Two Suitcases DVD

A docu-drama on the life of a humble slave who became Sudan's first Catholic saint, filmed in the Italian convent where she lived and died.

Josephine was born in 1869 in Sudan. As a child of 7 or 8, she was taken away by Arab slave traders and given the name "Bakhita," meaning "fortunate," and then sold no less than five times between 1877 and 1883. She was subjected to beatings which left deep scars on her body. Finally, in 1883 she was purchased by an Italian Consulate agent, Calisto Legnani, who was much kinder to her. Legnani returned to Italy in 1885, taking Josephine with him. There she was entrusted to the care of the Michieli family in Venice. When the Michielis went to the Sudan on business, Josephine stayed at the Catechumen Institute in Venice, run by the Canossian Sisters. It is here that she discovered the faith and learned that God, not man, is the true Master of every human being. When the Michielis came to take her back to Sudan, she chose to remain in Venice, and her new life began.

Sister Josephine demonstrated that God's love is stronger than any humiliation and suffering. Since her death in 1947, many miracles have been attributed to ehr. She was beatified in 1992 and declared a saint by Pope John Paul II in 2000.

This program dramatizes her extraordinary life, which is recalled through a Canossian Sister, sharing the details with her spiritually searching brother and thereby bringing to him serenity, a new hope in life, and a new joy in the Church.