Bernardo Vasconcelos

Bernardo Vaz Lobo Teixeira de Vasconcelos, born on July 7, 1902 at S. Romao de Corgo, Portugal, entered the Order of St. Benedict in 1924, made his profession on September 29, 1925, and received the minor orders on the 5th and 6th of January 1929. His greatest desire was to be ordained to the priesthood and offer the Holy Sacrifice. But this desire was never to see fulfilment. Instead, the young monk was to spend the last six years of his life constantly tortured by illness and great physical suffering. Several very painful operations left his body covered with wounds but could do little to alleviate the excruciating pain, which remained with him until his death on July 4, 1932. The Mass & The Interior Life (A Missa e a Vida Interior) was partly written and partly dictated in the middle of this unrespited agony. In 2016 he was declared a Servant of God.