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<\/a>T<\/span>his week the Church celebrates the Feast of St Josephine Bakhita, the Patron Saint of Sudan and of Victims of Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking.\u00a0 <\/span>St Josephine Bakhita<\/span><\/a>, also known as \u2018Mother Moretta\u2019 was kidnapped at the age of nine and sold into slavery. Such was the trauma experienced that she forgot her birth name and her kidnappers gave her the name Bakhita meaning \u2018fortunate\u2019. Flogging and maltreatment were part of her daily life. She experienced the moral and physical humiliations associated with slavery.<\/span><\/p>\nAs she grew older she experienced long, painful years of sickness, but she continued to persevere in hope, constantly choosing the good. During her last days she relived the painful days of her slavery and more than once begged: \u2018Please, loosen the chains\u2026 they are heavy!\u2019.<\/span>Surrounded by the sisters, she died on 8 February 1947. February 8 has been designated as a day of prayer, reflection and action to end the injustice of human trafficking.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/a>It was only in 1882 that her suffering was alleviated after she was bought for the Italian Consul. This event was to transform her life. In this family and, subsequently in a second Italian <\/span>home, she received from her masters, kindness, respect, peace and joy. <\/span>A change in her owner\u2019s circumstances meant that she was entrusted to the Canossian Sisters and her next fifty years were spent witnessing God\u2019s love through cooking, sewing, embroidery and attending to the door. She was a source of encouragement and her constant smile won people\u2019s hearts, as did her humility and simplicity.<\/span><\/p>\n