Kidnapped 

Bakhita (though that was not her given name) was born in 1869 in Darfur Sudan. She was born into a family that was Anamist: They believed there was a supreme being who was distant and did not care about the daily affairs of people. The world and the affairs of people were governed by spirits that inhabited the mountains, rivers, and animals. As a little child, she would observe the sky at night, the sun in the morning, and all the other natural phenomena. Filled with wonder, she would ask herself, “Who could possibly be the master of these beautiful things? And I felt a great desire to see him, to know him, and to give him homage.” She said, “In the morning, I watched the sun as it was born and in the evening as it set. And I thought that if it was beautiful, how much more beautiful must be the one who had made it.”

In 1874, her older sister was kidnapped by Muslim slave traders. Then, in 1876, just seven years old, she, too, was kidnapped. They gave her a new name, Bakhita, which means “Lucky” in Arabic. She was bought and sold three times to unimaginably cruel masters who made her serve their families twenty hours a day. And worse, Bakhita was verbally, psychologically, and physically tortured every single day, whipped until she bled, beaten, and cut with a razor more than 118 times. However, God also preserved her from rape and preserved her virginity. 

How could a person survive being kidnapped, taken from their family, who they never see again, serve twenty hours a day, and treated worse than an animal, let alone the constant torture every single day for seven years? What physical, mental, and emotional wounds she must have had. How could anyone be healed of those wounds? 

Ransomed 

In the 1880s, Italian businessmen established numerous ventures in Sudan. Many of these Catholic businessmen used their resources to ransom enslaved people, purchasing them from their masters, employing them as paid servants, and eventually bringing them to Italy, where they were set free. In 1882, Bakhita was ransomed by an Italian businessman, Calisto Legnani. He took Bakhita to Italy and entrusted her to an Italian couple, Augusto and Turina Michieli, who lived near Venice, where Bakhita served as their nanny. 

In 1888, this couple moved to Sudan to start a new business venture, leaving their young daughter and Bakhita in the care of a religious order, the Canossians. The next year, 1889, the Michieli’s returned to get their daughter and then go back to Sudan permanently. Bakhita chose to stay with the Canossian Sisters. 

The Michieli’s estate was managed by a man named Illuminato Checchini, who was close friends with the Cardinal of Venice, Giuseppe Sarto, who became Pope St. Pius X. Checchini was the first person to take a personal interest in her Christian formation. He gave her a Crucifix and as he gave it to her, he kissed it with devotion, then explained that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, had died for me. That Jesus had come to set everyone free from every form of slavery, especially from slavery to sin and death. He was the one who invited Michieli’s maid, against the wishes of her mistress, to teach Bakhita how to pray. He is also the one who accompanied Bakhita along the successive stages in her journey of faith, always ready to help her whenever the need arose. 

On January 9th, 1890, Bakita was Baptized, Confirmed, and received her first Holy Communion. In 1893, she entered the novitiate for the Canossian sisters, and Checcinini paid the dowry.

In 1895, after two and a half years of preparation, Bakhita became a nun and lived out her vocation for 51 years as a Canossian sister. Bakita died on February 8th, 1947, and was canonized a Saint on October 1st, 2000. 

Healing   

How could Bakhita be healed from the physical, emotional, and mental trauma she experienced? She lived a very ordinary life of a Catholic religious sister for 51 years, in which she had a rule of life and daily meditation. She received the Eucharist every day. She had a daily examination of conscience and went to confession every week. She had meaningful and really good friendships with the other sisters. These are the things that heal us.

Jesus has given us everything we need to be healed through His Church. We can use what has been done to us as an excuse to remain in our victimhood, or we can allow Christ to heal us. But Bakhita was healed through all the Catholic stuff. Bakhita would say, “My life is good!”

St. Josephine Bakhita shows us the way to be healed by God’s Providence

Bakhita endured some of the worst suffering imaginable: kidnapped, enslaved, beaten, and treated as property. Yet, instead of allowing this to define her life negatively, she responded with forgiveness, gratitude, and joy. She did not deny her suffering; she remembered it. But she saw it in light of divine providence. Nothing can happen unless God wills it or allows it, and if He allows something extremely difficult and painful, God works all things for good for those who love him. 

She once said, “If I were to meet the slave-traders who kidnapped me and even those who tortured me, I would kneel and kiss their hands, for if that had not happened, I would not be a Christian and religious today.”

This response is radical! She does not say, “They didn’t really hurt me” or “It wasn’t that bad.” She acknowledges evil but refuses to let it control her. She saw it as part of a larger divine plan that ultimately led her to Christ.

Living in the Hands of Providence

St. Josephine Bakhita teaches us that peace comes from trusting in Divine Providence. Nothing can happen except what God wills or allows, and He works all things for our greatest good. With God as my Father, no matter what happens, I am safe. 

She once said, “I am definitely loved. And whatever happens to me, I am awaited by this Love. And so my life is good.” And, “I give everything to the Paron, and he takes care of me – he is obliged to.”

So, let’s make that our Resolution, to say to ourselves over and over, with God as my Father, no matter what happens, I am safe. My life is good.

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