SAINTS OF THE DAY: FEAST DAY ~ FEBRUARY 8TH

MEMORIAL OF SAINT JOSEPHINE BAKHITA, VIRGIN AND SAINT JEROME EMILIANI, PRIEST AND FOUNDER: FEAST DAY ~ FEBRUARY 8TH: Today, we celebrate the Memorial of Saint Josephine Bakhita, Virgin and Saint Jerome Emiliani, Priest and Founder.

St. Josephine Bakhita is the Patron Saint of Sudan and human-trafficking survivors, on her feast day today, February 8th, has been designated the International Day of Prayer to Stop Human Trafficking. Saint Jerome Emiliani is the Patron Saint of Orphans and Abandoned Children.

Through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary and Saints Josephine Bakhita and Jerome Emiliani on this feast day, we humbly pray for orphaned and abandoned children and for an end to all forms of Human Trafficking. We pray for torture victims, the poor, the needy and the most vulnerable in our communities and around the world. Amen🙏

St. Josephine Bakhita, whose love and hope transformed the wounds of slavery into forgiveness and freedom and St. Jerome Emiliani, helper and father of orphans …… Pray for us🙏

SAINT JOSEPHINE BAKHITA, VIRGIN: St. Josephine Bakhita (1869-1947), was a Canossian Sister who was kidnapped and sold into slavery in Sudan. St. Josephine was born in 1869, in a small village in the Darfur region of Sudan into a wealthy Sudanese family. She was kidnapped while working in the fields with her family and subsequently sold into slavery. Her captors asked for her name but she was too terrified to remember so they named her “Bakhita,” which means “fortunate” in Arabic. Retrospectively, Bakhita was very fortunate, but the first years of her life do not necessarily attest to it. She was tortured by her various owners who branded her, beat and cut her. In her biography she notes one particularly terrifying moment when one of her masters cut her 114 times and poured salt in her wounds to ensure that the scars remained. “I felt I was going to die any moment, especially when they rubbed me in with the salt,” Bakhita wrote. She bore her suffering valiantly though she did not know Christ or the redemptive nature of suffering. She also had a certain awe for the world and its creator. “Seeing the sun, the moon and the stars, I said to myself: ‘Who could be the Master of these beautiful things?’ And I felt a great desire to see Him, to know Him and to pay Him homage.”

After being sold a total of five times, Bakhita was purchased by Callisto Legnani, the Italian consul in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan in 1883. He treated her well. Two years later, he took Bakhita to Italy to work as a nanny for his colleague, Augusto Michieli. He, in turn, sent Bakhita to accompany his daughter to a school in Venice run by the Canossian Sisters. Bakhita felt called to learn more about the Church. In the meantime, Michieli wanted to take Josephine and his daughter back to Sudan, but Josephine refused to return. The disagreement escalated and was taken to the Italian courts in 1889. The Italian courts ruled that Bakhita was enslaved illegally and declared her a free woman because slavery was not recognized in Italy and it had also been illegal in Sudan since before Josephine had been born. She became enamored with the Catholic faith and chose to stay in Italy. Bakhita was baptized in 1890 and received her First Holy Communion from the future Pope St. Pius X. She took the Christian name of “Josephine Margaret”, and in 1893 entered the Institute of Canossian Daughters of Charity. She made her profession in 1896 and was sent to Northern Italy, where she dedicated her life to assisting her community and teaching others to love God. She was known for her smile, gentleness and holiness. St. Josephine Bakhita was affectionately called “Our Black Mother” by the Italians, as her amiable spirit and warm heart won the admiration of many people during her fifty years of religious life. She was known for her charity towards children and the poor, her indomitable spirit during the hardship of slavery, and her joy in religious life. She even went on record 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 Religious today.” She served as faithful Canossian for some fifty years. She died on February 6, 1947, and was revered by the people of her adopted land. She was beatified in 1992 by Pope John Paul II and canonized in 2000 by the same Pontiff, who has called her a “universal sister … who can reveal to us the secret of true happiness.” She is the first person to be canonized from Sudan and is the patron saint of the country. St. Josephine Bakhita is the Patron Saint of Sudan and human-trafficking survivors and her feast day, February 8th, has been designated the “International Day of Prayer to Stop Human Trafficking.”

PRAYER: O God, You led St. Josephine from abject slavery to the dignity of being Your child and a spouse of Christ. Grant us, we beg You, after her example to follow the crucified Lord Jesus with constant love and obtain Your mercy by persevering in charity. Amen🙏

SAINT JEROME EMILIANI, PRIEST AND FOUNDER: St. Jerome Emiliani (1481-1537) is the founder of the Clerks Regular of Somaschini. Bon in 1481, St. Jerome was a Venetian nobleman who joined the army and in 1508, he was the military commander of Venice, fighting the League of Cambrai, when he was taken, prisoner. In prison, he gave his life to Christ and was miraculously released. The miraculous liberation was attributed to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin, he decided to begin a new life entirely devoted to charity toward the poor, especially orphans. In 1518, Jerome was ordained to the priesthood at thirty-seven and plunged into his real life’s work. He gave his whole life to the poor and suffering, founding orphanages, hospitals and shelters for prostitutes. In the year of plague and famine (1528), he seemed to be everywhere, and showed his zeal especially for the orphans, whose number had so greatly increased. He rented a house for them near the church of St. Rose and, with the assistance of some pious laymen, ministered to their wants. To his charge was also committed the hospital for incurables, founded by St. Cajetan.

In 1531 he went to Verona and induced the citizens to build a hospital; at Brescia he founded the first known orphanage of modern times, at Bergamo one for boys and another for girls. Here also he founded the first home for fallen women who wished to do penance. Two priests, Alessandro Besuzio and Agostino Bariso, now joined him in his labours of charity, and In 1532, St. Jerome established the religious society, congregation of Clerks Regular of Somascha, a secluded hamlet between Milan and Bergamo, which looked after the education of youth in colleges, academies, and seminaries. He was the first to teach children the Faith by using questions and answers. In the rule, Jerome puts down as the principal work of the community the care of orphans, poor, and sick, and demands that dwellings, food and clothing shall bear the mark of religious poverty. Jerome fell a martyr to his zeal; contracting a disease at Bergamo, he died at Somascha on February 8, 1537, a victim of an epidemic then raging, while ministering to those stricken by it. He was beatified by Benedict XIV in 1747, and canonized by Clement XIII in 1767. The Office and Mass in his honour were approved eight years later. He’s the Patron Saint of orphans and abandoned children.

PRAYER: God, Father of mercies, You made St. Jerome the helper and father of orphans. By his intercession help us to preserve that spirit of adoption by which we are called, and really are, Your children. Amen🙏