Blessed Benigna Cardoso da Silva
Profile
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.
Born
- 15 October 1928 in Sítio Oitis, Santana do Cariri, Ceará, Brazil
- 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
- 24 October 2022 by Pope Francis
- beatification celebrated at the Square of the Cathedral of Nossa Senhora da Penha, Crato, Brazil, presided by Cardinal Leonardo Ulrich Steiner
MLA Citation
- “Blessed Benigna Cardoso da Silva“. CatholicSaints.Info. 31 May 2023. Web. 24 April 2024. <>