Octavio Antonio Beras Rojas

Styles of Octavio Beras Rojas

Reference style	His Eminence
Spoken style	Your Eminence
Informal style	Cardinal
See	Santo Domingo (emeritus)

Octavio Antonio Beras Rojas (November 16, 1906 – December 1, 1990) was a Dominican cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Santo Domingo from 1961 to 1981, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1976.

Octavio Beras Rojas was born in El Seibo, as the eldest of the three children of Octavio Beras Zorrilla and Teresa Rojas Santana. He received his first Communion from Archbishop Adolfo Alejandro Nouel, and studied at the Seminary of St. Thomas Aquinas, in Santo Domingo from 1923 to 1926. He was then sent to Rome, where he studied at the Pontifical Gregorian University whilst residing at the Pontifical Collegio Pio Latino Americano.

Later returning to the Santo Domingo seminary for health reasons, Beras was ordained to the priesthood on August 13, 1933, and then did pastoral work in Santiago de los Caballeros until 1935, whence he was transferred to Santo Domingo. Whilst there, from 1935 to 1945, he served successively as secretary general of archdiocese; director of the ecclesiastical bulletin, weekly newspaper Verdad Católica, and of the Catholic radio station; president of the ecclesiastical tribunal; and organizer of the archdiocesan synod. He also founded the Federation of Catholic Youth, and was named an honorary canon of the metropolitan chapter, pro-vicar general, and pastor of the metropolitan cathedral.