Sudanese-born St. Josephine Bakhita was enslaved as a child after being kidnapped from her family by Arab slave traders. Eventually, she was sold to an Italian consul in Khartoum, who then took her to Italy, where she was again sold to an Italian family to serve as a nanny. Her new owners, needing to do business in Sudan, temporarily placed her and their daughter in the custody of the Canossian Sisters at the Institute of the Catechumens in Venice. While there, Josephine converted to Roman Catholicism. When her owners returned to Venice, she refused to leave the institute. She was ultimately declared free by an Italian court on the grounds that slavery was not recognized in Italy and had been outlawed in Darfur before her birth.
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