Saint of the Day, February 8

Saint Josephine Bakhita (c. 1869–1947) was born in the Darfur region of Sudan and kidnapped by Arab slavers as a child of about nine. So traumatized that she forgot her own name, she was given the Arabic word 'Bakhita' ('the lucky one') in mockery. After enduring more than a decade of bondage, she was bought by an Italian consul, brought to Venice, and entrusted to the Canossian Sisters, where she heard the Gospel and was baptized. Declared free by an Italian court, she chose to remain with the sisters as a Canossian Daughter of Charity. For nearly fifty years she served as cook, sacristan and portress in Schio, beloved by the town as the 'Madre Moretta.' John Paul II canonized her in 2000 as a witness against every form of human trafficking.