Bakhita

Bakhita is the patron of our Fund for Education in Sudan.

As a small girl in Darfur of the 1880's, Bakhita was abducted by slave traders and taken Khartoum.

Eventually, she was sold into service in the Italian Consulate. Becoming a valued addition to the family household, she accompanied them on their return to Italy, changing her status on arrival from slave to employee.

One of Bakhita's responsibilities in Italy was to escort the daughter of the house to her religious instruction and, when little Maria was ready to make her First Holy Communion, Bakhita requested to be received into the Church herself.

A few years later, Bakhita presented herself as a candidate to the local convent of Canossian Sisters in T. Throughout her life there,enduring both World Wars, local townspeople and Sisters alike came to appreciate Bakhita's calm reassurance and faith in God's protection borne out of her own life experience.

Bakhita never ceased to marvel at the unexpected outcome of the early trgaedy in her life and to see it simply as the providence of God. Certainly her captors could never have dreamt of the consequences of their actions. In 2000, Bakhita's faith was made known worldwide and Christians in Sudan rejoiced when she was proclaimed first saint of Sudan by Pope John Paul II.

Bakhita's early story exemplifies the plight of Sudan's African children, and girls in particular, to this day. We confidently place the work of improving that plight, through the development of more and better schools, under Bakhita's patronage.