An Unfolding Journey
A vocation already rooted in religious life
Long before ACMC came into being, Sister Felicia Mbasen Agibi had already given many years of her life to Christ in consecrated religious life.
For approximately thirty-two years, she lived and served as a member of the Handmaids of the Holy Child Jesus. Those years of prayer, formation, community life, missionary service, and apostolic experience profoundly shaped her vocation.
Through ministry she encountered people carrying many forms of suffering—the poor, families in crisis, the sick, the displaced, children, women, and people bearing psychological, emotional, and spiritual wounds. Over time, a deeper question emerged in prayer: Was Christ asking something more of her?
The inspiration developed gradually into a persistent call toward a Franciscan missionary life centered upon Christ the Consoler and His wounded Body.
A Call Toward Consolation
Remaining near the wounded Christ
The inspiration became clearer through prayer, Eucharistic adoration, spiritual discernment, and reflection upon the suffering of God’s people. The Cross was not simply to be contemplated from a distance. The missionary was called to remain near it—to stand with those who suffer as Mary remained beneath the Cross of her Son.
“By His stripes, we are healed.” — Isaiah 53:5
Consolation would mean more than performing works of charity. It would mean remaining, accompanying, listening, healing, serving, praying, and bringing hope.
We contemplate Christ. We receive His consolation. We become consolation for others.
Francis and Clare
A Gospel way of life
In St. Francis and St. Clare of Assisi, the emerging community recognized a way of following Christ marked by simplicity, fraternity, prayer, Eucharistic devotion, closeness to the poor, love for the Church, and reverence for the Crucified Lord.
Our Lady of Consolation became patroness and spiritual mother, teaching the missionaries to receive Christ, carry Christ, remain with Christ in suffering, and go forth with the Church in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Our Ecclesial Foundation
The Church receives the emerging community
A decisive moment came in the Catholic Diocese of Katsina-Ala, Nigeria. The late Most Rev. Peter I. Adoboh, Bishop of Katsina-Ala, accompanied the emerging foundation and discerned its place within the local Church.
On November 30, 2019, Bishop Adoboh formally erected the Anima Christi Missionaries as a Public Association of the Christian Faithful in the Diocese of Katsina-Ala.
The decree marked an important ecclesial milestone. What had begun as an inspiration carried in prayer had entered a new stage of life within the Church.
Yet the decree was not the completion of the journey. It was another beginning.
Sister Felicia Mbasen Agibi with the late Most Rev. Peter I. Adoboh, whose pastoral discernment gave the emerging community its original ecclesial recognition.
Building Slowly, Stone by Stone
A community still becoming
The years that followed required patience, perseverance, continued discernment, and trust in Divine Providence. Bishop Adoboh died only months after the erection of the Association, while important aspects of the young community’s foundational development were still unfolding.
Formation structures began to develop. Women came forward to discern the vocation. Apostolates grew. The community’s Franciscan and Eucharistic spirituality became clearer. In Nigeria, St. Clare Formation House in Katsina-Ala became a place where the emerging community could pray, live, discern, and form future missionaries.
The mission also moved outward—into villages, among children and families, to the displaced, widows, the poor, and people carrying psychological, emotional, and spiritual wounds. In the United States, the mission has included street evangelization and outreach to people experiencing homelessness; feeding those who are homeless or living on the streets; mental health outreach and compassionate accompaniment of people struggling with emotional and psychological challenges; counseling and support for individuals and families; evangelization; pastoral accompaniment; and a growing network of people who share ACMC’s mission.
“Like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house.” — 1 Peter 2:5
The Journey Continues
From the Cross flows our mission of consolation
ACMC does not present its story as though the journey were complete. It remains a young community, continuing to discern what God is building through prayer, formation, mission, and communion with the Church.
From Eucharistic adoration to village roads, from formation to evangelization, from feeding a hungry child to listening to someone carrying wounds that cannot be seen, the same conviction remains at the heart of the mission: Christ is present in the wounded.
“Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” “Here I am; send me!” — Isaiah 6:8