During this adventurous time in Bakhita’s life, she settled in for what would become a two-year stay at the Congregation’s missionary convent in Milan. There, young women interested in religious and missionary life received their training as sisters.
Sister Bakhita was impressed by the enthusiasm of the young women who prepared themselves for mission lands. They wanted to take the Gospel to people who still waited to hear the word of the Lord. Bakhita was assigned as doorkeeper, a task at which she excelled. Fewer people arrived at this convent than at Schio. Those whom she greeted here were the parents or close relatives of the novices.
Parents had various reactions to their daughters’ vocations. Some were thrilled. Others hesitated. They were honored that their daughters had chosen religious life, but they wanted them to serve God closer to home, in their own country. Why did they have to go to India or China? Didn’t the people of Italy need the Gospel message, too?
The people who knocked on the convent door in Milan were often troubled. Could Bakhita find the right words for them? She would look at them with her dark, gentle eyes and remind them, “How many thousands of Africans could accept the faith if there were missionaries to preach to them about Jesus Christ, his love for us, his sacrifice for the redemption of souls!” She would also promise prayers. She encouraged the young women, as well, to be joyful and generous in living their religious vocation.
Sister Bakhita was transferred back to her beloved Schio in 1939. She had finally completed her visits to the Congregation’s convents in Italy. It was wonderful to be back! Schio had become very special to her and she to the people. The aging sister took up her household chores with her usual enthusiasm. But all was not well with the world.
It had been slightly more than two decades since World War I had ended. Now there were anxious rumors throughout Europe of the coming of a second World War. Could it really happen?
In September 1939, what had been dreaded became reality. Italy was able to remain neutral for seven months. In June 1940, it, too, was drawn into the conflict. World War II would last until 1945.
The Canossian Sisters, like all Italians, suffered the effects of the war. Sister Bakhita suffered, too, for her adoptive country. She prayed for peace.
Schio would not be spared its own challenges during World War II. Aircraft motors droned overhead as people below snatched up their children and raced for cover. Bombs could drop at any hour of the day or night. Fear stalked the homes and places of business. Sometimes the uninvited planes passed right by and pounced on more distant targets. At other times, Schio, itself, was the target. As the days darkened with the fury of war, husbands and sons were recruited and went away. Too many of them would never return. While Schio suffered, Sister Moretta suffered, too. She prayed for her people and for the whole world.
As the war dragged on, the necessities of life were in short supply. The sisters, who already lived a poor, simple style of life, now found themselves facing shortages of water, food, and other basics. But the dedicated community was determined to keep their school open as long as students would be able to come. Bakhita busied herself peacefully doing the convent chores.
The shrill cry of air raid sirens was frequent. Frayed nerves would flare as Schio’s citizens ran for cover. While everyone scattered, Bakhita would continue to do what she was doing. “Hide, Sister Bakhita. Protect yourself!” friends would urge. Her answer was always the same. “Let them fire away. The Lord controls their aim.”
The war seemed endless. The people of Schio, worried and tired, encouraged each other. The bombs continued to drop, but many of them didn’t explode. When they did, casualties were usually few.
Once a whole wing of the large wool factory was hit. “We have Sister Moretta with us,” people assured one another. “She is a saint and she will protect us from disaster.” Miraculously, no one was killed or hurt as a result of the factory bombing. While Sister Bakhita prayed and did her work with the heart of a missionary, the people of Schio put their trust in her faith. As the war continued to rage, many people clung to the hope that they believed reached them in a special way through the gift of Sister Moretta. “Trust in God,” Bakhita would say over and over. “If you do so, you treat him truly as God!”