Octavio Beras Rojas was born in Santa Lucía, in
El Seibo Province, as the eldest of the three children of Octavio Beras Zorrilla, congressman and governor of El Seibo, and Teresa Rojas Santana (a great-granddaughter of
Ramón Santana). He received his
first Communion from Archbishop
Adolfo Alejandro Nouel, and studied at the
Seminary of St. Thomas Aquinas, in
Santo Domingo from 1923 to 1926. He was then sent to
Rome, where he studied at the
Pontifical Gregorian University whilst residing at the Pontifical
Collegio Pio Latino Americano. Later returning to the Santo Domingo seminary for health reasons, Beras was
ordained to the
priesthood on 13 August 1933 and then did
pastoral work in
Santiago de los Caballeros until 1935, whence he was transferred to Santo Domingo. Whilst there, from 1935 to 1945, he served successively as secretary general of
archdiocese;
director of the ecclesiastical bulletin, weekly
newspaper Verdad Católica, and of the Catholic
radio station;
president of the
ecclesiastical tribunal; and organizer of the archdiocesan
synod. He also founded the Federation of
Catholic Youth, and was named an
honorary canon of the
metropolitan chapter,
pro-
vicar general, and
pastor of the metropolitan
cathedral. On 2 May 1945 Beras was appointed
Coadjutor Archbishop of Santo Domingo and
Titular Archbishop of
Euchaitae by
Pope Pius XII. He received his
episcopal consecration on the following 12 August from Archbishop
Manuel Arteaga y Betancourt, with Archbishop
Enrique Pérez Serantes and Bishop
Aloysius Willinger,
CSSR, serving as
co-consecrators. After becoming
Apostolic Administrator sede plena of Santo Domingo, Beras acted as the secretary general of the first conference of the
Latin American Episcopal Conference, from 25 July to 2 August 1955, in
Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil. He later succeeded the late
Ricardo Pittini Piussi,
SDB, as
Archbishop of Santo Domingo, and thus
Primate of the
Dominican Republic, on 10 December 1961. Beras was appointed
Military Vicar for the Dominican Republic on 8 December 1962, and was a member of the
Central Preparatory Commission of the Second Vatican Council from 1962 to 1965. In 1965, he was also made President of the
Episcopal Conference of Dominican Republic.
Pope Paul VI created him
Cardinal Priest of
S. Sisto in the
consistory of 24 May 1976. Beras, the first
cardinal from the Dominican Republic, was one of the
cardinal electors who participated in the
conclaves of
August and
October 1978, which selected
Popes John Paul I and
John Paul II respectively. He resigned as his post as Archbishop on 15 November 1981, after nearly twenty years of service, and his post in the military vicariate a year later, on 15 November 1982. Beras lost the right to participate in any conclaves upon reaching the age of eighty on 16 November 1986. The Cardinal died in Santo Domingo, at age 84. He is buried at the primatial and metropolitan cathedral of the same, the
Catedral de Santa María la Menor. ==External links==