Reference style His Eminence Name Bernard Yago See Abidjan (emeritus) | Informal style Cardinal Spoken style Your Eminence | |
Died October 5, 1997, Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire | ||
Bernard Yago (July 1916 – October 5, 1997) was a Côte d'Ivoire Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Abidjan from 1960 to 1994, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1983.
Biography
Bernard Yago was born in Pass, Yopougon, and studied at the seminary in Abidjan before being ordained to the priesthood on May 1, 1947. He then served as a professor at the Minor Seminary of Bingerville and as director of the Pre-Seminary École de Petit Clerics until 1956, whence he began pastoral work in Abidjan until 1957. Yago furthered his studies at the Catholic Institute of Paris from 1957 to 1959. Upon his return to Côte d'Ivoire, he was Counselor of Catholic Action in Abidjan from until 1960.
On April 5, 1960, Yago was appointed Archbishop of Abidjan by Pope John XXIII. He received his episcopal consecration on the following May 8 from Pope John himself, with Bishops Napoléon-Alexandre Labrie, CIM and Fulton John Sheen serving as co-consecrators, in St. Peter's Basilica. Yago later attended the Second Vatican Council from 1962 to 1965, and sat on the Council's Central Preparatory Commission.
Pope John Paul II created him Cardinal-Priest of San Crisogono in the consistory of February 2, 1983. Yago, who was the first cardinal from Côte d'Ivoire, resigned his post as Archbishop on December 19, 1994, after a period of thirty-four years. He lost the right to participate in a papal conclave upon reaching the age of eighty in July 1996.
Cardinal Yago died in Abidjan, at age 81. He is buried in the metropolitan cathedral of Abidjan.