And I felt a great desire to see him, to know him and to pay him homage. Bakhita was sold five times before she was purchased by Callisto Legnani, the Italian consul in the capital of Sudan.
After a few years, he sent her to Italy to work as a nanny for his college August Michieli. Michieli had Bakhita accompany his daughter to a school run by Canossian sisters in Venice. There Bakhita learned more about the Church, and was baptized with the name Josephine Margaret. When Michieli tried to take Josephine and his daughter back to Sudan, Josephine refused. The courts eventually ruled that Josephine was a free woman and could stay in Italy, because slavery was not recognized in Italy, and had been illegal in Sudan since before Josephine was born.
In , Josephine entered the Canossian order. Her new family also had dealings in Sudan had when her mistress decided to travel to Sudan without Josephine, she placed her in the custody of the Canossian Sisters in Venice. While she was in the custody of the sisters, she came to learn about God. According to Josephine, she had always known about God, who created all things, but she did not know who He was. The sisters answered her questions. She was deeply moved by her time with the sisters and discerned a call to follow Christ.
When her mistress returned from Sudan, Josephine refused to leave. Her mistress spent three days trying to persuade her to leave the sisters, but Josephine remained steadfast. This caused the superior of the institute for baptismal candidates among the sisters to complain to Italian authorities on Josephine's behalf.
The case went to court, and the court found that slavery had been outlawed in Sudan before Josephine was born, so she could not be lawfully made slave. She was declared free. For the first time in her life, Josephine was free and could choose what to do with her life. She chose to remain with the Canossian Sisters. She was baptized on January 9, and took the name Josephine Margaret and Fortunata.
Fortunata is the Latin translation for her Arabic name, Bakhita. She also received the sacraments of her first holy communion and confirmation on the same day. These three sacraments are the sacraments of initiation into the Church and were always given together in the early Church. Josephine became a novice with the CanossianDaughters of Charity religious order on December 7, , and took her final vows on December 8, She was eventually assigned to a convent in Schio, Vicenza.
For the next 42 years of her life, she worked as a cook and a doorkeeper at the convent. She also traveled and visited other convents telling her story to other sisters and preparing them for work in Africa. She was known for her gentle voice and smile. She was gentle and charismatic, and was often referred to lovingly as the "little brown sister" or honorably as the "black mother.
When speaking of her enslavement, she often professed she would thank her kidnappers. For had she not been kidnapped, she might never have come to know Jesus Christ and entered His Church.
And although bombs fell on their village, not one citizen died. In her later years, she began to suffer physical pain and was forced to use a wheelchair. But she always remained cheerful. If anyone asked her how she was, she would reply, "As the master desires. Once there, Legnani left Bakhita with Augusto Michieli and his wife. When the Michielis went to Suakin to run their large hotel, they left both Mimmina and Bakhita with the Canossian Sisters at a convent in Venice.
It was there that Bakhita came to know about God. When the Michielis returned, Bakhita asked to remain at the convent with the Sisters. For the next 50 years, she served the Schio convent community by cooking, sewing, and attending to the door.
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