Serafim Fernandes de Araújo

Serafim Fernandes de Araújo (; 13 August 1924 – 8 October 2019) was a Brazilian prelate of the Catholic Church and professor who served as Archbishop of Belo Horizonte from 1986 to 2004. He was made a cardinal of the Catholic Church by Pope John Paul II in 1998.

Biography Araújo was born in Minas Novas, in the northeast of the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais, and grew up in nearby Itamarandiba. He studied at the seminary of Diamantina from the age of twelve, graduating in humanities in 1942 and philosophy in 1944,

On 19 January 1959, Araújo was appointed an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Belo Horizonte by Pope John XXIII, with the titular see of Verinopolis, receiving episcopal consecration on 7 May of that year. He was named the coadjutor archbishop of Belo Horizonte on 22 November 1982 by Pope John Paul II, succeeding João Resende Costa as archbishop on 5 February 1986.