By Elizabeth Scalia | OSV News
(Photo/ Voyage Comics and Publishing)
When she was canonized by Pope St. John Paul in 2000, Josephine Bakhita immediately became the patron saint of survivors of human trafficking.
Even a quick read of her story more than explains why. Kidnapped from the Sudanese village where her father was a chieftain and ironically renamed “Bakhita” (Arabic for the “lucky” or “fortunate” one) by her captors, Josephine endured such sustained trauma that she forgot her own name.
She was bought and sold five times, the last being to an Italian vice consul, Callisto Legnani, who apparently treated Josphine humanely enough that when he was required to return to Italy she begged to be taken, too.
In Italy, Legnani gave Bakhita over to the wife of a friend, who assigned her nursemaid duties over a young daughter. When the wife returned to Sudan, she put both child and nanny into the care and keeping of the Canossian sisters in Venice, where Bakhita had her first encounter with Christianity.
In Roberto Italo Zanini’s book, “Bakhita: From Slave to Saint” (Ignatius Press, 2013), she is quoted as saying that these sisters “instructed me with heroic patience and introduced me to that God who from childhood I had felt in my heart without knowing who He was.”
Eventually declared a free woman by the Italian court, Bakhita was baptized and confirmed as “Josephine Margaret” on the very same day. She remained with and later joined the Canossian sisters.
Writer Sarah Robsdottir dedicated her young adult novel “Brave Water” to Josephine Bakhita. The story tells the harrowing tale of a character not unlike the saint, a young woman who is kidnapped from her African village while gathering water but manages, with help, to battle her way to freedom.
In an email interview, Robsdottir, who is Catholic, said she first became aware of human trafficking when a flyer arrived in her mailbox a decade ago.
“It described the difficulties teenagers in developing nations face in order to acquire clean drinking water and how young girls between the ages of twelve and fifteen are often targeted by human traffickers while on their way to the springs. I locked eyes with the girl on the cover of the flyer, and knew I had to tell her story.”
Though the book is not based specifically on Bakhita’s story, Robsdottir shared that while working on the book, “I did a lot of research on human trafficking, and I read and reread ‘From Slave to Saint’ and sought St. Josephine Bakhita’s intercession over the project.”
The author has pledged at least 25% of the proceeds from “Brave Water” to charities that fight human trafficking.
Robsdottir’s efforts are not merely material, but also spiritual. “I take great comfort in praying the ‘Hail, Holy Queen’ every day. I trust in the powerful intercession of Our Lord’s Mother in the lives of my brothers and sisters in chains,” she says.
— “Brave Water” by Sarah Robsdottir. Voyage Comics & Publishing (Wisconsin Rapids, Wis., 2022). 370 pp., $14.95.
