Venerable Stephen Ferrando

Stephen Ferrando (28 September 1895 – 21 June 1978) was an Italian Roman Catholic priest belonging to the Salesians of Don Bosco. He served in the missions in Asia once he was ordained and was stationed in India where he led a diocese of his own. He also established his religious congregation. On 3 March 2016 he was proclaimed to be Venerable after Pope Francis recognized that Ferrando led a life of heroic virtue. Stephen Ferrando was born on 28 September 1895 in Genoa. Ferrando was ordained to the priesthood on 18 March 1923 at the Salesian Institute of Borgo San Martino in Alessandria. A few months later he was assigned to serve in British India as part of the third batch of missionaries dispatched. Ferrando left Venice on 2 December 1923 along with nine companions, reaching Shillong, then the capital of the Assam province of British India and headquarters of the Prefecture Apostolic of Assam, on 23 December. There he was entrusted with the task of forming future missionary personnel for the Prefecture, serving as the Master of Novices. He also served as the catechist and then the Rector of Our Lady's House in Shillong. In 1929, he became a Council Member of the Provincial team of the Salesians in the diocese. At that time, the Holy See had entrusted the Archdiocese of Madras, and the diocese of Krishnanagar, and the Apostolic Prefecture of Assam to the Salesians. On 9 July 1934, Ferrando was appointed the bishop of Krishnanagar in Nadiab, the island-city in the province of Bengal; he choose Apostolus Christi ("An apostle for Christ") as his motto. He received his episcopal consecration on the following 10 November. Ferrando was transferred to the Diocese of Shillong and became the second Bishop of Shillong on 26 November 1935, a position he held until 26 June 1969 when he retired. The young diocese was faced with many challenges, none greater than the shortage of personnel.