23 Facts About Josephine Bakhita

Josephine Bakhita served in Italy for 50 years until her death in 1947.

Josephine Bakhita was canonized in 2000, becoming the first female black Catholic saint in the modern era.

Josephine Bakhita was born around 1869 in Darfur in the village of Olgossa, west of Nyala and close to Mount Agilerei.

Josephine Bakhita was one of the Daju people; her respected and reasonably prosperous father was brother of the village chief.

Josephine Bakhita was surrounded by a loving family of three brothers and three sisters; as she says in her autobiography: "I lived a very happy and carefree life, without knowing what suffering was".

Josephine Bakhita was forced to walk barefoot about 960 kilometres to El-Obeid and was sold and bought twice before she arrived there.

In El-Obeid, Josephine Bakhita was bought by a rich Arab who used her as a maid for his two daughters.

Josephine Bakhita's fourth owner was a Turkish general, and she had to serve his mother-in-law and his wife, who were cruel to their slaves.

Josephine Bakhita once said that the most terrifying of all of her memories there was when she was marked by a process resembling both scarification and tattooing, which was a traditional practice throughout Sudan.

Josephine Bakhita used the flour to draw patterns on her skin and then she cut deeply along the lines before filling the wounds with salt to ensure permanent scarring.

In 1883, Josephine Bakhita was bought in Khartoum by the Italian Vice Consul Callisto Legnani, who did not beat or punish her.

Two years later, when Legnani himself had to return to Italy, Josephine Bakhita begged to go with him.

Josephine Bakhita lived there for three years and became nanny to the Michielis daughter Alice, born in February 1886.

When Turina Michieli returned to take her daughter and maid back to Suakin, Josephine Bakhita firmly refused to leave.

For three days, Michieli tried to force the issue, finally appealing to the attorney general of the King of Italy; while the superior of the Institute for baptismal candidates that Josephine Bakhita attended contacted the Patriarch of Venice about her protegee's problem.

On 7 December 1893, Josephine Bakhita entered the novitiate of the Canossians and on 8 December 1896, she took her vows, welcomed by Cardinal Sarto.

Josephine Bakhita's only extended time away was between 1935 and 1939, when she stayed at the Missionary Novitiate in Vimercate ; mostly visiting other Canossian communities in Italy, talking about her experiences and helping to prepare young sisters for work in Africa.

Josephine Bakhita's gentleness, calming voice, and the ever-present smile became well known and Vicenzans still refer to her as Sor Moretta or Madre Moretta.

Josephine Bakhita's remains were translated to the Church of the Holy Family of the Canossian convent of Schio in 1969.

Josephine Bakhita is venerated as a modern African saint, and as a statement against the brutal history of slavery.

Josephine Bakhita is regarded as the patron saint of both the country and the Catholic Church in Sudan.

Today, Catholics teach that Josephine Bakhita's legacy is that transformation is possible through suffering.

In 2023, Canadian sculptor Timothy Schmalz centered his human-trafficking sculpture "Let the Oppressed Go Free" on Josephine Bakhita, depicting her opening a trapdoor as she frees human-trafficking victims who emerge from underground.