Every year at the Festival of Life, the relics of some Saint are present to unite earth and Heaven in a single prayer of praise and intercession to the God of Life.
This year we will have the gift of welcoming among us
Saint Josephine Bakhita
Every year at the Festival of Life, the relics of some Saint are present to unite earth and Heaven in a single prayer of praise and intercession to the God of Life.
This year we will have the gift of welcoming among us
Saint Josephine Bakhita
Born in Sudan in 1869, she was kidnapped at the age of seven and sold to slave traders. She lived an existence of deprivation, whippings, physical and moral suffering, and transitions from one master to another that left her without an identity. It was her kidnappers who gave her the name Bakhita, which means “fortunate.” In 1882, she was bought in Khartoum by the Italian Consul Calisto Legnani, who would bring Bakhita with him to Italy when he returned for political reasons. There, she was entrusted to the family of Augusto Michieli, a friend of the Consul; she became the nanny of their daughter, Alice. Alice’s mother, needing to travel to Africa for a certain period of time, decided to leave her daughter with Bakhita as guests of the Canossian Sisters of Venice.
Here, Bakhita discovered Jesus and the Christian faith with amazement, and on January 9, 1890, she received the gift of baptism, taking the name Josephine. With unusual determination and courage, Bakhita manifested her desire to remain with the Canossian sisters and serve that God who had given her so many proofs of His love. In 1893, after an intense journey of faith, she decided to become a Canossian sister to serve God. In 1896, she pronounced her vows and embarked on a path of holiness. For about fifty years, she filled humble and simple tasks, lived with great generosity and with a goodness that won over the people of Schio (Vicenza), where she remained for a good 45 years. She died on February 8, 1947. Her humility, her simplicity, and her constant smile won the hearts of all those who had the gift of meeting her. Her fellow sisters esteemed her for her sweetness, her goodness, her humor, and her deep desire to love and make the Lord known.
She used to say: “If I were to meet those slave traders who kidnapped me and even those who tortured me, I would kneel and kiss their hands, because if that had not happened, I would not be a Christian and a religious sister now…”
Josephine Bakhita was beatified on May 17, 1992, and canonized on October 1, 2000, by Pope Saint John Paul II.
Her liturgical feast day is celebrated on February 8.
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Vatican website
Canossian Sister’s website
The life of Saint Josephine Bakhita is a living testimony that if the human heart opens up to the Grace and Mercy of God,even the deepest wounds of life can become the place where God reveals Himself. Her life is a living hope for all those who are marked in life by various forms of slavery, so that they may experience the power of God who breaks every chain of evil.
During the Festival of Life, we will have the gift of welcoming a relic of Saint Bakhita, who “will be with us” throughout the different days.
We invoke her intercession from this moment on upon all the participants of the Festival of Life 2026.
O God, Father of mercy, who gave us Saint Josephine Bakhita as a universal sister, an evangelical model of simple faith and active charity,
grant us also the will to believe and love according to the Gospel. Hear the prayers of anyone who invokes her intercession.
Grant us the grace of a heart as merciful as hers, a heart capable of forgiving even those who have done us harm, a heart capable of overcoming evil with the powerful force of good.
Saint Josephine Bakhita, pray for us!
* You can send us your thanksgiving and/or prayer requests here.
Every day, we will pray intensely for them and place them in the chapel,
at the feet of Jesus in the Eucharist, next to the relic of this saint.