Stephen Ferrando

Stephen Ferrando (28 September 1895 – 21 June 1978) was an Italian Roman Catholic priest belonging to the Salesians of Don Bosco – an order that Saint John Bosco established. 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 own religious congregation.
Ferrando's cause of sainthood has commenced and was granted the title Servant of God as being the first stage in the process. 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 other 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 and in 1929, 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 as well as the diocese of Krishnanagar and also the Prefecture Apostolic of Assam to the Salesians.

On 9 July 1934, Ferrando was appointed as 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 – from the Archbishop of Calcutta – his episcopal consecration on the following 10 November. When the Prefecture of Assam was elevated as the bishopric of Shillong shortly after, Ferrando was transferred as the Bishop of Shillong as its second bishop on 26 November 1935, a position he held until 26 June 1969 when he retired (The diocese was then promoted to an archdiocese, so that his successor was an archbishop).

The new diocese was faced with many challenges, none greater than the shortage of personnel. Ferrando immediately threw himself into the work of increasing the diocesan personnel. On 18 March 1932, he wrote to the Rector Major of the Salesians: "St. Francis Xavier made that emotional appeal to the studious youth of his times. From the same wonderful land of India I renew his appeal so that many may come to work in Assam ... The harvest is rich... but the laborers are few".

At that time, missionaries were valued as facilitators for social improvement and uplift, and delegations were continually calling on Ferrando from the Asom, Khasis, Mundas, Karbis, Tiwas, Bodos, the Manipuris, Garos, Nagas and other tribes requesting that he assign priests, nuns, doctors, educationists and other personnel to their communities. In his annual report of 1945–46, Ferrando wrote: "This makes me very anxious, because if once a favorable occasion is lost, it is difficult to regain it". Missionaries such as L. Piasecki, A. Pianazzi, C. Vendrame and A. Ravalico expended themselves to conform and strengthen the Christians of the large and extensive diocese.

On 10 April 1936, the Bishop's House – formerly the residence of the Prefect Apostolic – went up in flames. Ferrando immediately began plans to build the diocese a proper Cathedral with adjacent seminary, bishop's house and a resthouse for exhausted missionaries. At the beginning of 1937, Ferrando spent several weeks visiting villages and baptized hundreds of catechumens and confirmed two hundred souls.

During World War II, the British Government ordered the internment of most of the Italian and German missionaries throughout British India. While fifty-six of his missionaries were interned or expelled, he was left with thirty priests and twenty other clerics to man the diocese. Believing it necessary to organize the local people to take up clerical positions, Ferrando founded the "Missionary Sisters of Mary, Help of Christians" (MSMHC) in 1942. In 1962, he succeeded at last in setting up the St. Paul's Minor Seminary in Shillong.

In early 1969, the Government of India declared that foreign missionaries must be recalled and replaced by locals. As a result of this, Ferrando too resigned (he submitted his resignation to Pope Paul VI) and made way for an Indian citizen to be appointed; he was appointed as the Titular Archbishop of Troyna. Ferrando retired to Italy, where he lived back in his hometown of Genoa.

Ferrando was a regular contributor of articles of missiological, cultural, anthropological, geographical and historical nature on the Assam Mission to such publications as the Bollettino Salesiano, Gioventù Missionaria and more.

Ferrando died in Genoa on 21 June 1978.

The process of beatification commenced in Shillong after the Archdiocese of Genoa transferred its rights to conducting the cause on 11 April 2003. The Congregation for the Causes of Saints – under Pope John Paul II – granted approval to the cause on 23 April 2003 which gave Ferrando the title Servant of God. The diocesan process spanned from 8 August 2003 until 13 August 2006. The Congregation declared the process valid on 17 October 2008 and began their own evaluation.

The postulation compiled the Positio for the Congregation and submitted it to them upon its completion in 2012. On 5 March 2015 the theologians advising the Congregation approved his life and virtues while the Congregation itself met on 23 February 2016 and also approved the cause's continuation – it received papal approval on 3 March 2016 allowing for Pope Francis to declare him as Venerable.

The postulator is Pierluigi Cameroni.