A story of redemption, freedom, and unshakable hope will journey from the Canossian world and deep Africa to the technological heart of Asia. The Local Organizing Committee of Seoul has announced the five patron saints of the next World Youth Day (WYD), scheduled for 3 to 8 August 2027. Among the great names chosen to accompany young people from all over the world, the figure of St. Josephine Bakhita stands out strongly: the Sudanese slave who became a Canossian sister and a universal symbol of a faith capable of overcoming every suffering.
The choice of Bakhita, together with giants such as John Paul II, the Korean martyr Andrew Kim Taegon, the missionary Frances Xavier Cabrini, and the “saint of social media” Carlo Acutis, is not accidental. It comes from a long national survey launched at the end of 2024 among Korean young people and educators, and responds to the very theme of WYD 2027, taken from the Gospel of John: “Take courage, I have overcome the world”.
Why the young chose Bakhita
In a world often marked by new forms of oppression, anxiety about the future, and inner wounds, the life of Josephine Bakhita (1869–1947) speaks the language of closeness. Abducted as a child, sold several times as a slave, and subjected to unspeakable cruelty, she later found freedom and became a religious sister, transforming pain into a radiant witness of freedom and forgiveness. The Committee officially presented her as a “witness of hope, freedom, and faith transformed through suffering”.
For two months, a group of Korean youth volunteers studied her spirituality in depth, creating a dedicated prayer and a graphic symbol that would capture the message this extraordinary African woman offers to young people today.
A bond beyond borders
As Archbishop Peter Soon-taick Chung of Seoul pointed out, these patrons “embrace continents and generations, offering a concrete path for living the faith in the realities young people face today”. The presence of an African saint at an Asian WYD shows how universal the experience of suffering and rebirth truly is. Cardinal Kevin Farrell, prefect of the Dicastery for the Laity, the Family and Life, also expressed the hope that Bakhita’s story may inspire young people, “especially in contexts marked by hardship and persecution, to see that holiness is not a distant ideal”.