Santa Benigna: the blessed Ceará who became a symbol against violence against women

The story goes that Benigna Cardoso da Silva refused to have sexual relations with another young man in Santana do Cariri, a city about 500 kilometers from Fortaleza. Faced with her refusal, at just 13 years old, she was brutally murdered with a machete in October 1941. The tragedy became popular and the teenager won over devotees across the state as a martyr.

Ao Vatican News, the Pastoral Coordinator of the Senhora Sant'Ana Parish of Santana do Cariri, Danilo Sobreira, explained that the girl, who was born on October 15, 1928, was orphaned by her father and mother very early and was adopted by a Catholic family. “She was very dedicated to her studies – she was at the top of her class, charitable, a lover of nature and animals, extremely religious, regularly participating in the Eucharist on Sundays,” says the parish priest.

According to the report, the young woman received a Bible as a gift from the parish priest at the time, which became her bedside book. “She read the stories and brought them into her life as reflection, passing them on to her friends and even being a catechist for teaching the Word of God. And she also had a special devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel, whom she always invoked to free her from hell.”

But at the age of 12 she began to be harassed by a boy called Raimundo Raul Alves Ribeiro. After several attempts to approach, he set up an ambush at around 16 pm on October 24, 1941 after arriving from school. When the girl went to get water close to the house, the executioner approached her sexually. Benigna rejected him and was then hit several times with a machete.

"Since then, she is invoked as a martyr, heroine of chastity, martyr of purity“, adds Danilo Sobreira.

Devotion

Spontaneously – and for many decades – people went to the place where Benigna was murdered to pray and ask for intercession, light candles and place flowers.

Because she is venerated in the Cariri region, as a symbol of resistance to feminicide and sexual violence against children and adolescents, the Vatican recognized Benigna as the first blessed in Ceará, the fourth martyr in Brazil. A authorization was given by Pope Francis in 2019. (G1)