Bernardo Vaz Lobo Teixeira de Vasconcelos, born on July 7, 1902 in Portugal, entered the Order of St. Benedict in 1924, made his profession in 1925, and received the minor orders in 1929. His greatest desire was to be ordained to the priesthood and offer the Holy Sacrifice. But this desire was never to see fulfillment. Instead, the young monk was to spend the last six years of his life constantly tortured by illness and great physical suffering. Several painful operations left his body covered with wounds but could do little to alleviate the excruciating pain, which remained with him until his death on July 4, 1932. The Mass and The Interior Life was partly written and partly dictated in the middle of this unrespited agony. In 2016 he was declared a Servant of God.
