St. Josephine Bakhita

St. Josephine Bakhita (born c. 1869, Olgossa, Darfur (now in Sudan)—died February 8, 1947, Schio, Italy; canonized October 1, 2000; feast day February 8) was a Sudanese-born Roman Catholic saint who survived kidnapping and enslavement. She is the patron saint of Sudan and of victims of human trafficking.

Josephine was born in the Daju village of Olgossa in Darfur. Her uncle was a tribal chief, and her family was relatively prosperous. Her life was forever altered when she was kidnapped from her family as a young child and enslaved by Arab slave traders, likely in early 1877. The terrified girl was bought and sold at least two times over the next few months and forced to walk hundreds of miles on foot to a slave market in Al-Ubayyiḍ in south-central Sudan. Over the next decade of enslavement, Josephine was passed from owner to owner, bought and sold so many times that she forgot her birth name. At some point during her captivity she was given the name Bakhita, which is Arabic for “fortunate.”

One of her early captors forced her to serve as a maid. As punishment for clumsiness, she was beaten so severely that she was incapacitated for a month and was sold again when she recovered. Another owner, a Turkish general, gave Josephine to his wife and mother-in-law, who would beat her daily. She and other enslaved women were forced to undergo a traditional Sudanese practice that left her permanently scarred with 114 patterns cut into her skin and rubbed with salt and flour. Of that traumatic mutilation she reportedly said, “I thought I would die, especially when salt was poured in the wounds...it was by a miracle of God I didn’t die. He had destined me for better things.”

In 1883 she was sold to an Italian consul in Khartoum, Callisto Legnani, who treated her more humanely. He eventually took her to Italy and gave her to the Michieli family to serve as a nanny. Her new owners, needing to do business in Sudan, temporarily placed her and their daughter in the custody of the Canossian Sisters at the Institute of the Catechumens in Venice in 1888. Under their care, Josephine was drawn to the Roman Catholic Church. She felt that she had always known God as the creator of all things and was deeply moved by the story of Jesus and by the answers she received from the sisters. On January 9, 1890, she was baptized and confirmed and received her first Holy Communion. Her sacraments were administered by Archbishop Giuseppe Sarto, who would later become Pope Pius X. When Mrs. Michieli returned to fetch her daughter and the enslaved nanny, Josephine resolutely refused to leave the institute. The details and exact timing of her emancipation vary, but it seems that the mother superior petitioned the Italian authorities on Josephine’s behalf, and the issue was brought before the court. Josephine was declared free on the grounds that slavery was not recognized in Italy and had been outlawed in Darfur before her birth.

Finally in possession of her human autonomy for the first time in her adult life, Josephine chose to remain with the Canossian Sisters. She became a novice at the Institute of St. Magdalene of Canossa on December 7, 1893, and took her final vows in 1896. She was eventually assigned to a convent in Schio. She was known for her charisma and gentleness and even expressed gratitude that her past horrors had brought her to her current life. She served her convent humbly, cooking, embroidering, and sewing, and was responsible for attending the door of the convent to welcome visitors, where she was noted for her warm smile and hospitality. She was loved by many in the city and was a bastion of comfort during the trials and bombings of World War II. She patiently suffered long painful years of sickness in her old age and continued to attest to Christian hope. In her final days she relived the agony of her enslavement and is said to have called out, “Please, loosen the chains. They are heavy!” She is said to have died with a smile on her lips after seeing a vision of Our Lady coming toward her.

She was beatified on May 17, 1992, by Pope John Paul II and canonized by him on October 1, 2000.