English 
Sr. Brigida Biffi, from Monza, joined the Missionaries of the Immaculate at the age of 22. She left for Brazil at the beginning of the 1960 while still a junior, and in Ibipora`, in the state of Parana`, she was entrusted with the very young aspirants whom she prepared for religious missionary life.
Co-existence in Ibipora’ was peaceful. Many young people remember her spirit of sacrifice, her dedication and passion for serious and assiduous work. Others have not forgotten her recommendations: “To become a good missionary you must be willing to go anywhere, to eat anything, and accept a culture different from yours and learn a new language, without ever forgetting that Grace is where God sends you, the grace of the place!” says gratefully Sr. Rosamaria.
In the following years, Sr. Brigida is sent to Braganca Paulista, as a pioneer in the opening of this new presence. Here she puts her cutting and sewing expertise to good use. Many girls and women still remember her passion for teaching, her friendliness, and her seriousness in her work: she didn’t know how to sit idle and many owe their profession of seamstress to her, which they still practice today.
Over time, Sr. Brigida developed a great capacity for relationships which she also puts to good use in visits to the sick, in accompanying a Rosary prayer group in San Paolo, and in caring for the poor and the sick. Even at Villa Missionaria, she is appreciated for her loyalty and for the weekly commitment she maintains with the women and mothers to whom she continues to teach her greatest passion: tailoring.
Everywhere she never misses an opportunity to make herself useful and when her strength begins to fail Sr. Brigida chooses to “keep herself company” with her sisters who needed to go to the airport or to the doctor, to shorten the queue at the post office or at the bank for those who, having less time than her, ask her favor of replacing her with tasks to be carried out outside the home.
It is a real bridge with the many Italians who, in it’s almost 50 years of mission, welcomes and accompanies them to get to know the city of San Paolo and its most popular tourist spots.
Brazil had become a true “passion” for her, despite the great cultural and ecclesial changes she witnessed in the years after the Council. Sr. Brigida knew how to live her life of consecration faithfully, in prayer and in the missionary style that she felt she had still received from her family, by her parents who had given two children to the mission, she and her dear brother Angelo, a PIME missionary in India.
In 2009, returning to Italy for the holidays, she fears that she will never be able to see “her Brazil” again and in fact the illness and the decline of her strength will lead her, little by little, her illness again until she went out like a candle on the afternoon of March 8th on the eve of her 94th birthday.
The life of Sr. Brigida Biffi was an example of dedication and love in missionary service. Through her passion for cutting and sewing, she shared the values of faith, hospitality and solidarity, weaving the web of the Gospel on Brazilian soil.
Sr. Antonia dal Mas, Italy
