Yesterday was the feast of one of the patrons of The Face of Mercy. St. Josephine Bahkita is both a great model for those suffering with mental illness and a great instructor for the rest on how to be compassionate to those who are.
St. Josephine Bakhita’s story is one I feel completely lost to do justice to. When I was young, I read her story in a very detailed picture book and all I remembered were the account of her torture. It was only a few years ago that I was reintroduced to her through Dawn Eden’s book on healing: My Peace I Give to You. Reading that book, and in particular, Bahkita’s story was profound for me. This little African girl’s childhood was blissful until at the age of 7 she was kidnapped and sold into slavery. The trauma shook her so profoundly she forgot her own name. The kidnappers called her Bahkita (Lucky), a name likely given in irony, that seems to have foreshadowed God’s hand in her life.
In this book, the author, Dawn Eden, details particular abuses that little Bahkhita suffered that parallel experiences of those who survive sexual abuse or temptations to self-harm. More than those experiences though, “what truly makes Bakhita a patron for all who have endured affliction is not that she was a slave, but that she was redeemed. If her early life was a case study in abuse and suffering, her adult life, as we will see, is a case study in healing and forgiveness” (In Search of Peace, Dawn Eden).
I was given this book by a sister of life early in my own journey of healing and therapy, likely around the time that I received a trauma-related diagnosis. Many aspects of Bakhita’s trauma, particularly her disruptions in memory, evidence that she suffered from nightmares of her trauma, and a lack of ability to be happy even after she was freed from slavery resonated. So too, did her profound peace and joy in a relationship with Christ. When Bakhita was introduced to Christianity “she heard that there is a [master] above all masters, the Lord of all lords, and that this Lord is good, goodness in person. She came to know that this Lord even knew her, that he had created her—that he actually loved her...she was known and loved and she was awaited” (Spe Salvi, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI). Bakhita made a stand for her own freedom and remained with the sisters in Italy who had introduced her to Christ, taking the name Josephine Margaret Fortunata (a variant of Bakhita) at Baptism.
The horizon of her life was fundamentally changed by encountering the love of Christ. She was freed of external slavery and internal pain that also held her captive. And she wanted that love to be shared and modeled for everyone! The quotes she is remembered for are ones that speak of the immense love of God, our need to be compassionate, and a forgiveness of all those who harmed her.
“Be good, love the Lord, pray for those who do not know Him. What a great grace it is to know God!”
“The Lord has loved me so much, we must love everyone, we must be compassionate!”
“I am definitively loved- and whatever happens to me- I am awaited by this Love. And so, my life is good.”
St. Josephine Bakhita, pray for us!