“Please, loosen the chains. They are heavy!”
The feast day of St Josephine Bakhita is 8 February. She is the patron saint of the victims of human trafficking.
Bakhita was born in what is now Sudan, kidnapped as a small child and sold into slavery. She suffered abuse and torment – she forgot her own name and was called “Bakhita” meaning fortunate. Eventually she was fortunate – she ended up in Italy, where her owners left her, as they thought, temporarily, at a convent of Canossian religious sisters and when they came back, the sisters wouldn’t hand her over to her slave life. It went to court! She was freed. She stayed with the sisters and lived a happy and fulfilled life. In her last hours she suffered distress and called out “The chains are too tight, loosen them a little, please” but her last audible words were "Yes, I am so happy: Our Lady... Our Lady!"
Human trafficking (slavery) never went away. Of course not. It is ever present, all around us – a relentless, barbaric thing. Pope Francis says that trafficking is “an open wound on the body of contemporary society.” Whilst reporting it when we come across it and encouraging legislators to tighten up their laws to combat it, we must keep loosening those chains, keep our hearts regularly informed and keep our prayers regular in order to free people from this.
Sit with Mother Therese and St Josephine. Imagine your heart embracing the world and the most vulnerable people as you pray one of these intercessions each week of February.
| We pray for people facing extreme poverty, which often forces them to search for a better life and fall into the hands of traffickers. | We pray for refugees with no access to humanitarian aid and other essential services, making them vulnerable to human trafficking. | We pray that we recognise that, as consumers, we benefit from exploited people who often make the goods we consume. | We pray for the lives of all our brothers and sisters who are trafficked. May they be freed and find hope. |
(Prayers from the Sisters of St Joseph of Orange “Reflection & Prayer to End Human Trafficking (January 11 – February 8, 2025).)
YouTube links of poetry to help mobilise and inform us
The Slave Auction by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper read by Dr Maya Angelou:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jK4XzxBxOek
Slavery Still Exists by Dai Woolridge:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFV7Q43Tsis
“Between two worlds: A poem that inspires action against modern slavery”. Malaysian poet Nazreen Mohamad with Filipino domestic worker Rizalina Miranda accompanying him on the piano:
https://www.ilo.org/resource/between-two-worlds-poem-inspires-action-against-modern-slavery
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.
— Maya Angelou
Let the oppressed go free – sculpture of Josephine Bakhita by Timothy Schmlz
Photo by Another Believer - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=140858251