St. Josephine Bakhita: Model of fortitude and forgiveness

St. Josephine Bakhita
Feast Day: Feb. 8

The incredible journey of St. Josephine Bakhita from enslavement and torture to a vocation of service as a religious sister led to her canonization in 2000.

Born in Sudan around 1869, St. Josephine Bakhita was abducted by slave traders at age 8 and endured a succession of cruel owners until becoming a nanny for an Italian family. In 1888, during a stay with the Canossian Sisters of Venice, she was exposed to Christianity for the first time and was baptized two years later. She served with the sisters through her death in 1947.

St. Josephine Bakhita famously forgave her former owners, saying, “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 a Christian and a religious today.”

She is the patron saint of Sudan and human trafficking survivors.