Biography of Saint Josephine Bakhita

Faith and slavery

Year of birth: 1869 8 July 1947 Saint Josephine Bakhita was born in Oglassa (Darfur, Sudan) in 1869. It was a Canossian religious sudanese naturalized Italian. The Canossian daughters of charity, also called, are a Catholic female religious Institute. At about the age of five years is abducted by Arab slave traders. For forget your name as well as that of their relatives: her kidnappers called Bakhita, the Arabic word for "lucky". Sold many times by slave traders in the markets of El Obeid and Khartoum, knows the humiliations, the physical and moral sufferings of slavery. Also suffers a tattoo, imposed in a bloody manner, while in the service of a Turkic General: on her chest, belly and arm the are drawn over 100 signs, engraved with a razor and then covered with salt, in order to create permanent scars. In the sudanese capital was eventually bought by Italian Consul Callisto Legnani, resident in the city: the purpose of Legnani is to free her. The Italian had previously bought children slaves to return them to their families. In the case of Bakhita reuniting is not made possible, not only because of the remoteness of the village of origin, primarily because of the girl's memory lapse about the names of their places and their families. Bakhita stops to live in the House of the Consul for two years, serenely, working with the other servants without no one has more considered a slave. Following the Mahadista Uprising, in 1884 the Italian diplomat has to flee from the capital: Bakhita begs him not to leave her. Together with Augusto Michieli, friend of Mr. Lakhani, reached before the port of Suakin on the Red Sea, where they learn of the fall of Khartoum, then after a month they Board at a time. In Italy, Augusto Michieli and his wife take Bakhita with them, because you become nanny of his daughter Karen. Bakhita lived for three years at their home in Zianigo, a town hamlet of Mirano. Spouses De Michieli you traferiscono then in Africa, to Suakin, where they owned a hotel, leaving in temporary custody daughter Karen and Bakhita, at the Institute of the catechumens in Venice, managed by the daughters of charity (Sisters). Bakhita is hosted for free as a female catechumen: begins to receive Catholic religious education. When Mrs. Michieli returns from Africa to recover is the daughter that Bakhita, L'Africaine with great courage and decision the manifests its firm intention to remain in Italy with the Canossian Sisters. Mrs. Michieli, who disagrees with the decision to try to intervene Bakhita, Crown Prosecutor, coivolgendo Cardinal Patriarch of Venice, Domenico Agostini. They present to Mrs. Michieli as in Italy its call is similar to the implementation of the laws of slavery, not in force in the country: on 29 November 1889 Bakhita is therefore declared legally free. Bakhita remains in the convent of the Canossian Sisters and on 9 January 1890 receives the sacraments of Christian initiation with the first name Giuseppina Margarita. On 7 December 1893 enters the novitiate of the same Institute and 8 December 1896 pronounce his first religious vows. In 1902 was transferred to a convent of the order in Schio (Vicenza) where he spent the rest of his life. Here Bakhita works as cuciniera and sacristan. During the first world war, part of the convent is used as a military hospital and happen to work as an Assistant nurse. Since 1922 assigns the task of Porter, service that put her in contact with the local population: locals are intrigued by this unusual black nun, who does not speak good itliano, at least not as much as the local dialect (veneto). Thanks to its gentle ways, calm voice, his face always smiling, they begin to love it so much that was renamed "Mother Mallaya". Bakhita has a special personal charisma; his superiors know this and on a number of occasions asked her to dictate his memoirs. The first story is dictated to sister James Fabian in 1910, which produces a manuscript of 31 pages in Italian. In 1929, at the invitation of Enlightened Cato, ceo of the family of Mr and Mrs Michieli, person to whom Bakhita was particularly close and grateful, it is said to another sister, sister Chris Turk; This second manuscript is now lost, probably destroyed by the same Bakhita. At the request of the Superior General of the order of the daughters of charity, at the beginning of November 1930 Vienna interviewed in Venice from Ida Zanolini, lay Canossian and elementary school teacher. This in 1931 published the book "great story", which will be reprinted 4 times within six years. The fame of Bakhita thus extends across the country: many people, groups and students who travel to Schio to meet Sister Bakhita. Since 1933, with s sister Leopolda Benetti, missionary sister coming back from China, will rotate the Italy for missionary propaganda lectures. Shy by nature, able to speak only in the Venetian dialect, Bakhita would only say a few words at the end of the meetings; It was his presence, however, to attract the interest and the curiosity of thousands. The December 11, 1936, Bakhita with a group of missionaries leaving for Addis Ababa, are received by Benito Mussolini in the Palazzo Venezia in Rome. By 1939 begin to appear the first serious health issues, because most of them will move away from Schio. Sister Josephine Bakhita dies the day February 8, 1947 after a long and painful illness. The remains of a family's religious times was initially buried in Tomb, Gaertner, with a view to later translate into the Temple of the Holy Family Canossian convent of Schio, implemented in 1969. The process of canonization began in 1959, only 12 years after his death. The day December 1, 1978 Pope John Paul II signed a decree of the heroic virtues of the servant of God Josephine Bakhita. During the same reign, Josephine Bakhita is beatified on May 17, 1992 and canonized the day October 1, 2000. The liturgical feast is celebrated on 8 February day.
Article contributed by the team of collaborators.