Isidore bakanja biography definition

Isidore Bakanja (c. &#; 15 August ) was a Congolese Catholic layman and bricklayer who suffered martyrdom in and was beatified on 24 April by Pope John Paul II.

Due to the nature of his martyrdom, he is sometimes referred to as "martyr of the Brown scapular".

Isidore bakanja biography definition

Life

Bakanja was baptised into the Roman Catholic Church at eighteen years of age through the ministry of Trappist missionaries in the Belgian Congo. He was a very devout convert and catechist. Bakanja had a great love for the Blessed Virgin Mary that he expressed through recitation of the rosary and by being invested in the Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.

His Belgian colonist employers had ordered him to cease sharing the gospel as well as remove the Brown scapular that he wore. Isidore's refusal to comply with the demands of his supervisor resulted in his being brutally beaten and chained.

As a result of the beating and persistent ill treatment he received, Bakanja's wounds became severely in