On October 15, 1928 Benigna da Silva was born as the youngest of four sibilings to her parents José Cardoso da Silva and Teresa Maria da Silva. Benigna would not get to know them though, her father would die before she was born and her mother died when she was one. Sisters Rosa and Honorina Sisnando would adopt the siblings and raised them as Catholics.
Growing up in Oiti, Santana do Cariri, Ceará, Brazil Benigna was a regular attendee to Mass and took care of household chores. She enjoyed taking walks and having picnics with her siblings. She was known as someone who was always willing to help
In 1941 while she was 12 a Raimundo "Raul" Alves Riberio, who was around her age, would approach her with sexual advances. She would reject him and even asked her parish priest what to do about it. He told her to resist and reject him. She would listen to the advice and continue to reject Raul.
On October 24th the now 13-year-old Benigna would go and get water in an isolated area. Raul would know she would go there and hide in the bushes waiting for her. She would arrive and he would jump out and attempt to grab her and attempted to rape her. She would resist and this angered him and he pulled out the machete he carried around with him.
He would strike her four times with the machete. The first strike would remove three fingers on her right hand, the second struck her forehead, the third was her stomach, and the fourth hit her neck, and the last strike killed her. She would die at 4 p.m. and Raul fled. Soon after she died her brother Cirineu went to look for her and found her.
She would be buried the next day. Police would investigate and there were several suspects including her brother Cirineu. Raul would be arrested and convicted of his crime. He would serve time in prison and showed remorse for the murder. He would return to the scene of the crime in 1991 and expressed his regret in killing her. Her body was relocated on May 26, 2012, to the Santana do Cariri parish church.
Benigna is in the process of beatification for defensum castitatis, which means she protected herself as a chaste virgin during an attack. Her beatification was initially scheduled for October 21, 2020, but due to Covid, it has been delayed.
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