Saint Josephine Bakhita

February 8th, we celebrate the feast of Saint Josephine Bakhita ( 1869 – 1947), the first person from Sudan to be canonized, and a Canossian Sister who was kidnapped and sold into slavery in Sudan and patron of Sudan and World Day against trafficking persons.

She was born around the year 1869 in the western Sudanese region of Darfur; she belonged to the prestigious Daju people; her well respected and reasonably prosperous father was brother of the village chief. She was surrounded by a loving family of three brothers and three sisters.

At the age of 9, around February 1877, she was kidnapped by Arab slave traders, who already had kidnapped her elder sister two years earlier. She was cruelly forced to walk barefoot about 960 kilometers to El Obeid and was already sold and bought twice before she arrived there. She was given the name “Bakhita” by the slave traders, which translates as “fortunate one.”

By the time she was 13 years of age, she was sold five separate times, the first four masters worse than the last. In her memoirs, Saint Josephine recounts the horrible treatment she endured, including heavy chains, whipping, starvation, lacerations, and tattooing.

The tattooing was remembered as the worst of these, with 114 separate cuts being made over her entire body, and subsequently, the tattooist literally rubbing salt in the wounds, each day for a month. She attempted to escape many times, but never succeeded. During this period, despite the pain and heartache, Bakhita remained hopeful.

As she gazed at the night sky, or looked around on a sunny day, she would wonder, “Who could be the master of these beautiful things?”

After being sold a total of five times, Bakhita was purchased by Callisto Legnani, the Italian consul in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan. He treated Josephine well, for the first time in her life. Two years later, he took Bakhita to Italy to work as a nanny for his colleague, Augusto Michieli. He, in turn, sent Bakhita to accompany his daughter to a school in Venice run by the Canossian Sisters.

While the daughter was being instructed, Josephine felt drawn to the Catholic Church. Bakhita felt called to learn more about the Church, and was baptized with the name “Josephine Margaret.” She was subsequently often observed kissing the baptismal font, saying: “Here, I became a daughter of God!” In the meantime, Michieli wanted to take Josephine and his daughter back to Sudan, but Josephine refused to return.

The disagreement escalated and was taken to the Italian courts where it was ruled that Josephine could stay in Italy because she was a free woman. Slavery was not recognized in Italy and it had also been illegal in Sudan since before Josephine had been born.
Josephine remained in Italy and decided to enter Canossians in 1893.

She made her profession in 1896 and was sent to Northern Italy, where she dedicated her life to assisting her community and teaching others to love God. She is remembered for a gentle spirit with a loving smile, kind heart, overwhelming forgiveness, and simple joy.

Sister Josephine was happy to take the most menial jobs, cooking, mending, sewing, cleaning, and greeting each visitor at the door of the convent.
Though her health gradually worsened, forcing her into a wheelchair, she remained a model of holiness and charity.

She even went on record saying, “If I were to meet the slave-traders who kidnapped me and even those who tortured me, I would kneel and kiss their hands, for if that did not happen, I would not be a Christian and Religious today.”

At her deathbed, Saint Josephine Bakhita experienced significant pain and recalled the days of her slavery. It was Mary Most Holy who freed her from all pain. Her last words were: “Our Lady! Our Lady!”, and her final smile testified to her encounter with the Mother of the Lord.

Mother Bakhita breathed her last on February 8, 1947 at the Canossian Convent, Schio, surrounded by the Sisters. The fame of her sanctity has spread to all the continents and many are those who receive graces through her intercession.

St. Josephine was beatified in 1992 and canonized shortly after in October 2000 by Pope John Paul II.

Prayer:

O God, who led Saint Josephine Bakhita from abject slavery to the dignity of being your daughter and a bride of Christ, grant, we pray, that by her example we may show constant love for the Lord Jesus crucified, remaining steadfast in charity and prompt to show compassion.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen

Saint Josephine Bakhita , pray for us.