The Saint from Darfur

Today marks the death of St. Josephine Bakhita (1869-1947). Born in Darfur, she was sold into slavery at age seven and forcibly converted to Islam. She was renamed Bakhita (meaning “fortunate”) by her captors. She was sold several times, the last time to an Italian diplomat. It’s hard to imagine the brutality she experienced as a slave. One owner’s son beat her so badly that she was hospitalized for a month. Another had her marked with scars and tattoos. In 1885 she was brought to Italy, where she worked as a nanny for her owner’s daughter. She accompanied the child to a school in Venice run by the Canossian Sisters. In 1890 she was baptized a Catholic and took the name Josephine. When her owners wanted to return to Africa, she refused to go and took the case to court. The court ruled in her favor on the grounds that slavery had been illegal in Italy since 1885. In 1893, Josephine joined the Canossian Sisters. Most of her religious life was spent near Verona, where she worked cooking, cleaning and greeting people at the door. Her reputation for holiness spread through the area. She was beatified in 1992 and canonized in 2000.