St. Josephine Bakhita
Feast 02-08 · Canonized 2000
Patron of
About
Josephine Bakhita was born around 1869 in Darfur, Sudan. As a child she was kidnapped by slave traders and sold repeatedly, enduring brutal treatment; she was so traumatized that she forgot her own name, and her captors called her Bakhita, meaning "fortunate."
In 1883 she was bought by an Italian consul, who took her to Italy, where she was placed with the Canossian Sisters in Venice. There she encountered Christianity and, when her owners tried to take her back to Africa, an Italian court ruled that slavery was illegal in Italy and she was free.
She was baptized in 1890 and entered the Canossian Sisters, serving as cook, sacristan, and doorkeeper for fifty years. Known for her gentleness and forgiveness, she died in 1947. Canonized in 2000, she is the patron saint of Sudan and of victims of human trafficking.
Suggested prayer
O God, who freed St. Josephine Bakhita from slavery and gave her grace to forgive her captors, grant through her intercession freedom and healing to all victims of human trafficking. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
