DE FREITAS (priest)
Final Profession: Ribeirão Preto, SP - 15.09.1938
Ordained: Ribeirão Preto, SP - 07.12.1941
Died: Campinas, SP - 12.06.1997
Age: 83
As a boy he was altar server in the church of St John the Baptist in Rio Claro. On 18 Dec 1933 he entered our Apostolic School of Holy Cross. He was one of the first Brazilian Stigmatines.
He lived his priesthood with explosive joy. He used to tell everybody: “My delight is to celebrate the Eucharist”. Fr Vicente spent his life with a distinctive characteristic of availability to the will of the Superiors. After his ordination he was assigned to Ituiutaba. After one month he was already in Morrinhos, then in Casa Branca and immeditaely after that in Campinas where he served as chaplain of the hospital “Casa de Saúde”. All this in the span of three years. Subsequently he was transferred to S. Caetano as vice parish priest. After that he began a “long pastoral pilgrimage”, almost without a fixed abode. He used to say: “My ministry is to serve sick priests and those in need of rest”. He passed through 23 towns and who knows how many parishes!
He got very interested in religious and priestly vocations. He was very devout of our Founder and propagated his life and spirituality. He was gifted with dying on the very day of our Founder’s death, the 12th of June.
