NUNS - "Mother Faith"/Benvinda Pinto - and -- Sister Teresa Varela

 

There are two nuns that I have had the pleasure of researching:  It is very possible that I am related to both of them as I am a Varella and I am related to Mother Faith via the Almeida line.  My grandmother & her father were cousins.   

(1)  Mother Faith / Benvinda Pinto Almeida She was born in Sao Nicolau in 1925, the daughter of Frank & Alice Almeida.   She was a "New Bedford nun, Provincial superior for Portugal of the Order of Amor de Deus (Love of God).  She became Faith Pinto Almeida/Sister Faith/Mother Faith.  She initially entered a convent in Lisbon, was transferred to Spain, came to New Bedford in 1963 & was assigned to Our Lady of Assumption Catholic Church & then later she went to St. Mary Church in Fairhaven.  Even later to Baldwin Park, California & then Los Angeles.  She was one of the first Cape Verdean natives to work in the United States.  The order became one of the first victims of the Fidel Castro regime in Cuba -- where the schools were closed & so the nuns came to the  Fall River diocese.    Standard Times Newspaper - 6/28/1980 - A former New Bedford nun, sister Faith Pinto Almeida has been appointed provincial superior for Portugal of the Order of Amor de Deus (Love of God) by the mother superior of the Spanish-based religious group.  Sister Almeida who assumed her new position earlier this month, will have her headquarters in the Portuguese university city of Coimbra and will have supervision over the order's 218 nuns in that country.  Born in Sao Nicolau, Cape Verde Island the 55 year old nun is the daughter of the late Frank & Alice Almeida and was originally known as Benvinda Pinto Almeida.  She initially entered a convent in Lisbon and later was transferred to Spain.  Coming to the New Bedford area in 1963, Sister Almeida was assigned to the Our Lady of the Assumption Church in New Bedford where she taught preschool classes.  She was later assigned to St. Mary Church in North Fairhaven along with other members of her order.  Nine years ago she was transferred to a Parish in Baldwin Park, California where she worked with preschool youngsters of Mexican ancestry for 4 years.  She was moved to a Los Angeles parish 5 years ago where she worked with other Spanish speaking sisters.  Sister Almeida is one of the first Cape Verdean natives to serve in the United States.  Members of the order were first invited to OLOA in the late 1950's after the late Rev. Edmund G. Francis, then pastor, visited the islands and became impressed with the nun's work with young children in the orphanages they maintained there.  They no longer served the NB parish.  There was an influx of sisters of the order to this area in the early 1960s after the order became one of the first victims of the Fidel Castro regime in Cuba.  When their order's schools in Cuba were closed, the nuns were invited to the Fall River diocese  as a result of their work at OLOA and at St. Anthony Church in Mattapoisett.  The order was founded in April 1864 in Toro Spain by the Rev. Jeronimo Marino Usara, a Catholic missionary to Africa.  The mother house of the order is in Zamora, Spain.

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Note that my grandmother, Maria Antonia Encarnacao was a cousin to Mother Faith's father, Frank Almeida.  My grandmother was of the illegitimate line & Frank was from the legitimate line.  This explains the close relationship between my grandmother & Mother Faith while she was in New Bedford.  Since my grandmother could not read or write they may have only communicated occasionally by phone after Mother Faith left New Bedford. 

Sister Theresa Varela Sister Theresa Varela was b. o 10/3/1937 (not sure which island).  She is quite famous for her ministry in rural Argentina.  Wikipedia indicates that she was born in CV & had 13 siblings.  At 18 she entered a convent in Portugal & in 1971 she went to Argentina.  She is the subject of quite a few You Tube videos including:  "La Hermana Theresa Varela en el programa "Almorzando" con ..." & "La Hermana Theresa Varela en "Argentina para armar, There are two of these TN 1 and TN 2.  A recently published You Tube video - 8;4/2019 is #Es bueno saberlo la historia de Theresa Varela en # Con Vos Propria and in this you tube video she talks about how she left Cape Verde to enter a convent.  My limited Spanish caught that there was much poverty and that she was somehow associated with St. Peter Claver but also something to the effect that the Negro population had suffered in poverty since slavery.  It is also mentioned that she created the Fundacion Mision Esperanza in rural Argentina.