St. Josephine Bakhita

From Slave to Saint

The Saint of the Month is a regular feature, contributed by a SMCB parishioner.

I am a daughter, wife, mother and presently working for a financial company. My real learning started when my daughter was born. When I got an opportunity to be a teacher in the process of raising my child these quotes became more meaningful to me ‘The Child is the Father of Man’ by William Wordsworth and the African Proverb ‘It takes a village to raise a child’. I have been writing for SMCB Times from the month of June 2020. Please send your comments or feedback about any of the Saint articles, to the editorial team.

St. Josephine Bakhita

Image source: Vatican.va

Quick Facts:

Born: 1868 in Oglassa, Darfur, Sudan

Died: 8 February 1947, also her Feast Day

Canonized: 1 October 2000 by Pope John Paul II

Patron saint of Sudan and human trafficking survivors

Venerated as a modern African saint, and as a statement against the brutal history of slavery.

Pope Benedict XVI, on 30 November 2007, in the beginning of his second encyclical letter Spe Salvi (In Hope We Were Saved), relates Bakhita’s entire life story as an outstanding example of Christian hope. Bakhita's legacy is that transformation is possible through suffering. Her story of deliverance from physical slavery also symbolizes all those who find meaning and inspiration in her life for their own deliverance from physical and spiritual slavery.

Historical region of Darfur

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Early Years

Josephine was born around 1869 in Darfur (now part of western Sudan). Her family was part of the powerful Daju people (after whom Darfur is named). Her uncle was chief of their village, and Josephine was surrounded by a loving, prosperous family of three brothers and three sisters during her early years.

When Josephine was around eight years old, her life took a tragic turn when she was snatched by slave traders, forced to walk barefoot and sold twice before she arrived in El Obeid, a large city in central Sudan. She reported in her autobiography that the trauma of her abduction caused her to forget her own name. The traders gave her the name Bakhita (from the Arabic word barak, meaning blessed or lucky).

Treatment as a slave

As a slave, her experiences varied from fair treatment to cruel. Bakhita was once sold to owners who treated her with unspeakable, inhumane cruelty. In her autobiography, she recounts some of the horrendous customs of beating and scarring slaves. Bakhita says: "During all the years I stayed in that house, I do not recall a day that passed without some wound or other. When a wound from the whip began to heal, other blows would pour down on me."

In 1883, Bakhita was sold to a new, kinder owner - the Italian Consul to Sudan, Callisto Legnani. Later when he had to return to Italy, Bakhita begged to go with him. He brought Bakhita with him to Italy and handed her to Augusto Michieli and wife Maria Turina Michieli. Bakhita was a faithful nanny to the Michieli family’s young daughter Alice.

In the fall of 1888, Mrs. Michieli wanted to meet her husband who had acquired a large hotel in Sudan. She left Bakhita and Alice with the Canossian Sisters in Venice. While staying with the Canossians, Bakhita encountered Christianity for the first time. The kind sisters instructed Bakhita in the Christian faith.

Saint Josephine Bakhita (top center) with the Canossian Sisters of the Institute of the Catechumens in Venice, Italy.

Image Source: http://nycitylens.com/blog/2016/02/08/sisters-on-a-mission/

Redemption

When Mrs. Michieli returned to take her daughter and maid back to Sudan, Bakhita firmly refused to leave. For three days Mrs. Michieli tried to force the issue, finally appealing to the king's attorney general. At the same time, the superior of the Institute for baptismal candidates that Bakhita attended contacted the cardinal of Venice about her protege's problem. On 29 November,1889 an Italian court ruled that because the British had outlawed slavery in Sudan before Bakhita's birth and because Italian law had never recognized slavery as legal, Bakhita had never legally been a slave. For the first time in her life, Bakhita found herself in control of her own destiny. She chose to remain with the Canossians. Bakhita was baptized with the names of Josephine Margaret and Fortunata (which is the Latin translation for the Arabic Bakhita). On the same day she was also confirmed and received Holy Communion from Archbishop Giuseppe Sarto, the Cardinal Patriarch of Venice, the future Pope Pius X.

Canossian Sister

On 7 December 1893, Josephine Bakhita entered the novitiate of the Canossian Sisters and took her vows in 1896. In 1902, she was assigned to the Canossian convent at Schio, Italy where she spent the rest of her life. During her 42 years in Schio, Bakhita worked as a cook and a doorkeeper at the convent. She also traveled and visited other convents telling her story to other sisters and preparing them for work in Africa. She was known for her gentle voice and smile, and was often referred to lovingly as the "little brown sister" or honorably as the "black mother." She remained there for forty-two years, throughout all of World War II.

She often said “Be good, love the Lord, pray for those who do not know Him. What a great grace it is to know God!”

Once a student asked Bakhita: "What would you do, if you were to meet your captors?" Without hesitation she responded: "If I were to meet those who kidnapped me, and even those who tortured me, I would kneel and kiss their hands. For, if these things had not happened, I would not have been Christian and religious today".

Canonization

Immediately after her death on February 8, 1947, the people of Schio began to petition for her canonization. On October 1, 2000, Pope John Paul II canonized Josephine Bakhita. She has since become the patron saint of Sudan and victims of human trafficking.

Discussion

If slavery was prominent in Africa (after 1600) and violence against women in the middle east, (best portrayed in the movie ‘The Stoning of Soraya M.’), where does India stand?

Dowry deaths - a modern day hidden slavery

Dowry death is the murder or suicide of a married woman through continuous harassment and torture by her husband and in-laws over a dispute about her dowry, making the woman's home a most dangerous place. Dowry deaths are found predominantly in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Iran. India reports the highest total number of dowry deaths. The National Crime Bureau of India, as recently as 2017, recorded nearly 7000 dowry linked deaths. Many victims of “dowry deaths” are women whose dowries are already paid at the time of their marriage, but whose husbands and new families hope to gain more by pressuring and abusing them, the Guardian reported. India has an alarming trend that sees 20 women die every day as a result of harassment over a dowry. The brutal reality of the dowry system is not the story of rural areas. There are many reports of educated families in cities like Delhi and Bangalore that harass women for not bringing enough gold or money. In some cases, to escape punishment by law, they do not kill women directly but harass her mentally and physically forcing her to commit suicide.

Image Source : https://www.humanium.org/en/child-labor-in-india/

Child Labor and Trafficking

Trafficking of children for forced labor has become one of the largest organized crimes in the world. The International Labour Organization (ILO) reports the largest number of laborers in the 5 to 17-year-old age group is still found in the Asia-Pacific region. It estimates that in India, 5.8 million children from 5 to 17 years old work under poor conditions, representing the highest rate of child labor in South Asia. The Global Slavery Index estimates that on any given day in 2016 there were nearly 8 million people living in modern slavery in India.

‘The pen is mightier than the sword’ was coined in 1939 for a play by Edward Bulwer-Lytton. The ability to communicate thoughts effectively to others is a more powerful way to achieve results than with the use of violence. A classic example of the use of this phrase is in the context of the completely non-violent movement to free India from the rule of British that was started by Mahatma Gandhi. He inspired millions of common Indians to oppose the British in a peaceful manner. They were to boycott British products, not work for British factories, and demand their rights, but without the use of any violence. The result of this was the British being forced to give freedom to India after several centuries of colonization.

We too can resist social immoral practices by petitioning against crimes prevalent in our society and force the Department of Justice to investigate. St. Bakhita’s life inspires not passive acceptance but a firm resolve to work effectively to free those enslaved from oppression and violence, and to return them to their dignity in the full exercise of their rights. For that to succeed we cannot have the mindset of complete blindness.

‘Amazing Grace’ is one of the most beloved hymns of the last two centuries. It is closely associated to the African American community, and was written by a former enslaver, John Newton who was involved in the slave trade. This song reflects how wretched and blind we are to the reality of others and our reliance on God's grace in our lives.

As we move towards Lent, let us pray not only for all those suffering from cruel treatment, abuse and harassment but also for those with spiritual blindness. St. Josephine Bakhita, whose love and hope transformed the wounds of slavery into forgiveness and freedom—pray for us!