January 29, 2026

Edmonton Catholic Schools welcomed guests to the grand opening and blessing of St. Josephine Bakhita Catholic Elementary/Junior High on Thursday, January 29, 2026. Our newest elementary/junior high school opened its doors to more than 900 students living in the Rosenthal and Secord communities in September 2025.

Named after St. Josephine Bakhita, the school reflects the resilience, faith, and hope embodied by its patron saint.

ECSD is grateful for the funding from the Alberta Government, which made this school possible. The opening of St. Josephine Bakhita School reinforces our mission to ensure students can access an excellent Catholic education close to home, and is a place where students will be inspired to live out their faith, pursue excellence, and embrace the diverse talents and opportunities around them.

St. Josephine Bakhita Catholic Elementary/Junior High School

St. Josephine Bakhita Catholic Elementary/Junior High School offers modern and flexible learning spaces designed to support teaching, collaboration, and student well-being.

We are incredibly proud of this new school, which continues to represent our vision for the future of Catholic education. It reflects our commitment to providing vibrant, faith-filled learning environments and reinforces our mission to ensure students can access an excellent Catholic education close to home.

The new Elementary/Junior High School serves students from Kindergarten to Grade 9.

About St. Josephine Bakhita

St. Josephine Bakhita was born in 1868 in the village of Olgossa, Darfur (Sudan). As a child, she was kidnapped by slave traders and was given the name Bakhita which means “lucky” or “fortunate." She endured the horrors of slavery before she attained freedom in Italy. There, Josephine became a nun with the Canossian Daughters of Charity and lived and worked with them for 45 years.

Pope John Paul II shared the following words when he beatified Sister Josephine Bakhita in 1992:“Josephine Bakhita, in her humility and total abandonment in God, teaches us not only to work and to pray but, above all, to trust. From her painful experiences, she had learned, with God's grace, to have complete trust in him, who is present always and everywhere, and therefore to be constantly and with everyone good and generous.”

St. Josephine Bakhita is the patron saint of Sudan and human trafficking survivors.

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