from The Pillar post for the Assumption:
Isidore Bakanja was born in a tribal village on the Congo River in Africa, in territory then occupied by the forces of King Leopold II in Belgium. He was born sometime between 1885 and 1890, though it’s not certain exactly when.
Bakanja lived in a territory called the Congo Free State.It was claimed personally as the territory of King Leopold — it was not a part of Belgium, but was ruled instead as an absolute monarchy, and controlled by unspeakable brutality. Leopold saw in the Congo Free State ivory, minerals, and rubber, which he had exported and sold to increase his personal wealth. He did not see, or seem to see, the people of his territory, many of whom lived in forced labour on expansive rubber plantations.
Bakanja’s family worked intermittently at farming and brickmaking, but they were very poor, and there were few opportunities for young men to earn money in Bakanja’s village. So as a young man, he moved downriver to a larger town, where he became a stone mason.
More important, Bakanja became a Christian — he was evangelized by Trappist monks in the area, and in 1906, was baptized, confirmed, and received the Eucharist.Bakanja took to wearing a brown scapular — a sign of faith — and to carrying with him always the rosary.In 1909, Bakanja decided to move closer to his village, and his family, and he found work on a rubber plantation.
His boss — like many of the Belgian plantation overseers — was fanatically opposed to Christianity, and to the Christian missionaries who spoke out on behalf of the dignity of Congolese people.
Plantation owners and overseers often said that when the Gospel came, their workers would stop working —but there is little evidence of that. Instead, it seems clear that the real danger was that Christian missionaries would upend the forced labor system which benefited the Belgians who had come to work it.
Soon after he started on the plantation in April 1909, Bakanja was ordered beaten when he refused to take off his scapular. His boss began mocking him, calling him the little priest. In May, still wearing his scapular, Bakanja was ordered beaten again.
A few months later, in July 1909, Bakanja’s boss saw him praying the rosary. The boss flew into a rage. He ordered Bakanja beaten more than 250 times with a leather whip into which nails had been embedded. After his skin was beaten to ribbons, Bakanja was locked into a cell, in which no medical care was available. There, infection set in.
Bakanja ran up a fever, and there in his cell, he fought off flies. He stayed there until an inspector was due to visit the plantation, nominally charged with evaluating the conditions of workers. While Bakanja was being sent to a village, to be hidden from the inspector, he escaped into the forest.
He lay dying for days, his infection growing worse, his wounds stinking and covered in flies. Eventually, he dragged himself back to the plantation, knowing inspections were still underway.
The inspector took pity on him. He had him carried to a riverboat, taking to a home where he could convalesce. But Bakanja’s infection had become sepsis. He would not recover. In late July, a Trappist priest was brought to him. Bakanja was anointed. But he held out for two weeks, dying on August 15th, the feast of the Assumption.
His boss, a man named Van Cauter, was eventually imprisoned. But Bakanja died forgiving him — and asking his caretakers to tell his mother that he died for following Jesus Christ.
When Pope St. John Paul II beatified Isidore Bakanja in 1994, the pontiff praised Bakanja’s conviction.
“Isidore, your participation in the paschal mystery of Christ, in the supreme work of his love, was total,” the pope said.
“Because you wanted to remain faithful at all costs to the faith of your baptism, you suffered scourging like your Master. You forgave your persecutors like your Master on the Cross and you showed yourself to be a peacemaker and reconciler.”
May Blessed Isidore Bakanja intercede for us. May we keep the faith.
