My Thoughts 08/02/2022

Today, 8th February is designated by the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and the International Union of Superiors General as an annual day of prayer and awareness against human trafficking.

Today is also the feast day of St. Josephine Bakhita, who was kidnapped as a child, sold into slavery in Sudan at the age of seven, and given the name Bakhitar which means fortunate. She was resold several times until finally in 1883 she was sold to Callisto Legnani, Italian consul in Khartoum, Sudan.

When he returned to Italy she was given to his friend Augusto Michieli . When Bakhita became nanny to Alice, Augusto’s daughter, she came into contact with the Canossian sisters. Through this meeting she was drawn to the Catholic faith, was baptised, and confirmed in 1890, taking the name Josephine. Once Josephine was freed, she became a Canossian nun and dedicated her life to sharing her testament of deliverance from slavery and comforting the poor and suffering.

She died in 1947 and was declared a Saint in 2000.

St. Josephine Bakhita has become a symbol of resistance and hope for Christians in Sudan, persecuted by the Islamic fundamentalist regime, and for women and oppressed people in general on a continent where children as young as she was are still being sold into slavery.

During his homily at her canonisation Mass, St. Pope John Paul II said that in Saint Josephine Bakhita,

“we find a shining example of genuine emancipation. The history of her life inspires not passive expectance but the firm resolve to work effectively to free girls and women from oppression and violence, and return them to their dignity in the full exercise of their rights.”