Slaves no more: Sunday 8 February is the feast of St. Bakhita

A religious sister, Eugenia Bonetti, a Consolata missionary has called for an end to all forms of modern-day slavery and human trafficking.

All those involved in preventing human trafficking and modern day slavery must “create a network, together, to break all chains,” said Sr. Eugenia who is the co-ordinator of the initiative against the trafficking of women and minors under the auspices of the Italian Union of Major Superiors (USMI). She was talking to Misna.

A torchlight procession and prayer vigil has been organised for Friday evening 6 February at the Basilica of the Twelve Holy Apostles in Rome. The torchlight procession comes ahead of the “International Day of Prayer and Reflection against Human Trafficking” to be held this Sunday 8 February 2015.

The date of 8 February was chosen for the “International Day of Prayer and Reflection against Human Trafficking” in order to coincide with the feast of St. Josephine Bakhita. St. Bakhita was born in Sudan’s embattled Darfur region in 1868. Captured at the age of 9 years, she was sold into slavery, first in her country and later in Italy. After her life as a slave, she became a Canossian religious sister in Italy where she lived and worked for 45 years. She died in 1947.

In 2000 she was declared a saint by the Pope St. John Paul II. As a result of the kind of life she lived, St. Bakhita is often promoted as a patron saint for the victims of slavery and trafficked persons. 

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