Jubilee Saint: Josephine Bakhita
Continuing our look at saints who exemplified aspects about the biblical jubilee, we turn to St. Josephine Bakhita (~1869-1947). Born in the Darfur region of Sudan, the girl who would become St. Josephine Bakhita grew up happy and relatively prosperous until she was kidnapped by Arab slave traders when she was around 8 years old. After walking over 600 miles to the slave market, she was sold to a wealthy Arab. Sometimes her master treated her fairly and other times he was cruel and vindictive. Over the next 12 years she was bought, sold, and given away over a dozen times! So disorienting was the experience that she forgot her original name; one of her masters ironically named her ‘Bakhita’, meaning ‘Lucky One’.
After being sold to an Italian diplomat, she was allowed to travel to Italy where she served as a nanny to a family there. When her mistress went back to Sudan without Bakhita, she was placed with a religious order of sisters in Venice called the Canossian Sisters. There, she came to learn about the Christian God for the first time and grew to love Jesus Christ. When her mistress returned, Bakhita refused to leave the convent and the sisters interceded with the Italian government to declare her free. After achieving freedom, Bakhita chose to remain with the Canossian Sisters and received baptism, confirmation, and communion at age 21 with the name Josephine Margaret Fortunata (the Latin equivalent of her name Lucky). She became a novice with the sisters and took final vows 6 years later, after which she worked as a cook and doorkeeper for the next 42 years. She was known for her gentleness and charisma around the convent. In a beautiful twist, she would often express thanksgiving for her kidnappers, for without enslavement she might never have come to know Jesus Christ and his Church! During World War II, the people of her town regarded her as their protector, for though many bombs fell on the city not a single person died. In her later years, she suffered physical pain and used a wheelchair, but remained cheerful throughout. She died on February 8th, 1947, the day which became her feast. She was canonized in 2000 by St. John Paul II.
Josephine’s life tracks with the jubilee quite literally: she was redeemed by the sisters, released from slavery, returned to the Temple of the Spirit known as the Church, and enabled to rest in God’s fullness as his bride. Next week, we will hear from Anne Haines, Executive Director of the St. Bakhita Catholic Worker House, on how St. Josephine’s legacy as a survivor of human trafficking and the witness to the dignity of every human life continues into the present day in our local community. Stay tuned!