Vatican prelate, Sudanese U.N. representatives help honor saint

KENDALL PARK — A modern-day saint who encountered God in the midst of her captivity was honored Feb. 7 at a Mass at St. Augustine of Canterbury Church.

During the liturgy, a stained-glass window of St. Josephine Bakhita, known as the daughter of the Sudan, was unveiled and blessed in the parish’s Chapel of the Saints.

Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, apostolic nuncio and permanent observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, presided and gave the homily. Father Robert G. Lynam, pastor, St. Augustine of Canterbury Parish, and Father Roger Landry, attaché to the nuncio, concelebrated.

Akuei Bona Malwal and Tarig Ahmed Mohamed M. Salih, Sudanese representatives to the United Nations, were among the attendees.

In his homily, the archbishop reminded the congregation that those who seek God will find him, not only in churches, but in their daily life, even in their struggles. One of the ways we must use our freedom from adversity is to reach out with compassion to those who are suffering, he continued. The cleric disclosed that the plague of modern slavery ensnares about 41 million people today, even in places close to home.

Father Lynam called his introduction to the Sudanese saint “divine providence,” and detailed his decision to include a window and first-class relic (a piece of a bone) at St. Augustine of Canterbury Parish.

“I was in Rome for the canonization of St. Katharine Drexel [Oct. 1, 2000],” he recalled, “and St. Josephine Bakhita was one of the four saints Pope John Paul II canonized that day. As I came to discern her life, I was struck by the tensions she endured, tensions similar to those in today’s society.”

The Canossian nun known as Sister Josephine Bakhita was born about 1868 in the Darfur region of Sudan to a prosperous family. She was kidnapped at age seven or eight by Arab slave traders. Over the next 12 years, she was bought and sold so many times that she forgot her original name. In 1883, she was sold to the Italian Vice Consul and brought to Italy where she served as nanny to another family.

Sister Josephine Bakhita was put in the care of the Canossian Sisters in Venice where they taught her about God. Refusing to leave to rejoin her mistress captor, the dispute went to court, where it was determined slavery had been outlawed in Sudan before she was born and so she was a free woman. Choosing to remain with the Canossian Sisters, she was baptized in 1890 and took the name Josephine Margaret Bakhita, Latin for “the lucky one.”

Sister Josephine Bakhita professed her vows for the Canossian order in 1896, and for the next 42 years worked in their Italian convent as a cook and doorkeeper. The religious also travelled and spoke to other sisters to prepare them for work in Africa.

Sister Josephine died in 1947. Her feast day is Feb. 8. She is the patron saint of the Sudan and of human trafficking survivors.

Archbishop Caccia incensed and blessed the stained-glass window of St. Josephine Bakhita installed in the wall of the chapel. It depicted her in the habit of her Canossian order; alongside were chains symbolizing her captivity, a map showing the Sudan in the northeast portion of Africa, and one of the saint’s noted quotations: “The Lord has loved me so much: we must love everyone… we must be compassionate!”

“She was always filled with joy,” said Father Lynam. “She said that, if she had the hands of her captors, she would kiss them, because they led her to the life with Christ she was living.”