Imeko, the Celestial City: How a Quiet Border Village Became the Pilgrimage Home of Celestians

Every December, thousands of white-robed Celestians make their way to a small, hilly farming village in Ogun State, very close to the Benin border. Imeko is known to the faithful as the Celestial City, their "Jerusalem". How did it get there? Here is the story, retold in our own words from public history pages.

- Imeko is the hometown of the mother of Papa Samuel Bilehou Joseph Oshoffa, who founded the Celestial Church of Christ in Porto-Novo in 1947.
- In 1973, according to Wikipedia's account, a visionary named Pa Muri Adoye reported a visitation in which angels said the Celestial City should be built at Imeko. The Prophet said this matched messages he had already received.
- Construction of the Celestial City began in 1983.
- Papa Oshoffa asked that if he died in Nigeria, he be laid to rest near his mother at Imeko. He died in Lagos on 10 September 1985 and was buried there on 19 October 1985.
- Since then, Imeko has been the destination of the yearly Christmas convocation, when members travel from across Nigeria, West Africa, Europe and the United States.

The photo with this post shows the memorial bust of Saint S.B.J. Oshoffa at Imeko, a place many pilgrims visit.

This is community history as told by public sources, and every Celestian has a personal Imeko story.

Over to you:
- Have you made the journey to Imeko? What moment of the convocation stays with you most?
- If you have never been, what would you most want to see or experience there?

Sources: Wikipedia, "Celestial City, Imeko" and "Celestial Church of Christ".
Photo: Bokoroger89 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)