Sister Maria Cassilda

Sister  Maria  Cassilda                   ND 4839                    PDF Download
Cassilda Fagundes de Bittencourt

Our Lady Aparecida Province, Canoas, RS – Brazil

Date and Place of Birth:            December 8, 1930     Rio Pardo, RS
Date and Place of Profession: February 18, 1954     Passo Fundo, RS
Date and Place of Death          February 22, 2016     Canoas, Recanto Aparecida
Date and Place of Funeral:      February 23, 2016     Canoas, Convent Cemetery

I will sing of the Lord’s great love forever. Ps 89:1

Today this verse of the Psalm 89 came true for Sister Maria Cassilda.

Cassilda was the third of the fourteen children of Octacílio Severo Bittencourt and Ernestina Fagundes de Bittencourt. One of them was an adopted daughter. Her father was a merchant and her mother a seamstress.

At the age of 20, Cassilda answered to the call of the Lord and entered the Postulancy of the Congregation of the Sisters of Notre Dame, in Passo Fundo.

Her professional training was in education. She attended a teacher training course. After that she graduated in social sciences and school administration. The first nine years of her Consecrated Religious Life were dedicated to the children of the kindergarten. Until 1999 she worked in different schools serving as teacher, principal, supervisor of the students in the teacher training course, and Coordinator of Religious Education. She was a very creative teacher. With small things she could cause great joy and motivate children and adolescents. She liked to sing and provide choirs for children.

In the beginning of 1999, because of her health, Sister Cassilda gradually left teaching and school activities, engaging herself in pastoral activities, as Eucharistic minister, in liturgy, as co-coordinator of catechesis, pastoral of hope and visiting sick people. She nourished strong friendships, brought comfort to people in the hospital and elderly people in the nursing home. She enjoyed her social life and was much loved by people and families. She welcomed children and parents at the gate of the school with messages. In São Sepé, she received the title of “Citizen of the City.” She expressed her spirituality in childlike simplicity and liked to pray with pictures. She had a deep devotion to Mary.

Seeking a deeper spirituality, she spent four years with the Carmelites at the Our Lady of Mount Carmel for an experience of contemplative life.

She was creative in community life, celebrating birthdays and other feasts in a “special way”. She liked to bring joy to the sisters and to the people she knew.

In 2012, because of her delicate health, she was transferred to Recanto Aparecida, to better meet her physical and spiritual needs. In this community she was blessed with the participation in daily Mass, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and the constant presence of her sisters.

In recent years, Sister was in bed, uncomplaining with her health condition. She had moments of lucidity and others of unconsciousness. The afternoon of February 21 showed that the end of her earthly journey was nearing. On February 22, she went to the eternal dwelling-place where she is contemplating God face to face, according to our faith. May God grant her the reward and peace in His eternal kingdom, where she will pray for all of us.