Bl. Benigna Cardoso da Silva

  Posted on November 6, 2020  by admin  No comments

Born: 15 October 1928 in Sítio Oitis, Santana do Cariri, Ceará, Brazil 

Died: slashed and beaten with a machete by Raimundo “Raul” Alves Ribeiro at about 4pm on 24 October 1941 in Sítio Oitis, Santana do Cariri, Ceará, Brazil, buried in the São Miguel Cemetery in Ceará, re-interred at the parish church of Senhora Sant’Ana in Ceará on 26 May 2012 

Beatified: 21 October 2020 by Pope Francis, beatification recognition celebrated at the Cathedral of Nossa Snhora da Penha, Creato, Brazil, presided by Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu 

Venerated: in Roman Catholic Church

Patronage: Victims of rape, crime victims, teenage girls

Feast: 24 October

The youngest of four children born to José Cardoso da Silva and Thereza Maria da Silva; her father died before she was born, her mother before Benigna was a year old, and she and her brother were then adopted by another family. Benigna was known as a pious girl, always willing to help at home and school, a good student who would interfere when other childen were being cruel or destructive, and was brought to tears whenever she saw a classmate punished. She was murdered fighting off a rapist, she is considered a martyr to chastity.