Josephine Margaret Bakhita, FDCC (Arabic: جوزفين بخيتة; c. 1869 – 8 February 1947) was a Sudanese Catholic religious sister who joined the Canossians after winning her freedom from slavery.

She was surrounded by a loving family of three brothers and three sisters; as she says in her autobiography: "I lived a very happy and carefree life, without knowing what suffering was".

She used the flour to draw patterns on her skin and then she cut deeply along the lines before filling the wounds with salt to ensure permanent scarring.

Augusto Michieli acquired a large hotel there and decided to sell his property in Italy and to move his family to Sudan permanently.

Since the villa in Zianigo was already sold, Bakhita and Mimmina needed a temporary place to stay while Micheli went to Sudan without them.

Grateful to her teachers, she recalled, "Those holy mothers 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.

"[19] When Turina Michieli returned to take her daughter and maid back to Suakin, Bakhita firmly refused to leave.

For three days, Michieli tried to force the issue, finally appealing to the attorney general of the King of Italy; while the superior of the Institute for baptismal candidates (catechumenate) that Bakhita attended contacted the Patriarch of Venice about her protégée's problem.

On the same day, she was also confirmed and received Holy Communion from Archbishop Giuseppe Sarto, the Cardinal Patriarch of Venice and later Pope Pius X.

In 1902 she was assigned to the Canossian convent at Schio, in the northern Italian province of Vicenza, where she spent the rest of her life.

Her only extended time away was between 1935 and 1939, when she stayed at the Missionary Novitiate in Vimercate (near Milan); mostly visiting other Canossian communities in Italy, talking about her experiences and helping to prepare young sisters for work in Africa.

[22] During her 42 years in Schio, Bakhita was employed as the cook, sacristan, and portress (doorkeeper) and was in frequent contact with the local community.

Her special charisma and reputation for sanctity were noticed by her order; the first publication of her story (Storia Meravigliosa by Ida Zanolini) in 1931, made her famous throughout Italy.

In the extremity of her last hours, her mind was driven back to her youth in slavery and she cried out: "The chains are too tight, loosen them a little, please!"

[25] The petitions for her canonization began immediately, and the process commenced by Pope John XXIII in 1959, twelve years after her death.

Caritas Bakhita House in London, which provides accommodation and support for women escaping human trafficking, is named in her honour.

[31] Bakhita is honored with a Lesser Feast on the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America,[1] also on 8 February.