"Let the Oppressed Go Free" by Timothy P. Schmalz

The bronze sculpture, a piece by Catholic artist Timothy P. Schmalz, is dedicated to trafficking victims and to all women, especially the religious sisters who work to free women from modern day slavery.

The artwork depicts the saint, herself once a slave, freeing a mass of people from underground.
This 6 foot foot model is identical to multiple 20-foot versions of the sculpture, outside of St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City.

Bakhita discovered Christ and the Church in her early 20s, and after she was freed from slavery, was baptized into the Catholic faith. She also joined the Canossian Sisters in Italy.

Schmalz created his sculpture of the saint in 2019. He has named it: “Let the Oppressed Go Free.”
The Canadian artist is also the creator of another sculpture in St. Peter’s Square, “Angels Unawares,” which depicts migrants throughout history crammed on a boat together with the holy family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.

While she was a slave, Bakhita was sold to the Italian Vice Consul, Callisto Legani, in 1883. He took her back with him to Italy, where she was given to a family to work as a nanny.

Later, the family left her with the Canossian Sisters, a women’s religious order, in Venice, while they traveled to Sudan for business.

Bakhita was cared for by the Canossian Sisters during the legal battle that ensued for her freedom from slavery. Eventually, an Italian court ruled that since slavery had been outlawed in Sudan prior to her birth, she was not legally a slave.

With her newfound freedom, Bakhita chose to receive the sacraments of baptism, confirmation, and first holy communion in 1890. Three years later she became a novice with the Canossian Daughters of Charity, taking the name Josephine Margaret “Fortunata” — a Latin translation of her Arabic name, Bakhita, which means “lucky.”
Bakhita was beatified in 1992 and canonized in 2000 by Saint Pope John Paul II. She is the first canonized saint from Sudan, and is the country’s patron saint.
Throughout his pontificate, Pope Francis has highlighted Bakhita’s example of holiness, and invoked the saint’s intercession for victims of trafficking.

“St. Bakhita, assist all those who are trapped in a state of slavery; Intercede with God on their behalf so that the chains of their captivity can be broken,” Pope Francis prayed in 2019.