Josephine Bakhita

Saint Josephine Bakhita was born around 1869 in Olgossa in Darfur, in what is now western Sudan, into a loving and respected family. When she was only seven or eight, she was kidnapped by slave traders and endured years of being bought and sold, suffering harsh cruelty and deep wounds of body and heart. Given the name “Bakhita,” meaning “fortunate,” she was forced into a life she never chose. In time she was taken to Khartoum and came under the care of the Italian vice consul, who treated her with kindness and brought her to Italy. There, while staying with the Canossian Sisters in Venice, she encountered Christ and discovered the God she had long sensed within. In 1889 an Italian court recognized her freedom, and she chose to remain with the sisters. Baptized in 1890, she later became a Canossian Sister, serving for decades in Schio as cook, sacristan, and doorkeeper, radiating gentleness, forgiveness, and steadfast faith. Venerated as a witness to God’s redeeming love after great suffering, she is patroness of Sudan and of slaves. Her feast day is February 8.