EDUCATION IN CUBA

Another important Catholic educator to the Caribbean  area was VENERABLE BROTHER VICTORINO ARNAUD PAGES.

Born in France in 1885, in Ozillon in the diocese of Puy-en-Velay, he joined the Brothers of Christian Schools at age 16.  Soon after he joined to the Brothers of the Christian Schools, due to the expulsion of the religious from France at the beginning of the 20th century, he was forced to go into exile in 1905 together with his brother Jean-Pierre, also a  Christian Brother. He was assigned to Canada, but soon after, at age 20,  offered to go and found new schools in Cuba.

This Caribbean island welcomed him and it was there that he worked from 1905 until 1961, when another persecution meant another bitter exile. He was the founder of the La Salle Association in 1919, of the male and female Catholic Action in 1928, of the Catholic University Hostel in 1946 and of the Catholic Family Movement in 1953.

Br. Victorino,  received important awards for his efforts for better education and in 1951 he was awarded the doctorate "Honoris Causa" of the Santo Tomás de Aquino University in Havana. In  1953 he was given the "Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice" Cross and in 1955 the Légion d'honneur by the French Government. 

Exiled a second time by the dictator Fidel Castro in 1961, he spent his remaining energy trying to reorganize the various associations he founded among Cubans scattered in New York, Miami and other Caribbean countries. He died in San Juan de Puerto Rico on April 16, 1966.

 He said of himself that he was a "Cuban born in France”. Pope Frances declared him Venerable on April 6, 2019.