Jesus removed the chains that bound her

St. Josephine Bakhita, the patron saint of human trafficking victims, was a woman of courage and strength. Her development and transformation as a person reveal how excruciatingly painful and heart-wrenching life can be, but with Christ, there is hope and goodness. 

She was born in 1869 to a noble family in a small village in the Darfur region of Sudan. Bakhita recalled having a happy childhood. At the tender age of seven, she was kidnapped and sold into slavery by Arab slave traders, who named her Bakhita, which means “fortunate” in Arabic. Ironically, this new name didn’t describe the torture she would be subjected to by multiple owners, but it does foretell her redemption through Christ.

She was traded, bought, sold, and given as a gift to multiple families. She was tortured both physically and mentally at the hands of different owners. One Turkish family, in particular, treated Bakhita very harshly. She would be lashed, and then salt would be placed into the wounds to ensure they scarred. After one wound would heal, another would be inflicted. 

In Africa 1883, Bakhita was sold to Italian Vice Consul Callisto Legnani, who would take her back to his residence in Italy. Consul Legnani treated her with more dignity and respect than prior owners, and he eventually gave Bakhita away to family friends. Augusto Michieli and his family placed Bakhita as their daughter’s nanny. 

One day Augusto Michieli and his wife traveled away for business, leaving Bakhita and their daughter with the Canossian Sisters in Venice. When Mrs. Michieli returned to the convent to bring her daughter and Bakhita home, Bakhita requested to remain with the sisters. Throughout her life, Bakhita wondered who made the stars, sun, and moon. She desired to learn more about God. It was at this convent that Bakhita learned about the one who made the stars, sun, and moon, the one who she would come to call “The Good Master.”

The family desired that Bakhita return with them, but at almost 20 years old, Bakhita was allowed to stay at the convent, and with the sisters’ help made a case for her freedom from slavery. The Italian court ruled in her favor since Bakhita was born in Sudan after slavery had been banned; therefore, she was indeed free.

Thus, Bakhita lived her life as a free young woman, and with this newfound freedom, Bakhita, in a sense, walked away from the chains of human and interior slavery. She lovingly devoted her resurrected life to Jesus, who, like her, suffered unjustly as a consequence of sin that was not his own. She was offered the sacraments of baptism, confirmation, and first Holy Communion on Jan. 8, 1890, taking the name Josephine Margaret. 

Soon after Bakhita became a novice with the Canossian Daughters of Charity and made her final vows on Dec. 8, 1896. Her professed name was Josephine Margaret and Fortunata, with the latter as a Latin translation of her Arabic name Bakhita. 

St. Josephine Bakhita’s humility and simplicity was a great example. In her life as a sister, she had duties, such as cooking, sewing, and doorkeeper. She would share stories of her life as a slave, which helped prepare other sisters for service in Africa and lived as a witness of God’s providence, love, and mercy to those who met her. She affectionately became referred to as Mother “Moretta,” which means brunette in Italian. 

Her response to God’s grace was to unshackle herself from the chains of human slavery and forgive those owners who mistreated her. She even thanked them because from her perspective they led her to the community that introduced her to Christ.

Remaining at a convent in Schio, Vicenza, Josephine struggled with sickness in the advanced years of her life and passed from this earthly pilgrimage on February 8, 1947.

St. John Paul II canonized her Oct. 1, 2000, and proclaimed February 8 as her feast day. She is also known as the patron of her home country, Sudan.

Escaping what is known as modern-day human trafficking, St. Josephine Bakhita’s intercession can help the world come to know the freedom that Jesus Christ offers and to turn away from sin.