Bernard Bois

Father Bernard Bois was born in 1934 in Albanne (Savoie), France. In 1964 he was sent as a Capuchin missionary to the diocese of Berbérati in the Central African Republic. He began his ministry as a vicar at the cathedral of Berbérati (1964/66), then as parish priest at the parish of Bozum (1966/70) and was then parish priest at the parish of Carnot-centre (1970/75). To support the mission Father Bernard used his talents as a carpenter, a profession he learned from his father since his early childhood. He especially liked to make the furniture. Father Bernard also knew how to handle the brush of a painter. He decorated four churches and the chapel in Nadugbé. It was above all at the cathedral that he made his masterpiece. For five months perched on trestles, he made this quite ordinary building a house of God where it is good to gather to pray. In 1997 he returned to France.