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Let the Oppressed go free!
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A six foot model of a sculpture by renowned Canadian sculptor Tim Schmalz will be on display in St Patrick’s Cathedral Armagh from Tuesday 14 – Saturday 18 March. The piece is called ‘Let the Oppressed Go Free’. It features St Josephine Bakhita releasing a host of human trafficking victims from the ‘underground’ thus letting them be seen and to be free.
Background
Timothy Schmalz is a Canadian sculptor whose bronze sculpture ‘Angels Unawares’ was installed in St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican in 2019. That 20ft sculpture depicts a group of migrants and refugees on a boat from diverse cultures and historical moments. The title is a reference to Hebrews 13:2 which says ‘Remember always to welcome strangers, for by doing this, some people have entertained angels without knowing it.’ He is also well known through his piece ‘Homeless Jesus’ which has been reproduced in many cities around the world, including Dublin.
Cardinal Michael Czerny, who was key to the commissioning of both ‘Angels Unawares’ and ‘Let the Oppressed Go Free’ has stated that – “If you do not take care of the people in the first sculpture (i.e. the migrants/refugees) they will end up in the other sculpture (as trafficking victims).”
One full size (20ft) bronze of ‘Let the Oppressed Go Free’ will be installed / unveiled this June where St Bakhita is buried in Italy. Other full bronzes of the piece have been created for America and Canada. The hope is that with the help of a Patron in US, a full size bronze (20ft) of ‘Let the Oppressed Go Free’ will come to Ireland. A six foot bronze is being installed for St Patrick’s Day in St Patrick’s Cathedral in New York.
St Josephine Bakhita
St. Josephine Bakhita is the patron saint of victims of modern slavery and human trafficking. As a young girl in Sudan, St. Bakhita was kidnapped and sold into slavery. She was tortured by her various owners who branded her, beat and cut her. In 1883 she was sold to the Italian consul in Khartoum and was trafficked to Italy. It was there that she came to know the Canossian Sisters and gained her freedom.
Having made her profession in 1896, St. Bakhita spent the rest of her life in the Canossian Convent near Venice witnessing God’s love through cooking, sewing, embroidery and attending to the door. Her constant smile won people’s hearts, as did her humility and simplicity.
During her last days she relived the painful days of her slavery and more than once begged: ‘Please, loosen the chains… they are heavy!’. She died on 8 February 1947. St. Josephine was beatified in 1992 and canonized shortly after on October 2000 by Pope John Paul II. She is the first person to be canonized from Sudan and is the patron saint of the country.
Her feast day – 8th February – is now a special day of prayer for all those affected by the crimes of modern slavery and human trafficking, and the people that volunteer and work to eradicate this crime.
St Patrick
St. Patrick tells us about being taken from his own lands in his ‘Confessio’:
“I was taken prisoner. I was about sixteen at the time. At that time, I did not know the true God. I was taken into captivity in Ireland, along with thousands of others.”
“After I arrived in Ireland, I tended sheep every day, and I prayed frequently during the day. More and more the love of God increased, and my sense of awe before God.”
“I ran away then, and left the man with whom I had been for six years. It was in the strength of God that I went – God who turned the direction of my life to good”
When he returned to Ireland, St. Patrick strongly condemned the killing and kidnapping of the members of the ‘flock’ in his Letter to Coroticus –
“I do not know what to say, or how I can say any more, about the children of God who are dead, whom the sword has touched so cruelly. All I can do is what is written: ‘Weep with those who weep’; and again: ‘If one member suffers pain, let all the members suffer the pain with it’.
This is why the church mourns and weeps for its sons and daughters whom the sword has not yet slain, but who were taken away and exported to far distant lands, where grave sin openly flourishes without shame, where freeborn people have been sold off, Christians reduced to slavery.”
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