In the town of Wenga near Busira in the Belgian Congo, Blessed Isidore Bakanja, martyr, who, having received Christian initiation as a young man, cultivated the faith diligently and bore witness to it so fearlessly while at his work that, out of hatred for the Christian religion, he was tortured by the estate manager with a prolonged scourging; and a few months later, forgiving his persecutor, he gave up his spirit.
Lifespan: ca. 1887–1909
Beatified: 24 April 1994 by Pope John Paul II
Memoria liturgica: 15 August
The Church in Africa was his evangelizing mission
Isidore Bakanja was born in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire), which in his time was held under the personal sovereignty of King Leopold II of Belgium — a kind of private possession that would later become a colony under the name Belgian Congo.
The year of Isidore’s birth is uncertain, but that of his baptism is not: this young man of the Boangi tribe, instructed in the faith by two missionaries, became a Christian in 1906, at around eighteen years of age. He made his way in the world of work, becoming a builder’s assistant, and was then engaged as a domestic servant by the agent of a company that owned large rubber plantations — a Belgian, like his company; like almost every other enterprise in the Congo. And like the two missionaries who had converted Isidore: Trappists from the Abbey of Westmalle, near Antwerp.
But this manager could not abide conversions. Black men were there to work; anyone who prayed was wasting time. There were others like him in the great companies, hostile to Christianity perhaps for ideological reasons, but certainly because they saw in the bond of faith among the Congolese — with one another and with the missionaries — a threat to the companies’ complete control over the Black workforce.
Isidore could bear it no longer and wished to return home, but was forbidden to go. He was further ordered to cast away the scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel that he wore around his neck, the outward sign of his faith. He refused, and two successive floggings followed, inflicting wounds that would never heal. In this grievous state he was taken to another village, so that an inspector would not see him. But the inspector found him, “his back eaten away by festering, foul-smelling wounds, covered with filth and swarming with flies.” He resolved to take Isidore away so that he could receive care. But Isidore could feel death approaching and said to a friend: “If you see my mother, if you go before the judge, if you meet a priest, tell them I am dying.” Missionaries arrived and he recounted what had happened; urged to forgive his torturer, he answered yes: “When I am in heaven, I will pray a great deal for him.”
The flogging had been mortal, but the agony was prolonged: six months. A hideous decomposition of living flesh. Isidore Bakanja had the scapular placed back around his neck, and clutched a rosary in one hand — so that all might see him die professing his faith, so that all might know it, Black and white alike. John Paul II proclaimed him blessed in 1994.
His commemoration is fixed in the Martyrologium Romanum on 15 August, while the Carmelite Order and the Church in Africa celebrate him on 12 August with the rank of optional memorial.