Antônio de Castro Mayer, STL (20 June 1904—25 April 1991) was a Brazilian prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. A Traditionalist Catholic and ally of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, he was Bishop of Campos from 1949 until his resignation in 1981.
In 1988, he was excommunicated by the Holy See for participating in the illict consecration four bishops of the Society of St. Pius X. However, in 2009, the Holy See lifted the excommunication on the four su...
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Antônio de Castro Mayer, STL (20 June 1904—25 April 1991) was a Brazilian prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. A Traditionalist Catholic and ally of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, he was Bishop of Campos from 1949 until his resignation in 1981.
In 1988, he was excommunicated by the Holy See for participating in the illict consecration four bishops of the Society of St. Pius X. However, in 2009, the Holy See lifted the excommunication on the four surviving bishops.
Antônio de Castro Mayer was born in Campinas, São Paulo, to Joao Mayer, a Bavarian stone mason, and his wife, Francisca de Castro, a Brazilian peasant. One of twelve children, Antônio helped his mother support their family after Joao died in 1910. At age 12, he entered São Paulo's minor seminary, then run by the Premonstratensian Fathers. After entering the major seminary in 1922, he was sent to study at the Pontifical Gregorian University (from where he obtained his doctorate in theology in 1928) in Rome. Mayer was ordained...
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