From slavery to sainthood: she transformed her suffering into love and compassion

Today we celebrate an African saint: Josephine Bakhita (1869-1947). At the age of nine, she was kidnapped by slave-traders, beaten till she bled, and sold five times in the slave-markets of Sudan. Finally, in 1882, she was bought for the Italian consul, who returned to Italy. Here, after the terrifying “masters” who had owned her up to that point, Bakhita came to know a totally different kind of “master”, the living God, the God of Jesus Christ. Now she had “hope”. Through the knowledge of this hope she was “redeemed”, no longer a slave, but a free child of God. —On 9 January 1890, she was baptized and confirmed and received her first Holy Communion from the hands of the Patriarch of Venice.