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Josefina Bakhita, African slave

Roman Martyrology: Virgin, born in the Darfur region, in Sudan, who, while still a child, was kidnapped and sold in various African slave markets, suffering harsh captivity. Upon obtaining her freedom, she embraced the Christian faith and entered the Institute of the Daughters of Charity (Canossians), and spent the rest of her life in Schio, in the Italian territory of Vicenza, devoted to Christ and to the service of her neighbor ( † 1947

Her life was deeply marked when slavers came to Olgossa and captured her sister. In her biography, she wrote: «I remember how much Mommy cried and how much we all cried.» She also recounted her own experience of meeting the slave catchers.

When I was approximately nine years old, I was walking with a friend in the countryside and suddenly we saw two foreigners appear, one of whom told my friend: ‘Let the little girl go to the forest to find me some fruit. Meanwhile, you can continue on your way, we will catch up with you shortly´. Their goal was to capture me, so they had to get my friend away so she couldn’t raise the alarm.

Suspecting nothing I obeyed, as she always did. When I was in the forest, I realized that the two people were behind me, and that’s when one of them grabbed me tightly and the other pulled out a knife with which he threatened me saying: ‘If you scream, you will die!

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It was those men who gave her the name Bakhita without understanding where she would end up. Bakhita was taken to El Obeid where she was sold to five different masters in the slave market. She tried to escape, but to no avail. Her fourth master was the worst in humiliating and torturing her. When she was about 13 years old, she was tattooed, she had 114 incisions and to avoid infections they put salt on her for a month. She recounts in her biography: «I felt that she was going to die at any moment, especially when they put the salt on me.»

The Italian merchant Calixto Leganini bought Bakhita in 1882. She was the fifth owner. She writes: «This time I was really lucky because the new employer was a good man and I liked him. I was not mistreated or humiliated, something that seemed completely unreal to me, and I could even feel at peace and tranquility.»

In 1884 Leganini was forced to leave Khartoum, after the arrival of Mahdis troops. Bakhita wanted to continue with her master when he went to Italy with his friend Augusto Michieli. Michieli’s wife was waiting for them in Italy and she wanted to keep one of the slaves they brought for what was given to Bakhita. With her new family, Bakhita worked as a babysitter and friend of Minnina, daughter of the Michielis.

In 1888 the Michieli family bought a hotel and moved to Suakin but Bakhita decided to stay in Italy. Bakhita and Minnina entered the novitiate of the Institute of the Sisters of Charity in Venice. This congregation, founded in 1808, is better known as the Canossa Sisters.

It was at the Institute that Bakhita truly came to know Christ and that «God had remained in her heart», which is why she had given her the strength to endure slavery, «but only at that moment did she know who she was «. She received Baptism, First Communion and Confirmation at the same time, on January 9, 1890, by the Cardinal of Venice. She took the Christian name of Josefina Margarita Afortunada.

When she was baptized she expressed: «Here I came to become one of the daughters of God!». It is said that she did not know how to express her joy and in her biography she tells that in the Institute she came to know God more and more, «who has brought me here in this strange way».

The Lady of Michieli returned from the Sudan to take her daughter and Bakhita with her, but Bakhita bravely refused to go, preferring to stay with the Sisters of Canossa. Bakhita was able to prevail because slavery was illegal in Italy. On December 7, 1893, at the age of 38, she professed religious life.

Ella Bakhita was transferred to Venice in 1902, where she worked cleaning, cooking and caring for the poorest. She never performed miracles or supernatural phenomena, but she had a reputation for holiness. She was always modest and humble, she kept a firm faith inside of her and she always fulfilled her daily obligations.

He had a hard time writing her autobiography in 1910, which was published in 1930. In 1929 she is ordered to go to Venice to tell the story of her life. After the publication of her memoirs, she became well known and traveled throughout Italy giving lectures and collecting funds for her congregation.

lthough Bakhita’s health declined towards his later years and he was left in a wheelchair with great pain, he did not stop traveling. She passed away on February 8, 1947 in Schio, her last words being: «Madonna! Madonna!»

Thousands of people went to say their last goodbye to her, thus expressing their respect and admiration for her. She was veiled for three days, during which, according to the people, her joints were still warm and the mothers took her hand to place it on the head of her children. Josephine is remembered with veneration in Schio as «Nostra Madre Moretta