St. Josephine Bakhita is the patron saint of victims of modern slavery and human trafficking. St. Josephine Bakhita novena can be prayed if you or someone you know is a victim of human trafficking.
About St. Josephine Bakhita
Saint Josephine Margaret Bakhita was born in the Sudanese village of Olgossa in the year 1869. Her uncle was a tribal chief and she was a member of the Daju tribe.
She was kidnapped and sold into slavery as a child while working in the fields with her family. She was too terrified to tell her kidnappers her name, so they called her “Bakhita,” which means “fortunate” in Arabic.
Bakhita’s early years were not without adversity. Many of her owners tortured her by branding, beating, and cutting her. In her biography, she described an episode in which her master cut her 114 times and poured salt on the wounds to induce scars.
Bakhita bravely suffered despite her ignorance about Christ and Christianity. She wrote that she was awestruck by the planet and the deity who created it even back then. “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.”
Bakhita had been sold five times before being bought by Callisto Legnani, the Italian consul in Sudan’s capital. He sent her to Italy to work as a nanny for his college August Michieli after a few years. Michieli arranged for Bakhita to follow his daughter to a Canossian sisters’ school in Venice.
Josephine joined the Canossian order in 1893. She moved to northern Italy after completing her education to live in a community and teach people about God’s love.
In 1992, St. Josephine was beatified, and in 2000, Pope John Paul II canonized her. She was the first Sudanese saint and the country’s patron saint.
Facts
Novena Starts: January 31st
Feast Day: February 8th
Birth: 1869
Death: February 8, 1947
Significance of St. Josephine Bakhita Novena
St. Josephine was revered for her holiness and compassion. She once remarked that if she met the slave traders who kidnapped and tortured me, she would bow and kiss their hands, because if she didn’t, she would not be a Christian and religious today.
In honor of St Josephine Bakhita’s example, the International Day of Prayer and Awareness Against Human Trafficking is observed on February 8 each year, allowing us to focus on the circumstances of violence and injustice that afflict millions of silent individuals.
Read more: St. Hedwig Novena
St. Josephine Bakhita Novena
Day 1
Let us begin, In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Dear St Josephine,
you were taken from your family at an early age
and lost your entire identity.
We pray for all those children
who have been abducted
and for their parents and families
who suffer not knowing what has become of them.
May they be comforted,
and may they one day be reunited.
We pray especially for
<<mention your special request>>
Recite once
Our Father
Hail Mary
Glory Be
Day 2
Let us begin, In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Dear St Josephine,
you knew what it was to be a slave,
to have no rights,
to have lost even your name.
We pray for the victims of people traffickers
and all those in any kind of slavery.
May this evil be wiped out from our world.
We pray especially for
<<mention your special request>>
Recite once
Our Father
Hail Mary
Glory Be
Read more: Novena to St. Dominic Novena
Day 3
Let us begin, In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Dear St Josephine,
one of your ‘owners’ had your whole body scarred.
You knew this terrible pain.
We pray for all victims of torture.
Help them to heal in body, mind and spirit.
May all governments abandon this practice.
We pray especially for
<<mention your special request>>
Recite once
Our Father
Hail Mary
Glory Be
Day 4
Let us begin, In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Dear St Josephine,
even in the terrible suffering of your life,
you saw beauty in the world
and believed there must be God because of that beauty.
May we too have something of your love
for beauty and the natural world.
We pray especially for
<<mention your special request>>
Recite once
Our Father
Hail Mary
Glory Be
Day 5
Let us begin, In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Dear St Josephine,
when the family which had rescued you
wanted you to leave the Canossians,
you had the courage to refuse,
even though you were truly grateful to them.
Help us to put God’s will above all things,
even above our natural affections.
We pray especially for
<<mention your special request>>
Recite once
Our Father
Hail Mary
Glory Be
Read more: St. Vincent de Paul Novena
Day 6
Let us begin, In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Dear St Josephine,
you were so grateful to know God
and to be part of his Church
that you often kissed the baptismal font.
May we never take for granted
the faith we have been offered
and give us something of your humility
and gratitude for all God does.
We pray especially for
<<mention your special request>>
Recite once
Our Father
Hail Mary
Glory Be
Day 7
Let us begin, In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Dear St Josephine,
your sufferings gave you a great compassion for others
and you were constantly smiling
and always open to those who came to you,
no matter how inconvenient it was.
St Josephine,
may we have something of your sweetness and openness,
something of your joy.
We pray especially for
<<mention your special request>>
Recite once
Our Father
Hail Mary
Glory Be
Day 8
Let us begin, In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Dear St Josephine,
in your last painful illness you relived your slavery,
begging the nurse to loosen your chains.
We pray for all those who are weighed down by pain,
and we ask that we too may enter the sufferings
of our lives in faith and knowledge
that God has not abandoned us.
We pray especially for
<<mention your special request>>
Recite once
Our Father
Hail Mary
Glory Be
Day 9
Let us begin, In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Dear St Josephine,
your last words were “Our Lady, Our Lady”.
May we too know the comfort of the Mother of God,
now and at the hour of our death.
We pray especially for
<<mention your special request>>
And I asked you in God’s name for healing.
Recite once
Our Father
Hail Mary
Glory Be
Read more: St. Charles Borromeo Novena
