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Bernardo Olivera was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1943. When he was 19 he left university studies and entered the Trappist Monastery near Azul, in the province of Buenos Aires, where he made profession and was ordained a priest nine years later. He was first made Novice Director and Prior, while simultaneously founding a contemplative movement for laypersons, called "Soledad Mariana", with the Virgin Mary as its model. In 1984, he was elected as the monastery's first abbot and less than seven years later was chosen as the first non-European Abbot General of the Trappist Order, which he was until 2018. After returning to Azul he was reelected as the community's abbot until his resignation at the age of 75. |
