Sister Marie-Celine, MICM
Saint Josephine bakhita
The Institute of Catechumens
N
ot long after their return to Italy in 1888, Turina sold their estate. She was going to temporarily stay with her husband in Suakin and come back to Italy to close up everything before a final move to Africa. However, fearing that the two trips would be too hard on little Mimmina, Turina looked for alternative places for Bakhita and the girl to stay in the meantime. Checchini had the perfect solution. He would make arrangements for them to stay at the Institute of Catechumens in nearby Venice. The Institute was originally opened in 1557, for the purpose of accommodating the overwhelming number of converts seeking instruction in the Faith. In 1848, the Institute was turned over to the order of Canossian Sisters, founded by Saint Magdalene of Canossa. They ran a school for the poor and offered catechesis for anyone who wanted it.
Although the Michielis trusted Checchini’s advice, Turina was uncomfortable because that they would be staying at a religious institution. He would have to wait for an answer. “Mr. Illuminato [Checchini] was so concerned that I should be admitted to the Institute of Catechumens that he gave his written word on a stamped document that, in the unlikely event that the lady did not fulfill her obligation [of paying room and board] he would pay for it himself.”
In the meantime Checchini gave Bakhita a crucifix. “As he gave me the crucifix he kissed it with devotion, then explained that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, had died for me. I did not know what a crucifix was, but I was moved by a mysterious power to keep it hidden, out of fear that the lady would take it away. I had never hidden anything before, because I had never been attached to anything. I remember that I looked at it in secret and felt something inside that I could not explain.”
Turina finally consented to their stay with the Sisters. She and the Checchini family brought Bakhita and Mimmina to meet the Sisters. “…We were both received at the house of catechumens. The little girl and I were entrusted to the care of a nun, Maria Fabbretti, who was in charge of catechetical instruction. I am unable to remember without tears how well she took care of me. She wanted to know if I desired to become a Christian, and sensing that I did and that I had come there with that intention, she was overjoyed.” Bakhita was now considered a catechumen, a person seeking to become a member of the Church.
Through the help of the Sisters, the prayers which previously she had repeated without knowing their meaning came alive to Bakhita. “So those holy mothers [the Sisters] instructed me with heroic patience and introduced me to that God Who from childhood I had felt in my heart without knowing who He was. I experienced a great desire to see Him and know Him and honor Him.”
This desire increased when she learned of the grace of Baptism. She was not able to grasp the idea of it at first. To become a Child of God seemed like a completely foreign concept to her. After years of slavery, of being subject to horrific torments and cruel masters, how was it that God, the most loving Master, could possibly want her, a poor slave, as His child? So she thought. With the kindly reassurance of her Sisters, she would recite in awe the words of the Our Father over and over again, slowly realizing the wondrous miracle that was taking place in her soul.
The Confrontation
About nine months elapsed in this state of peace and instruction. God, Who tests the strength of a heart’s devotion like gold in the furnace, now sent Bakhita a trial which would change her life forever. At the end of November, 1889, Turina Michieli returned from Africa, having finished selling of their property. Then she came to the Institute to pick up Bakhita and Mimmina to take them permanently to the hotel in Suakin. Bakhita, used to this new life at the convent and full of hope and the love of God, could not bear to be separated from the place of her newlyfound Faith. When Turina arrived she met with unexpected defiance from a very decided young woman. “‘No, I will not leave the house of the Lord. It would be my ruin.’ I refused to go back to Africa with her because I was not yet well instructed for Baptism. I also thought that, even if I had been baptized already, it would not have been equally possible to profess my new religion and that therefore it was better for me to stay with the Sisters.”
"No, I will not leave the house of the Lord. It would be my ruin."
“The lady flew into a rage, accusing me of being ungrateful in making her go back alone after she had done so much for me, but I remained firm in my thinking. She gave me one reason after another, but I would not bend to any of them. And yet it hurt to see her so disgusted with me, for I truly loved her. It was the Lord who filled me with such firmness because He wanted to make me all His. O goodness! The next day she returned in the company of another lady, and she tried to change my mind again with the harshest threats, but to no avail. They went away greatly vexed.”
A series of meetings were to follow this incident. The superior of the Order brought the matter to the Patriarch of Venice, who then consulted with the king’s attorney general. The lawyer confirmed that Turina no longer had ownership of Bakhita due to a law which abolished the bondage of any slave who set foot onto Italian soil. “I was in fact quite free. Lady Turina also went to the attorney general of the king, thinking that she could prevail upon him to agree with her, but she received the same response.”