Isidor Bakanja

Isidor Bakanja

Isidor Bakanja (* around 1887 in Bokendela , Congo Free State ; † August 15, 1909 in Busira , Belgian Congo ) was an African Catholic mason who was beatified by the Roman Catholic Church .

Life

Isidor Bakanja ( Greek : gift from the goddess of natural strength Isis ), a son of pagan parents from the Boangi tribe , worked after 1900 as a bricklayer for a Belgian state company in Coquilhatville (now Mbondakal or Mbandaka ) and on farms.

In 1902, Trappists from the Belgian Abdij van Onze-Lieve-Vrouw van het Heilig Hart Westmalle , who had come to the Congo in 1894, founded a mission station in Boloka wa Nsimba , right near Bakanja's workplace . There appeared the Fathers Gregory van Duen and Robert Brepoels , and on May 6, 1906 Bakanja was baptized . On November 25, 1906, he received Confirmation and on August 8, 1907, his first holy communion .

After his employment contract expired, his cousin Camillo Boya found him a job at the Société Anonyme Belgique pour le Commerce Du Haut Congo (SAB), founded in 1888 , which had held the trade monopoly for ivory and rubber in this region since 1893 . Bakanja came across a rubber plantation where local workers were massively exploited.

At that time, Christians in Africa were reviled and persecuted. The Catholic Bakanja felt this above all from his atheist boss Van Cauter , who refused his request for dismissal. On April 22, 1909, came to a violent confrontation with his boss when Bakanja refused to be Carmelites - Scapular throw. Thereupon Van Cauter had him beaten to the blood with a whip with iron tips, kicked him several times and tore Bakunja the scapular that he wore as an expression of his faith. As a result, the seriously injured man, who could no longer move, was imprisoned in a hut where rubber was being smoked. After three days he was freed by a worker and was able to escape into the swamps. The German plantation supervisor and SAB employee Dörpinghaus discovered him and helped him. Bakanja was covered with innumerable wounds. On June 4, 1909, his cousin Boya continued to care for him , but Bakanja's health was too poor. On July 24 or 25, 1909, Fathers Gregor Kaptein and Georg Dubrulles visited him , from whom he received the sacraments of death. Bakaniah forgave his tormentor on his deathbed and died on August 15, 1909.

“The fruits of his martyrdom soon appeared. In the following months, more than 4,000 baptisms were recorded in the Busira area. "

Isidore Bakanja is considered to be a powerful witness to the grace of reconciliation that can be experienced between people of different races.

Honors

On April 24, 1994, John Paul II beatified him. In the Carmelite calendar, his feast day is August 12th; in the general ecclesiastical calendar August 15th is the date of his death.

In Lubumbashi , Father Eric Méert of the Mission of the Salesians Don Boscos (SDB) named two newly founded centers for street children after Bakanja in 1994 : the meeting point Maison Bakanja Ville and the youth workshop Maison Bakanja Center , which are primarily committed to vocational training for young people . The church of Mbandaka regularly invites you to the great pilgrimage to Blessed Bakanja .

“Isidore was a kind and upright man who naturally respected others; a conscientious worker who, from the moment of his baptism, proudly wore the scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel as a sign of his new affiliation. He was often found holding the rosary and seizing every opportunity to share his new faith with others - so much so that many saw him as a catechist . "

literature

• Andreas Resch: The Blessed John Paul II. 1991-1995. Innsbruck 2008, p. 136.
• Freundeskreis Maria Goretti (Ed.): A martyr of the Mother of God. Isidor Bakanja. Zaire / Africa. Munich 1987.
• Daniel Vangroenweghe: Bakanja Isidore, Martyr Du Zaire. Recit Biographique. Didier Hatier, 1989, ISBN 2-87088-659-4 , ISBN 978-2-87088-659-5

Web links

• Ecumenical Lexicon of Saints
• The portal to the Catholic spiritual world

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Resch, p. 138