Blessed Ceferino Namuncurá

Ceferino Namuncurá (August 26, 1886 – May 11, 1905) was a religious student, the object of a Roman Catholic cultus of veneration in northern Patagonia and throughout Argentina. He was born at Chimpay, a small town in Valle Medio, Río Negro Province, Argentina, the sixth child of Rosario Burgos and a Mapuche cacique, Manuel Namuncurá. At the age of eight, he was baptized by a Salesian missionary priest, Domingo Milanesio. Namuncurá's early years were spent by the Río Negro river, and it was here that he, according to legend, miraculously survived a fall into the river. His father Manuel, Chief of the Mapuches, promoted to honorary colonel in the Argentine army, decided that his son would study in Buenos Aires to prepare himself "to be useful to his people." Thanks to the friendship of Manuel with General Luís María Campos, Minister of War and the Navy of Argentina, the boy came to study in the National Workshops of the Navy as a carpenter's apprentice. There he would remain for three months. Being the only native Indian in the school, Ceferino was mistreated by the other students, and he soon fell ill. He wrote to his father that he was not happy in that place, and Manuel then asked former Argentine president Luis Sáenz Peña's advice. He recommended to Colonel Manuel Namuncurá that he send the boy to the Salesians of Don Bosco. On September 20, 1897, Ceferino went to study with the Salesians at the Colegio Pío IX, a technical academy in Almagro, Buenos Aires. There, he showed himself to be an excellent student and choral musician. He enjoyed his studies and sports and performed card tricks for his classmates, and taught them archery. From April 2, 1901, Carlos Gardel, afterward a legendary tango singer and film actor, became a student at the academy and sang along with Ceferino in the chorus. Manuel, his father, wanted him back home to serve as interpreter and secretary when he finished his studies.