Saint of the Month: Saint Bakhita

Welcome back to the Saint of the Month! For February, I’m focusing on Saint Josephine Bakhita, whose feast day is tomorrow, February 8.

Saint Bakhita was born in 1869 in Sudan. Her first few years of life were happy and care-free, but at a very young age she was kidnapped by slave traders. She was sold numerous times, and some of her owners treated her brutally.

When she was bought by the Italian consul in Sudan, Callisto Legnani, she asked to return to Italy with him, as he was much kinder to her than her previous owners. While in Italy, she became a nanny to the daughter of an acquaintance of Legnani. The daughter was sent to a school run by the Canossian Sisters. St. Bakhita became very interested in the Church and was baptized as Josephine Margaret.

When it was time for the daughter to return to Sudan, St. Bakhita refused to leave the Sisters. The courts decided that since slavery was not recognized in Italy and was illegal in Sudan (and had been illegal there before St. Bakhita was captured), St. Bakhita was a free woman and could do as she pleased. In the end, St. Bakhita became one of the Canossian Sisters herself.

The virtue of St. Bakhita’s which I am focusing on is forgiveness. St. Bakhita held no grudge against her kidnappers, and reportedly said, “If I were to meet the slave-traders who kidnapped me and even those who tortured me, I would kneel and kiss their hands, for if that did not happen, I would not be a Christian and Religious today.”

This kind of forgiveness is radical and shocking. It may seem, in a way, wrong to us that St. Bakhita did not have harsher things to say about people who were so cruel.  Christ Himself, however, forgave all His persecutors freely when He said on the Cross, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

And that, really, is what it comes down to. St. Bakhita’s kidnappers certainly did not deserve forgiveness, and they should certainly have been brought to justice. Christ calls us to forgive everyone, however, even people who do not deserve it. Of course, forgiveness does not mean abandoning justice, doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t acknowledge it when a great wrong has been done, and doesn’t mean people shouldn’t be punished for their actions. Forgiveness just means letting go of animosity and wishing for the ultimate good of the other, even when the other has hurt us very badly. This can be very hard to do sometimes, but who better to help us than St. Bakhita?

Saint Bakhita, pray for us. Help us to always forgive others when they hurt us.