The stories of three inspiring women and one heroically forgiving man, whose death anniversaries occur in May.
Not a familiar name for you? You are not alone. She is a fourteenth century mystic whose text, The Revelations of Divine Love, is the first book in English written by a woman. There is an interesting story behind it.
Juliana lived by herself near a church in Norwich, as an “anchoress.” At age thirty, she fell grievously ill, and was on the point of death. The priest who came to anoint her held aloft a crucifix. Looking at it, Juliana had a series of visions, which she later put into writing.
This book became widely known. Its main thrust: In an era noted for severity of religious language, Juliana insisted on God’s tender love. In fact, she spoke of God’s love in maternal figures. She insisted that the love that comes closest to Jesus’ care for us is motherly love. She did speak of God as mother and father, but she found motherly love a stronger and better way of presenting Christ’s closeness to us.
An expression from one of her writings was made famous by poet T. S. Elliott, “…All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.”
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We are used (or overused) to seeing pictures of European saints. Even the paintings we see of Jesus and of Mary present them as Caucasians.
It was a surprise for me, therefore, to see the picture of an African saint in a Canossian convent.
“She was a Canossian nun,” the sisters told me. From Sudan. She was kidnapped when she was just nine, and sold and resold as a slave. Her owners branded her, beat her, and cut her. One particularly horrible experience was when they cut her 114 times, and rubbed salt into her wounds, to make sure the wounds remained open. She thought she was going to die.
The terror of those years of slavery made her forget her original name. “Bakhita” is the name her owners gave her. Her last owner was a friendly Italian family, that took her with them to Italy. She looked after their little daughter. When in Italy, she got to know the Canossian sisters, and, through them, the Catholic faith and religious life. She felt a deep desire to be a sister, and dedicate her life totally to God. The family for whom she worked would not hear of it, and went to court to have her return to Africa with them. With the support of friends in the church, she won the case—since slavery was illegal in Italy.
Bakhita then joined the Canossian Sisters in Italy, and lived a happy life, doing very simple duties—cooking, cleaning, sewing, etc. Others taught; she prayed for them.
Very soon, the fame of her sanctity spread. During World War II, she assured the people of Schio—the Northern Italian town where she lived—that no bombs would strike the place. Her words proved true.
Later, restricted to a wheel chair because of a painful illness, she gave this cheerful reply to a bishop who asked her what she was doing, “The same as you: doing the will of God!”
Josephine Bakhita died in 1947, and was canonized in 2000. She is the patron saint of persons living in slavery and victims of human trafficking.
Josephine Bakhita shows the incredible power of a human being to overcome the effects of inhuman suffering and come out radiant, serene and God-centred. It also throws light on one of the world’s most cruel pursuits—the trade in human beings.
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You read about him in the cover story of MAGNET last month. Behind his letter, which moved so many, lies an unusual and heroic story.
Coming from an aristocratic French family, Christian was a brilliant student who graduated first in his class. His father was commander of an artillery unit in Algeria. At age 21, while serving as a soldier in Algeria, Christian made friends with Mohammed, a young Moslem neighbour, They would go for a walk once a week. During one of those walks, an extremist Islamic group ambushed them, and pulled Christian into their midst, to kill him. But Mohammed stepped forward and told them, “Let him go. He is a godly man.” The group released Christian. But Mohammed was murdered the next day.
Christian de Chergé was for ever grateful to this devout young Moslem who had saved his life, and then paid for his act with his own life.
He went back to France, decided to commit his life to God, and became a priest and a Trappist monk. He was sent as the abbot of a small community to Tibhirine, Algeria.
In the early 1990s, Islamist groups warned all foreigners to leave Algeria. Many left. The Trappists decided to stay. They welcomed their Moslem neighbours, and did simple medical services for them. When a group of religious were murdered in 1993, Christian realized that all of them were in danger. It was then he wrote the letter that would make him famous after his death. He sent it to his mother.
In it, he reminds his family and friends that his life was GIVEN to God, that it was not more precious than any other. He expressed his hope that all Moslems would not be hated or blamed for his death. And he prayed for the person who would kill him. The letter ends thus:
“I certainly include you, my last-minute friend who will not have known what you are doing…I commend you to the God in whose face I see yours. And may we find each other, happy ‘good thieves’ in Paradise, if it please God, the Father of us both.”
One night in March 1996, a group of twenty armed men entered the monastery and kidnapped the brothers. Later, a message signed by this armed group claimed to have beheaded the seven monks on May 21. Their heads were discovered the next day.
All the church bells in France were rung that day in their honour.
In 2010, a movie about this incident—Of Gods and Men—was released in France. Movie-goers left the theatre in silence, with tears streaming down their cheeks.
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A peasant girl of nineteen—illiterate, daring and dressed in men’s clothing—led an army, won battles, inspired and scandalized the people of her day—and continues to fascinate historians. She was burned at the stake as a dangerous heretic on May 30, 1431. Twenty-four years later, in 1455, she was declared innocent, and 450 years later she was canonized.
Who was this Joan? What did she do? Why was she treated the way she was?
The details of fifteenth century French history will not interest most of us. The bare essentials are these: A divided royal family. Constant battles. England controlling parts of France. Groups in Northern France supporting them. The heir to the French throne unable to assert his authority.
Joan claimed to have received revelations from saints to free France and set the prince on the throne. At first no one took this illiterate village girl seriously. Later, they let her ride with the army, which seemed to draw courage from her presence. A siege was lifted, and young Charles VII was crowned king of France.
Joan was later ambushed in Northern France by pro-English forces. They appointed a very partial jury to examine her. In a blatantly unfair trial—whose records were doctored—she was declared a heretic and condemned to be burnt alive.
Lessons from her story: When religion and politics get enmeshed, the resulting brew is potent and poisonous. When religious authorities rely on political powers to support a stand, the results are often devastating. Secondly, what a travesty of the faith it is when we dare to persecute, torture and kill people in the name of religious orthodoxy!
– Jeff T. Manning
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