Divaldo Franco has been the most active and prolific Brazilian lecturer on the Spiritist Doctrine in modern times. Born in Feira de Santana, a small town in northeast Brazil, in the sate of Bahia, Divaldo displayed clairvoyance and clairaudience before he was 5 years old. Through his childhood, Divaldo played with friends from another dimension of life that others could not see or hear. In 1947 Divaldo, along with his friend Nilson Pereira (who is also present here today, founded "Caminho da Redencao" Spiritist Center - this was the beginning of a labour of love to benefit the sick and those in need. Two years later, in 1949, Divaldo saw through clairvoyance a very large area with many children and, through clairaudience, Divaldo heard a voice stating that his life would be dedicated to caring for children in need.
Translation: Carolina von Scharten, London, Sir William Crookes Spiritist Society linked to BUSS - The British Union of Spiritist Societies.
In 1952, then, Mansão do Caminho was established to provide housing and care for orphaned children in Salvador, Bahia, through a system of foster homes. All of this has been going for over 50 years now and still is going strong -- and growing. Since 1952 more than 600 adoptive sons and daughters have been raised in the system of foster homes at Mansao do Caminho. As time went by elementary, middle, high and professional schools were created to cater to the ever growing number of children. "Mansao do Caminho" has become a very large educational institution complex with 22 activities which provide guidance to more than 3,000 children and teenagers everyday - all free of charge. To this date, more than 30,000 boys and girls have received an education and care at “Mansão do Caminho's” many schools.
As a speaker, Divaldo has ministered more than 10,000 lectures and conferences in more than 300 cities worldwide. In the 25 states of Brazil alone Mr. Franco has lectured at more than 600 cities. Divaldo has held lectures and seminars in 53 different countries: 21 in Europe, 21 in the Americas (North, South and Central), 5 in Africa and 6 in Asia Mr. Franco has also spoken 7 times for the United Nations - 4 times in the New York headquarters, and 3 times in Austria, at the Vienna headquarters. As a medium, Divaldo has co-authored more than 170 books through psychography - also known as automatic writing. Of those, approximately 100 have been translated into 15 different languages. More than 217 spiritual writers have authored messages through his channelling. Mr Franco has also written messages in languages he did not know, such as German, French, Italian, Castilian, Afrikaans and even backwards English.
Izaias Claro is the President and Founder of the centre Comunidade Espírita Joana de Ângelis, in Osvaldo Cruz – SP. This place was established to provide housing and care for children and adolescents in this city. It also provides the community with a spiritist centre.
Izaias works as an attorney in the State of São Paulo. He has been taking part in many seminars and congresses throughout Brazil disseminating the Spiritist Doctrine. He always tries to approach, as a lecturer, the following doctrinal spiritist topics: depression, anxiety, fear, stress, marriage, children etc.
Izaias has written many books; the best seller "Depressão - Causas, Conseqüências e Tratamento (translation: Depression – Causes, Consequences and Treatment) was also written by him. He has also got many CD’s and videos edited with his spiritist lectures.
José Raul Teixeira was born in Niteroi, a city located 7 miles northeast of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. He is a physicist with a PhD in Education. He also holds a professor position at “Universidade Federal Fluminense” in Brazil.
Raul co-founded in 1980 the “Fraternity Spiritist Society” (Sociedade Espiritia Fraternidade) that supports and educates hundreds of children in his hometown city. For the last 40 years, Raul has travelled to more than 40 countries delivering the spiritual message of Love and Compassion. Today, Raul Teixeira is one of the most preeminent Spiritist Speakers in Brazil and worldwide. Raul is also a gifted Spiritist Medium. He wrote more than 25 books through automatic writing.
Francisco Cândido Xavier was a popular medium in Brazil´s spiritism movement. In his life he wrote more than 400 books in a process known as Automatic writing. He was born in the city of Pedro Leopoldo, State of Minas Gerais and is popularly known as "Chico Xavier" (Chico is the Brazilian nickname for Francisco). Throughout his life he wrote more than 400 books, using a process known as psychography, where his hand was said to be guided by spirits that wanted to leave a written message, or sometimes entire books. Xavier's spiritual guide was called Emmanuel. Chico Xavier kept a simple life, donating all the income from the books he wrote and the donations he received to charity. He provided food to the needy every day in Uberaba, who would form long lines to also get a word with him. Chico Xavier's popularity remained unchanged in Brazil throughout his life. Despite his health problems (general weakness as a consequence of old age), he kept working up to his death, on June 30, 2002.
Adolfo Bezerra de Menezes was born in the old neighbourhood of Freguesia do Riacho de Sangue (Stream of Blood), today Solonopole, in Ceara, Brazil, on the 29th August 2 1831. He died in Rio de Janeiro, on 11th April, 1900. In November of 1852, he entered as intern resident at the Mercy Hospital. He graduated from the College of Medicine of Rio de Janeiro, in 1856, presenting a doctorate thesis about: “Diagnosis of Cancer." It was when he started to sign only Adolfo Bezerra de Menezes. He decided to live for the poor, distributing with the needful the little that he possessed.
He was always ready to assist the need ones; wherever there was an illness to combat, he would take to the afflicted the comfort of his kind words, the resource of the doctor's science and the aid of his scarce but yet generous purse. Bezerra de Menezes was a speaker, a writer and a politician. He was a dedicated spiritist worker who helped the foundation of the Brazilian Spiritist Federation.