"She carried hope forward, and ended up as a migrant in Europe," he said, noting that it was there that she felt God's call and became a religious sister.
"Let us pray to St. Josephine Bakhita for all, for all migrants, refugees and exploited, who suffer so much," he said, and led pilgrims in a round of applause in honor of the Saint.
In his audience speech, Francis continued his ongoing catechesis on the virtue of hope, focusing particularly on its communitarian and ecclesial dimension.
He noted how in St. Paul's First Letter to the Thessalonians, the apostle's gaze was "widened" to all the different realities that formed part of the Christian community at the time. In seeing them, Paul asked them "to pray for one another and to support one another."
This doesn't just mean helping people in the practical things of everyday life, he said, but also means "helping each other in hope, sustaining each other in hope."
"It's not a coincidence that he begins by referencing those who have been entrusted with pastoral responsibility and guidance," because they are "the first to be called to nourish hope," the Pope said, noting that this isn't because they better than others, but because of the divine ministry entrusted to them which "goes well beyond their own strength."
Francis then pointed to those risk losing hope and falling into desperation, noting that the news always seems to be full of the bad things people do when they become desperate.
"Desperation leads to many bad things," he said, explaining that when it comes to those who are discouraged, weak and feel downcast due to life's heaviness, the Church in these cases must make her "closeness and warmth" even closer and more loving, showing even greater compassion.
Compassion, he cautioned, doesn't mean "to have pity" on someone, but rather to "to suffer with the other, to draw near to the one who suffers. A word, a caress, but which comes from the heart. This is compassion."
This witness, the Pope said, doesn't stay closed in the confines of the Christian community, but rather "resounds in all its vigor" even to social and civil context outside as an appeal "not to create walls, but bridges, to not exchange evil with evil, (but) to overcome evil with good, offense with forgiveness."
A Christian, Francis said, can never tell someone "'you will pay!' Never. This is not a Christian act."
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Instead, offenses must be overcome with forgiveness so as to live in peace with everyone, he said, adding that "this is the Church! And this is operates Christian hope, when it takes the strong features but at the same time the tenderness of love."
In learning to have this kind of hope, "it's not possible" to do it alone, he said, adding that in ourder to be nourished, hope "needs a body in when the various members sustain and revitalize each other.
"This means that, if we hope, it's because many of our brothers and sisters have taught us to hope and have kept our hope alive," he said, noting that among these people are "the small, the poor, the simple and the marginalized."
This is the case, he said, because "those who close in their own wellbeing, in their own contentment, who always feel in place, don't know hope.
Elise Harris was senior Rome correspondent for CNA from 2012 to 2018.