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African Saints: Josephine Bakhita (1869-1947)
Josephine Bakhita was a Sudanese-born former slave who became a Roman Catholic Canossian nun in Italy, living and working there for 45 years. In 2000, she was declared a saint by the Roman Catholic Church
Early life of Bakhita
Early details about Bakhita are not fully known. She was born about 1869 in the western Sudanese region of Darfur; in the village of Olgossa, west of Nyala and close to Mt Agilerei. She belonged to the prestigious Daju people; her well respected and reasonably prosperous father was a brother of the village chief. She was surrounded by a loving family of three brothers and three sisters; as she says in her autobiography: I lived a very happy and carefree life, without knowing what suffering was.
Sometime between the age of seven to nine, probably
in 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 about 960 kilometers to El Obeid on her bare feet; was already
sold and bought twice before she arrived there. Over the course of twelve years (1877–1889) she was resold again three more times and then given away. It is said that the trauma of her abduction caused her to forget
her own name; she took one given to her by the slavers, bakhita, Arabic word for lucky. She was also forcibly converted to Islam.
Slavery years
In El Obeid Bakhita was bought by a very rich Arab merchant who employed her as a maid of his two daughters. They liked her and treated her well. But after offending one of her owner's sons, possibly for breaking a vase, the son lashed and kicked her so severely that she spent more than a month unable to move from her straw bed. Her fourth owner was a Turkish general and she had to serve his mother-in-law and his wife who both were very cruel to all their slaves. Bakhita says: During all the years I stayed in that house, I do not recall a day, that passed without some wound or other. When a wound from the whip began to heal, other blows would pour down on me.
She says that the most terrifying of all her memories there, was when she (in common with other slaves) was marked by a process resembling both scarification and tattooing. As her mistress was watching her with a whip in her hand, a dish of white flour, a dish of salt and a razor were brought by a woman. She used the flour to draw patterns on her skin and then she cut deeply along the lines before filling the wounds with salt to ensure permanent scarring. A total of 114 intricate patterns were cut into her breasts, belly and her right arm.
Conversion and freedom
By the end of 1882 El Obeid came under the threat of an attack of Mahdist revolutionaries. The Turkish general began making preparations to return to his homeland. He sold all his slaves but selected ten of them to be sold later, in Khartoum. There in 1883 Bakhita was bought by the Italian Vice Consul Callisto Legnani, who was a very kind man. For the first time since her captivity she was able to enjoy some peace and tranquillity. Some times later, Callisto Legnani gave Bakhita as a present to Signora Maria Turina Michieli, and her new masters took her to their family villa at Zianigo, about 25 km west of Venice.
When Augusto Michieli acquired in Suakin a large hotel, he decided to sell his entire property in Italy and to move his family to Sudan permanently. Since the villa in Zianigo was already sold, Bakhita and Mimmina needed a temporary place to stay. At the advice of their business agent Illuminato Cecchini, signora Turina Michieli left them in the custody of the Canossian Sisters in Venice. But when she returned to take them both to Suakin, Bakhita firmly refused to leave. On 29 November 1889 an Italian court ruled that Bakhita had never legally been a slave. Bakhita had now reached the age of maturity, and she chose to remain with the Canossians.
Bakhita became a nun
On 9 January 1890 Bakhita was baptised with the names of Giuseppina Margherita and Fortunata. On the same day she was also confirmed and received communion from the cardinal patriarch of Venice. On 7 December 1893 she entered the novitiate of the Canossian Sisters and on 8 December 1896 she took her vows. In 1902 she was assigned to the Canossian convent at Schio, in the province of Vicenza, where she spent the rest of her life. Her only extended time away was between 1935 and 1939, when she stayed at the Missionary Novitiate in Vimercate (Milan). A strong missionary drive animated her throughout her entire life - her mind was always on God, and her heart in Africa.
During her 42 years in Schio, Bakhita was employed as the cook, sacristan and door keeper, and was in frequent contact with the local community. Her gentleness, calming voice, and ever-present smile became well known and Vicenzans still refer to her as Sor Moretta ("little brown sister") or Madre Moretta ("black mother"). Her special charisma and reputation for sanctity were noticed by her order; the first publication of her story (Storia Meravigliosa by Ida Zanolini) in 1931, made her famous throughout Italy. During the II World War she shared the fears and hopes of the town people, who considered her a saint and felt protected by her mere presence.
Her last years were marked by pain and sickness. She died on 8 February 1947. For three days her body lay on display while thousands of people arrived to pay their respects. On 17 May 1992, she was declared blessed and 8 February was given as her feast day. On 1 October 2000, she was canonized and became Saint Josephine Bakhita. She is venerated as a modern African saint, and as a statement against the brutal history of slavery. She has been adopted as the only patron saint of Sudan.
Sources: Josephine Bakhita (on wiki)