In these posts, I like to take my few readers around the world to show that holiness does not discriminate based on color, race, country of origin or age. Today, we visit Africa. Blessed Isidore Bakanja was born in 1887 in Congo Free State (now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo).
Isidore was a convert to the faith. He was instructed in Catholicism by Trappist missionaries and was baptized on May, 6, 1906 at the age of 18. He had a great devotion to the rosary and the brown scapular and used every opportunity to share his faith. He worked as a domestic servant on a Belgian rubber plantation. Many of the Belgian agents were atheists. They despised Christianity and missionaries because of their promotion of justice and fair treatment for native workers.
Isidore's employers ordered him to stop teaching the Gospel message to the other workers and to stop wearing the brown scapular that was a symbol of his faith. He refused to comply. On April 22, 1909, the superintendent noticed Isidore wearing the scapular and tore it off of him, had him severely beaten and chained up. When an inspector came to the plantation, Isidore was hidden in the woods so that he would not be seen. However, he crawled from his hiding place. When the inspector saw the harsh treatment that Isidore had been subject to, the inspector took him into his own home to care for his wounds. However, the medical treatment came too late. Isidore died of his wounds on August 15, 1909. Before he died, missionaries from the area urged him to forgive the supervisor. He responded that he already had and said, "When I am in heaven, I shall pray for him very much."
Bl. Isidore's Feast Day is August 15.
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