In Pace Christi

Brother Bernardino da Silva Ferreira (10.10.1939 – 31.01.2025)

Brother Bernardino da Silva Ferreira was born in Rio Caldo (Terras do Bouro, Gerês) on 10^th October 1939 and was baptised four days later. The eldest of nine children, he attended primary school in the village, but did not go beyond the third grade and began to help his father with the work in the fields. He would only attend the fourth grade in 1956, at the age of 17, and then returned to work to help the family.

He did his military service in Mozambique. When he returned, he found work for a few years at the Military Academy, first as a servant, then as a typographer. In 1972, in addition to working, he began to attend a professional correspondence course, to become an industrial designer. On 16^th February 1973, he obtained the Diploma in Industrial Design – Design of Machines and Civil Buildings, issued by the Technical Education and Professional Orientation Center, located not far from Lisbon.

Immediately afterwards he entered the postulate of Coimbra. In September 1974, he began the two-year novitiate in Santarém. He enjoyed community life and was soon convinced that fraternity would always be at the centre of his missionary life. In the letter in which he asked to take his vows, he wrote: “I believe that there is no true growth without forgetting oneself, without living for God and for the brothers. My vocation introduces me to the community, not to be a ‘centre’ around which everything revolves, but to be a member of it and one who owes much to others.” On 19^th June 1976, he took his first religious vows.

After a short vacation with his family, he was sent to Pordenone, Italy, to the International Brothers Scholasticate, where he remained for two years. In March 1977, the superior general, Father Tarcisio Agostoni, sent him the letter of appointment: he was assigned to the Region of Northern Brazil starting 1^st July 1977. For various reasons, however, he had to postpone his departure. He arrived in Brazil on 18^th April 1978, and was assigned to Balsas, in the south of Maranhão, at the episcopal seat of Msgr. Rino Carlesi. Brother Bernardino was immediately put in charge of construction. He remained in Balsas until June 1982, when he returned to Portugal, assigned to the community of Aveiro, as bursar. In July 1986 he was bursar of the novitiate community of Santarém. In 1988 he returned to Balsas, still assigned to construction. Then he went to Maracacumé (1994) and to Pastor Bons (October 1994-June 1997), before returning to his homeland in July 1997, to the novitiate of Santarém as bursar. In 2001, he returned to Balsas, but assigned to the Pastoral Area of Potosi. In January 2005 he went to Rome for a refresher course. In July he was back in Brazil, in the parish of Teresina, where there was a Center for the Elderly and Sick, in charge of the maintenance of the house.

In 2008 he was still in Balas but moved in 2011 to Vila Nova de Famalicão where he was involved with the Christian communities that he encouraged with celebrations of the Word. In 2013 he returned permanently to Portugal, first to Santarém, then to Viseu.

Both in Portugal and in Brazil, Brother Bernardino was very sensitive to social problems: he understood the hard life of the people. In a letter written to a confrere from Balsas, we read: «Social problems – first of all poverty – have grown, not only in Balsas, but throughout the immense country of Brazil». He worked that people might grow in faith and hope in the God of History.

In his later years, he meditated at length on his missionary life and wrote down his reflections in a volume he entitled Trajetória de uma vida (The Path of a Life). Here are some extracts: “I have fond memories of all the people I met on the mission. I am not afraid to say that I learned a lot from the northeasterners of Balsas. [...] The Mission is this: if you give, you receive, and a lot. Because the principle holds that every human being is ‘similar’ to others: he lives by receiving and giving, within the great set of ever-widening circles that, in the end, include all of humanity.” And again: “As we approach maturity and reflect on our past life, we realise that there are forces of destruction always active within us and around us. We see that selfishness prevails over altruism, that pride is greedy for power and success, and that human fragility is in itself insurmountable. Therefore, it is with the discovery of ourselves that we realise the absolute necessity of a salvation that can only come to us from above. […] To be ‘justified’ – to use religious language – means to reconcile oneself with what God has done, and therefore with history and with one’s own past, with one’s own life and death, so that it is once again possible to have confidence in the future. By finding in our past the ‘traces’ of God’s saving passage in our history, we are able to speak with full knowledge of the facts of God’s redemptive action in history.”

Brother Bernardino spent the last years of his long life in the Comboni community of Viseu, with the serenity of one who continued to be a missionary even in old age. He died on 31^st January 2025, surrounded by the prayers and love of his brothers. His body now rests in the Rio Caldo cemetery.
(Father Fernando Domingues, mccj)