On December 7, 1893, Bakhita began her novitiate in the very school where she had been prepared for Baptism. For the rest of her life she would use her baptismal name as well as Bakhita. Her mentor, Sister Maria, was appointed her novice director. Josephine Bakhita could see only bright days ahead.
During her novitiate days, Josephine Bakhita found that she had much to learn. And she wanted to learn. Her limited reading and writing skills were to test her patience, but not her will power. Sister Maria encouraged the young woman. She introduced Bakhita to all the basics of religious life. Classes in Catholic doctrine, the Gospels, and the Canossian Rule of life filled Josephine Bakhita’s mind, heart, and hours for the next year and a half.
Halfway through her novitiate, Bakhita was called to Verona, Italy. In a touching ceremony, Sister Anna presented the Congregation’s habit to her. Bakhita returned to Venice to complete her novitiate training. Now she was dressed in the long habit and distinctive headdress worn by the Canossian Sisters at that time. What joy this brought her!
After nearly three years in the novitiate, Josephine Bakhita was called again to Verona, where she would profess her vows. A few days before the ceremony, the new patriarch of Venice, Cardinal Joseph Sarto, visited the convent.
This was a meeting of two future saints!
Cardinal Sarto was patriarch of Venice from 1893 until 1903. That was the year he was elected to the papacy as Pope Pius X. Many years later, in 1954, he was proclaimed a saint by Pope Pius XII. That would not have surprised Bakhita. The canonization that would have surprised her was her own. And yet it would happen!
It was canon law (Church law) that brought these two future saints together. Canon law, at that time, required that candidates to religious life be interviewed privately by their bishop. The purpose was to give them the opportunity to express their choice to follow a religious vocation freely, without pressure from anyone. Bakhita met the cardinal calmly. Cardinal Sarto, too, was a gentle, kindly person, well known to his flock and well loved. He listened attentively to Bakhita and then said, “Take your vows without any fears. Jesus loves you. Love him and serve him always, as you have done up to now.”
In a simple but beautiful ceremony, the African novice pronounced her vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. As was the custom, the superior placed a chain with a large medal of Our Lady of Sorrows around Bakhita’s neck. It was December 8, 1896, the feast of the Immaculate Conception.
Sister Josephine Bakhita recalled the great day of her Baptism. Now she had made her religious profession! She was overjoyed. After the ceremony she was taken to Cardinal Luigi’s residence for a short visit. The newly professed sister was thrilled. It was as if Sister Magdalene herself, through her nephew, was reaching out her hand and heart in welcome.
It was a great day, too, for Sister Anna. She had accepted Bakhita into the Congregation and had asked the Lord for the grace to admit Bakhita to the novitiate and to religious profession. God granted that request. Then, as if the time was right, Sister Anna passed away on January 11, 1897, just a little over a month after Bakhita had pronounced her first vows.
Bakhita now belonged totally to Jesus.
A long period of time separated Bakhita’s first and final vows. The reason for this can be found in a combination of the Canossian Rule of life and canon law. When Bakhita made her first vows, the formula of the vows of the Congregation read as follows: “I vow...chastity, poverty, and obedience in the Institute of the Daughters of Charity for all the time that with your divine grace I shall persevere in it, and this I hope and desire will be for the whole of my life.”
According to the Canossian Rule, first and final vows were linked; therefore, the sisters took their vows only once. Later, when canon law required perpetual profession, all the Canossian sisters in the Congregation, in obedience to the Church, repeated their perpetual vows. Bakhita was among them. She pronounced her final vows at Mirano Veneto, Italy, on August 10, 1927.
