Ceferino Namuncurá In May of 1905, Ceferino Namuncurá died in the Fatebenefratelli hospital in Rome. He was a son of a tribal chief in of Argentina.

Ceferino NamuncuráCeferino Namuncurá

In May of 1905, Ceferino Namuncurá

died in the Fatebenefratelli

hospital in Rome.He was a

son of a tribal chief in of Argentina and a pupil of Salesian

Missionaries

He was declared Blessed on November 11, 2007.

Ceferino was born on August 26, 1886

in Chimpay, Patagonia.

He was the sixth of ten children of Manuel Namuncurá, Chief of the Araucana tribe of Pampa, and Rosario

Burgos.

Don Domenico Milanese, Don Domenico Milanese, one of the first Salesian one of the first Salesian

Missionaries in Argentina, Missionaries in Argentina, baptized him in November baptized him in November

1888 888 with the name Ceferino. with the name Ceferino.

His mother, a citizen of Chile, was one of the wives of

the chief.

On May 5, 1884 chief Namuncurá was forced to

surrender to the Argentinean Army of

General Rocaand settle in the

territory of Chimpay, with the title of

honorary Colonel.

Wanting his son to be the future Chief and defender of the Araucanians of the East, chief Namuncurá

decided to send Ceferino for higher education. In 1897, he sent Ceferino to “The Tiger,” a government school in Buenos Aires.

But Ceferino didn’t like the government school so his

father sent him to a Salesian

School – Pius IX in Buenos Aires.

There he met Monsignor Juan Cagliero, the Apostolic Vicar to

Patagonia, and in 1904, he took

Ceferino to Italy - Turín and Rome.

Two events were very important in the spiritual journey of Ceferino: the reading of the life of Dominic Savio and his first communion, during which he vowed absolute

fidelity to his great friend Jesus.

Ceferino was full of Christian and spiritual vigor in small things.

This means that simple holiness is possible.

We should not forget our daily duties. In performing

them we are called to holiness.

In Rome he had the privilege to be received in a private audience by Pope Pius X to whom he spoke and offered a gift of a “fur Blanket”(Quillango) made

from animal skin by his people.

The Pope was pleased by what Ceferino said and gave him a medal “ad principes” (“of the princes”) as a gift.

In spite of the good climate of the Salesian House of Frascati, where he resumed studies, Ceferino’s

health became worse. He was taken to the Fatebenefratelli hospital in Tiberia Island (Rome),

where on May 11, 1905 he died.

He was buried at the Cemetery of Verano in Rome where he remained until 1924 when his body was

carried back to Fortín Mercedes, Patagonia.

With his beatification, Ceferino has joined a group of pious youth like Laura Vicuna who lived in the spirit of St. John Bosco. They serve as a model of holiness for young

people in Latin American and the entire world.

The end