Rev. Fr. Constantine Echichechi Okoli
I used to know of Elele when I was growing up. From the far Northern part of Nigeria in the 2000s, we had neighbours and friends who would always quip that they went to ”nke Fada Ede”. I did not know what I took the place to be until after making this special visit – for the celebration of the National Jubilee Year of Hope, which took place from Friday, 19th September, to Sunday, 21st September, 2025. Childhood memories do not vanish in adulthood; they rather become the foundation of further learning and growth.
From my childhood stories of Elele, I imagined that I was going to another healing and praying ministry, or a place where some pious Catholics go to have water and other articles blessed for them, not believing in the ‘spiritual’ power of their parish priest. I also heard that it was a safe haven for Peace and Conflict Resolution for families, communities, and business associates. At that time, I was not thinking of Elele as a town in Rivers State but as a place where these activities took place. These do happen, but there is something more to the International Sanctuary of Jesus the Saviour and Mother Mary, Elele.
The time was 11 p.m. on Friday, and we decided to walk round and explore the much-talked-about Elele. One of the pilgrims at the International Sanctuary met us on the way after we had walked for about an hour without having gone round half of the compound. At each post, we were left with admiration for the organization and order in the area, the type you cannot find in some LGAs and States.
There was the section that housed Madonna University, with a population of uncountable young, beautiful, and intelligent chaps. Another area was the market section; whatever you needed, and whatever your class, was graciously provided. A market that sells textile materials at 12 midnight is surely no small market. I was rightly informed too that there at Elele there are about 15 chapels, each of which could house more than a thousand adorers and worshippers at the same time.
There are numerous hostels, in their classes and styles. To move from one part of the compound to the other, vehicles are usually provided. There was even a functional Filling Station inside the compound. There were nursery, primary, secondary, and tertiary institutions. There were also monasteries for monks and nuns, convents, and many houses which, if I talk about them here, I must fall into error.
Suffice it to say that the International Sanctuary of Jesus the Saviour and Mother Mary, Elele, is a state inside a state and a diocese within a diocese. Beyond these physical structures and the beehive organization, Elele is a place where experience and life give perspective to faith.
It is an example of a place where the daily experiences of people help in understanding the Catholic faith. Here, praxis comes before theory. In religious terms, there at Elele, I noticed that piety funds doctrines and dogmas. This is not new to Catholic history and tradition.
It is in the Church’s history that pious and, most times, lay Catholics, started devotions to the Blessed Virgin Mary even before Church authorities formulated dogmas around Marian doctrines. Before the Church talked of Theotokos (Mother of God), Perpetual Virginity, Immaculate Conception, and Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, many Catholics were already saying Sub tuum praesidium (We fly to your protection).
This prayer, which dates back to the 3rd Century (c. 250 AD), called Mary the Mother of God even before the Council of Ephesus (431 AD) defined and formally used the title for the Blessed Virgin Mary. Little wonder the Catholic Church is extremely careful in dealing with private revelations and apparitions; it is from these devotions that doctrines are assessed and indirectly formulated.
The Catholic Church has always had perceptible hands in the formulation of policies that shape economic principles, agricultural production, political theories, educational planning, and indeed everything civilization today celebrates. Think of monastic life and European civilization, even the banking system. Remember the monk, Gregor Mendel, and genetics today.
What of Theophilus Okere and African philosophy? Today, I must add Rev. Fr. Prof. Emmanuel Ede who in in 1984 founded International Sanctuary of Jesus the Saviour and Mother Mary, Elele. Fr. Ede is giving the world something of African spirituality and faith. Georges Lemaître and the Big Bang theory; groundwork in human rights and international law; think of the first universities in Europe—Bologna, Paris, Oxford, and Salamanca; and even the just war theory. The point is this: “Nothing genuinely human fails to raise an echo in the hearts of the followers of Christ.”
Security too is a genuinely human issue, and Elele has the secret.
‘[The] Security [here] is spiritual,’ the pious pilgrim man said to us after we marveled at the manner in which law and order was maintained all through the celebration, both in the compound and in the places of worship. If I am to do a rough estimation, during the 3-day celebration, more than ten thousand persons from different walks of life and backgrounds were present.
There were people from every continent of the world: whites and blacks, tall and short, fat and thin, the beautiful and those lacking sufficient facial goodness. More than 55 bishops and archbishops were in attendance; 10 delegates came from each of the 60 (arch) dioceses in Nigeria. The entire Port Harcourt Diocese, the host diocese, seemed to be present. There were more than 300 priests and 500 religious men and women beaming with joy in attendance. With this record, one could imagine the number of lay persons in attendance.
I guess that the biggest chapel in the compound was the ‘Church of Jesus the Saviour’. The sanctuary area of this chapel could contain more than one thousand bishops, priests, and deacons mixed together. It is a very spacious and well-built one. That’s not all. An eye-view of the chapel shows that about 20 times the capacity of the sanctuary area would fill the entire chapel. There are also galleries, almost the size of the sanctuary area, at both arms of the chapel.
At the Mass concluding the celebration of the National Jubilee Year, these areas were filled to the brim in a manner that one rarely recognized that these were human beings. It was thanks to the supersonic coverage of the media team of Elele that we were able to follow up actively and participatorily. They brought the altar close to everyone. They made the celebration devotional and yet ecclesial; one could pray silently and communally. But how was law and order maintained?
Spiritually! There was an object that drew all into one common interest. There was someone who ‘distracted’ the natural inclination to evil in everyone—the Spirit and in a common parlance, the Eucharist.
Maybe one can dare to make a ‘social’ evaluation of the spiritual. Elele provided for the basic needs of people who gathered for the celebration. Given the context and reason for the gathering, the basic need of people there was peace of soul, which only God can give. The people had a common interest and need, which was to experience the power and presence of God.
Once that yearning was satisfied, there was security. This need was satisfied by making sure that activities that guaranteed it were provided; there were lots of chapels and places where people could pray; there were sonorous voices and erudite preachers to uplift the soul. These activities were not placebos. All who genuinely sought peace and God’s presence received them. You could see this in the faces of people who knelt in prayer and those who performed charitable acts.
There was also provision for food, in a manner that there was always something for everyone as their financial strength would allow. Those who could not afford food were provided for, and those who could afford it were sincere enough to allow ‘the poor to breathe’. The lesson for security here is that it is not mainly the lack of resources that leads to poverty. Poverty is primarily the result of the ‘misappropriation’ of resources. All were provided and cared for. There was contentment.
Those who could not afford roast chicken did not envy those who could. Everyone knew where he or she belonged without being told. This attitude is ‘spiritual’ in the sense that it takes a godly soul to know that what makes us human is not what we have but actually what we do not have. It is human to lack! The things we have limit us, while the things we do not have inspire and motivate us—they push us to go beyond ourselves; and man lives more in the future than in the present.
On the issue of social inequality at Elele during the celebration, many people of class and race graced the occasion. The flair for me was not just that they were not given ‘public’ recognition, but that they too did not care about that. Many of them were more concerned and occupied with the object of their distraction, Jesus in the Eucharist. From experience, Jesus in the Eucharist knows how to draw a sincere soul all to Himself.
He gazes at you and allows you to remember almost everything that assures you of His love and mercy. The only thing needed from you is to answer the invitation of Jesus: “Come and See”. And before Jesus in the Eucharist, everyone is equal. Even the priest presiding at the Mass assumes, at best, the position of a servant and a victim. The realization of our role, acceptance, and guidance under a family in which God is the head give security.
Finally, there is no security in the world that is not spiritual, in the sense of building its power and effect around a being. Call it economy or order, there is a vital element in them that seeks respect and, when broken, desires appeasement and restoration. There cannot be security without some form of cult or worship, even if localized. I think of the history of the Swiss Guard, the Bakassi Boys, and recently the Udo ga-achi apparatus in Anambra State.
All of these are built on the mystery that there is something sacred about them. There is mystification that makes people say that ‘security matters are not for public consumption’ and that ‘security is local.’ At Elele, I noticed that.
There is a certain assurance that God is watching and that He knows and sees you. I mean to say that God’s presence is felt everywhere. That mystery is necessary for security. It makes people not just to work for the common good but also to walk in the direction that leads to light and life, even when darkness and death beckon in the human soul.
It is this feeling that makes security spiritual, as the Apostolic Nuncio explained it: ‘We are more than pilgrims wandering about trying to find their way. We are pilgrims of hope because we are guided by hope in the one who has saved us, in the hope of things to come. We hope in the promise of God’s salvation won for us on the Cross by Jesus the Saviour. In each of us, hope springs eternal in our hearts.’
Security is spiritual, not in the sense that human agencies were not used to effect changes. Rather, security is spiritual to the extent that human agencies became open to the operations of God’s Spirit, which is in everyone. In essence, when the sense of God is lost, nothing remains. Only the presence of God in the hearts and minds of men and women can lead to security. It is spiritual!!
Rev. Fr. Constantine Echichechi Okoli
