Saint of the Week

Saint Josephine Bakhita

Feast Day: 8th February

Virtue: Forgiveness

St Josephine Bakhita, also known as ‘Mother Moretta’ 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 ‘fortunate’. Flogging and maltreatment were part of her daily life. She experienced the moral and physical humiliations associated with slavery.

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 home, she received from her masters, kindness, respect, peace and joy.

A change in her owner’s circumstances meant that she was entrusted to the Canossian Sisters and her next fifty years were spent witnessing God’s love through cooking, sewing, embroidery and attending to the door. She was a source of encouragement and her constant smile won people’s hearts, as did her humility and simplicity.

As 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: ‘Please, loosen the chains… they are heavy!’.

Surrounded by the sisters, she died on 8 February 1947. 

Saint Valentine

Feast Day: 14th February

Virtue: Charity

Valentine was a Roman priest and may have been a Bishop. Together with St Marius and

 his family, Valentine assisted the martyrs who suffered during the reign of Emperor Claudius in the third century.

In time, Valentine was arrested and placed in the custody of a judge who had a daughter who was blind. Valentine cured her blindness, and the judge and all his family became Christians.

Because of this Valentine was sent to the Prefect of Rome who commanded that the holy man should be beaten with clubs and afterwards beheaded. Valentine suffered martyrdom about the year 270.

Today it is the custom to send Valentines to those we love on the feast day of St Valentine. The origin of this custom is not known with certainty.

One explanation given is that the custom began during the Middle Ages because of the belief that birds begin to mate on February 14. Hence people began to send cards on this day. Since it was St Valentine’s feast day, his name came to be associated with the custom.