Born in Sudan in 1868 Józefina Bakhita, was kidnapped at around the age of 10, and became a slave.
She was sold many times to successive owners and experienced almost all the physical and spiritual suffering of slavery.
When she finally found herself in the hands of Callisto Legnani, the Italian consul, she regained her freedom.
She went with him to Italy to take care of his family. There she came into contact with the Daughters of Mercy, which took up the effort of her religious education.
After several months of preparation, Bakhita was baptized and confirmed. She was then named Józefina as a sign of new life. A few years later, she joined the Daughters of Charity in Venice.
For the next 50 years, she served God and her fellow sisters, taking on the simplest jobs: cooking, cleaning, sewing.
Her pleasant appearance and warm voice helped many poor and abandoned people who came to the monastery where she lived. After a long illness, she died in 1947.
In 1992 she was beatified by Saint. Pope John Paul II. The following year, during his apostolic journey to Africa, he said: “Rejoice, Africa! Bakhita has returned to you: the daughter of Sudan, sold into slavery, now enjoys freedom – eternal freedom, the freedom of the saints! In October 2000, St. John Paul II canonized Josephine Bakhita.
Benedict XVI, in his encyclical Spe salvi, cited her biography as an example of the inseparable and determining relationship of faith and hope in the life of Christians.
