Josephine Bakhita
Who was Josephine Bakhita?
Former slave who became a Catholic nun in Italy and was canonized as a saint in 2000, making her the patron saint of Sudan.
Biographical data adapted from Wikipedia’s article on Josephine Bakhita (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Biography
Josephine Margaret Bakhita was born around 1869 in the Sultanate of Darfur, now part of Sudan. She didn't remember her birth name after her traumatic kidnapping, and her captors named her Bakhita, which means 'lucky' or 'fortunate' in Arabic. At about eight years old, Arab slave traders abducted her, a terrifying ordeal that erased her memory of her original name and family. She was bought and sold multiple times in Sudanese slave markets and suffered severe physical abuse, including being tattooed with cuts rubbed with salt to mark ownership.
In 1883, Bakhita was purchased by Callisto Legnani, the Italian consul in Khartoum, who treated her kindly. When Legnani had to leave Sudan due to the Mahdi uprising, he took Bakhita to Italy in 1885. She stayed with the Canossian Sisters in Venice while looking after the daughter of a family friend named Michieli. During her time with the Canossians, Bakhita received religious instruction and experienced a profound spiritual awakening, understanding the God she had always felt in nature as the God of Christianity.
In 1890, Bakhita was baptized and given the name Josephine Margaret. When the Michieli family tried to reclaim her, an Italian court ruled in 1889 that she had been free since arriving in Sudan, as slavery was illegal in Darfur at her birth. She couldn't be forced to leave the Canossian convent. On 7 December 1896, she took her vows as a Canossian sister. She lived and worked in Italy for the rest of her life, spending much of it at the Institute of the Catechumens in Schio, in the Veneto region.
Sister Bakhita became well-known for her gentle manner, patience, and warmth to all who sought her advice. She worked as a cook, sacristan, and doorkeeper, and was known to greet everyone at the convent with deep compassion. She often spoke to schoolchildren and others about her life in Sudan, and her autobiography, published in 1910, spread her story across Italy and beyond. During the Second World War, residents of Schio credited her presence and prayers with saving their town from destruction.
Bakhita died on 8 February 1947 in Schio, with her last words reportedly expressing gratitude and peace. Pope John Paul II beatified her in 1992 and canonized her on 1 October 2000, making her the first female black Catholic saint recognized in modern times. She was named the patron saint of Sudan, and her feast day is celebrated on 8 February.
Before Fame
Bakhita was born to a prosperous farming family in the Darfur region of Sudan when East Africa was experiencing widespread slave raids by Arab traders. The trans-Saharan and Red Sea slave trades were still ongoing in the 1800s, and villages in Sudan were often targeted. She was kidnapped at about eight years old and thrust into a harsh system of human trafficking, passing through many owners and traveling long distances.
Her journey from slavery to a religious life was largely shaped by events beyond her control, such as the political turmoil from the Mahdist revolt in Sudan during the 1880s. This disrupted Italian business and diplomatic activities in the area, eventually leading to her move to Italy. In Italian Catholic institutions, far from her home, she found stability and, by her own account, a spiritual connection she had first sensed as a child, linked to a belief in a creator god she hadn't been able to name back then.
Key Achievements
- Gained legal recognition of her freedom through an 1889 Italian court ruling establishing she could not be held against her will
- Professed vows as a Canossian religious sister in 1896, becoming one of the first Sudanese women to do so in Italy
- Published her autobiography in 1910, providing a rare firsthand account of the nineteenth-century Sudanese slave trade
- Beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1992 in recognition of her life of holiness
- Canonized on 1 October 2000, becoming the patron saint of Sudan and the first female black Catholic saint of the modern era
Did You Know?
- 01.Bakhita forgot her original birth name after the trauma of her kidnapping; the name 'Bakhita,' meaning 'lucky,' was given to her by slave traders.
- 02.An Italian court ruled in 1889 that she had legally been a free person since birth, as slavery had been prohibited in Sudan before she was kidnapped, preventing her former guardian from reclaiming her.
- 03.She was tattooed with sixty cuts rubbed with salt by one of her early owners as a permanent mark of ownership, a practice she later described in her autobiography.
- 04.Residents of Schio believed her prayers protected their city during World War II bombing campaigns, and the town was largely spared from aerial attack.
- 05.Her autobiography, dictated to a Canossian sister and published in 1910, became widely read in Italy and was translated into multiple languages, forming the primary historical record of her early life.