As Christians, we believe all people are created by God and destined to share God's life forever.  During our life on earth God's Spirit lives in us, helping us follow the example and teachings of Jesus who became one of us to show us who God is and to save us from sin and death.  Many people live lives of extraordinary virtue and fidelity to God's grace.  The Church officially proclaims some of these "saints."   They offer us an example and inspiration for our own lives. The Kenya Outreach Committee has chosen St. Josephine Bakhita as the patron saint of the secondary school we plan to build in Gitare, Kenya. We ask her intercession on behalf of all the young people and their families who will benefit from this project.

St. Josephine Bakhita

In 1869 Bakhita was born into a well-to-do family in Olgossa, a village in the Sudanese region of Darfur, Africa.  She had three brothers and four sisters, one of whom was her twin.  When she was seven, she was kidnapped by Arab slave traders and over the next eight years was re-sold five times.  She was so traumatized by the brutality of her captors, she could not remember her own name - and was mockingly dubbed "bakita"-fortunate one.  At age 13 her cruelest torture left her permanently scarred.  To mark her as his possession, her fourth owner had patterns drawn all over her torso and arms, then deep cuts made along the lines, and flour and salt rubbed into her wounds.  Her final owner brought her to Italy where she was treated more humanely.  She became the nanny for their newborn daughter and when the family had to go on a business trip, they left Bakhita and the child in the custody of the Carossian Sisters in Venice.  There Bakhita came to know the God she had always experienced in her heart without knowing who He was.  In 1890 she asked to be baptized and received the name Josephine.  When the Italian family returned to reclaim her, Josephine firmly resisted - and an Italian court upheld her freedom, since slavery is not recognized in Italian law.  In 1896 she took her vows as a Carossian Sister and for the next fifty years lived a quiet, prayerful life in one of their convents in northern Italy.  Her Sisters quickly recognized her unusual holiness and her superiors ordered her to write her memoirs and to travel throughout Italy telling the story of her life.  Her final days were marked with sickness and pain and in her delirium she re-lived her days of slavery, frequently calling out, please loosen the chains.  They are so heavy.  Nevertheless, she forgave her captors, saying, 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 a religious today.  Josephine Bakhita died on February 8, 1947 and just twelve years later, the process for her canonization was begun.  Pope John Paul II beatified her on December 1, 1978 and on October 1, 2000 she was canonized - the first Sudanese ever to be officially proclaimed a saint.

Although times have changed, the children of Kenya still face many adversities...just as St. Josephine did in her lifetime. Throughout Africa today, child trade - as well as child labor - still exists.  Education is the key to offering Africa's young people an opportunity for a better life for themselves and their families. We invite you to become an enthusiastic participant in our parish Kenya Outreach Project in whatever ways you can.