St. Josephine Bakhita

The story of Saint Josephine Bakhita begins not with a name, but with the loss of one. Born around 1869 in the village of Olgossa in the Darfur region of Sudan, she was a child of the Daju people, raised in a family of affection and relative prosperity. Her father was the brother of a local chieftain, and her early years were filled with the simple joys of the African countryside. However, this season of innocence was shattered when she was only seven or eight years old. While walking in the fields, she was seized by Arab slave traders. The trauma of the abduction was so profound that the young girl could not remember her own name. In a cruel irony, her captors gave her the name 'Bakhita,' which in Arabic means 'Fortunate.' This name would follow her through a decade of unimaginable suffering, eventually becoming a prophetic sign of the grace that would transform her life. For twelve years, Bakhita was sold and resold in the markets of El Obeid and Khartoum. She endured the full weight of human cruelty, serving masters who viewed her as mere property. One of her owners, a Turkish general, subjected her to the agonizing practice of 'tattooing,' where one hundred and fourteen patterns were cut into her skin with a razor and the wounds filled with salt to ensure permanent scarring. Through these years of darkness, Bakhita later recalled looking at the moon and the stars, feeling a deep, innate conviction that someone great must have created such beauty, and a longing to know who that Creator was. The hand of Providence finally intervened when she was purchased by Callisto Legnani, the Italian consul in Khartoum. For the first time since her kidnapping, she was treated with dignity and kindness. When political turmoil forced Legnani to return to Italy, Bakhita begged to go with him. Upon arrival in Italy, she was given to the Michieli family to serve as a nanny for their young daughter, Mimmina. It was during this time that Bakhita was placed in the care of the Canossian Daughters of Charity in Venice while the Michielis traveled for business. In the quiet halls of the convent, Bakhita encountered the Crucified Christ. She realized that the 'Master' she had sensed in the stars was a God who had suffered for her and loved her personally. When the Michieli family returned to claim her, Bakhita, for the first time in her life, showed a firm and holy resolve. She refused to leave the convent, choosing instead to remain with the Sisters and the God she had come to know. The ensuing legal battle reached the Italian courts, which ruled that because slavery was illegal in Italy, Bakhita had been free from the moment she stepped onto Italian soil. On January 9, 1890, she was baptized, confirmed, and received her first Holy Communion, taking the name Josephine Margaret Fortunata. She entered the Canossian novitiate and, in 1896, took her vows as a bride of Christ. For the next fifty years, Sister Josephine lived in the community of Schio. She served as a cook, a seamstress, and a portress, greeting all who came to the door with a radiant smile and a gentle word. The people of the town called her 'Madre Moretta,' the Little Brown Mother. Her humility was profound; she often said that if she were to meet her former captors, she would kiss their hands, for without them, she might never have found Christ. In her final years, she suffered from painful illness, and in her delirium, she would cry out for the chains of her youth to be loosened. She passed into the arms of her Master on February 8, 1947. Her life remains a testament that no depth of human misery is beyond the reach of God's redeeming love.