suellen returned home for a New Orleans visit.

The last time Sister Suellen was in town, Keefe recalled how much Sister Suellen expressed her love for being in Africa, even though it was very primitive.

“She told me she didn’t have hot water,” Keefe said. “I thought I don’t know how she did it at our age, but she loved it.”

“I just feel so great to hear that she’s been found,” Keefe said.