Saint Josephine Bakhita

St. Josephine was born in Sudan, 1869. In 1877, when she was 8 years old, she was seized by Arab slave traders and was forced to walk barefoot 960 klm to El-Obeid and was sold. She was forcibly converted Islam. In 1883, Bakhita was bought in Khartoum by an Italian Vice Consul. In 1884 the escaped from a besieged Khartoum to Suakin; in 1885 they left and arrived at Genoa, Italy. She lived 3 years in Zianigo, Veneto with the Michielis family. In 1888, Turina Michieli wanted to see her husband in Sudan alone and left her daughter and Bakhita in the care of the Canossian Sisters in Venice. There Bakhita encountered Christianity for the first time. When Turina Michieli returned to take her daughter and Bakhita back to Sudan, Bakhita refused. In 1890 Bakhita was baptized with the name Josephine, confirmed and received Holy Communion. In 1893 she entered the novitiate of the Canossian Sisters and in 1896 she took her vows. In 1902 she was assigned to the Canossian convent at Schio, Vicenza, where she spent the rest of her life. She died by sickness in 1947. Her feast day is on February 8 and is the patron saint of Sudan and human trafficking survivors.