Bakhita (بَخِيتَة) is the Arabic feminine of *bakhīt* — "fortunate, lucky, blessed" — bitterly ironic, since it was the name **given by her kidnappers to the woman who would become Saint Josephine Bakhita (c. 1869-1947)**. **Born in the Darfur region of Sudan to a prosperous family; kidnapped at age 7 by Arab slave traders who renamed her *Bakhita* ("the lucky one")**. **Sold five times across Sudan over twelve years; tortured with 114 cuts filled with salt as part of the scarification practice of her owners**. **Brought to Italy in 1885 as a domestic servant; baptized Catholic in Venice in 1890; entered the Canossian Sisters in 1893; took the name Josephine**. **Canonized by John Paul II in 2000 — the first canonized Sudanese saint**. **Patron of Sudan and of survivors of human trafficking**. **Pope Francis dedicated the World Day of Prayer Against Human Trafficking (February 8) to her feast day**.
Subject of Roberto Italo Zanini's *Bakhita: From Slavery to Sainthood* (2013).
Bakhita reduces to nine — the number of survivors' patron.