Anthony of St. Ann Galvão

Upon his arrival in São Paulo, Anthony Galvão distinguished himself by his exceptional pastoral zeal. Appointed preacher, confessor, and porter of the Convent of St. Francis in 1768, he also dedicated himself to the spiritual direction of the nuns of the Recolhimento of St. Teresa between 1769 and 1770. It was during this ministry that he met Sister Helena Maria da Espírito Santo, with whom he collaborated to found, on February 2, 1774, the community of Recolhimento de Nossa Senhora da Conceição da Divina Providência, the future Recolhimento de Nossa Senhora da Luz. Upon the death of Sister Helena Maria, he assumed sole spiritual direction for more than a quarter of a century, overseeing the construction of the conventual church inaugurated on August 15, 1802. In 1811, he also founded a convent of Poor Clares in Sorocaba. He drafted constitutions and statutes to guide the spiritual life of these communities. Alongside these foundations, Anthony Galvão exercised a ministry of confessor and spiritual director of considerable reach: the faithful came from all regions of Brazil to submit their sorrows to him and seek counsel. He is also famous for his "pílulas" (paper pills): small rolls of rice paper on which was inscribed in Latin the Marian verse "Post partum Virgo permansisti : O Mater Dei, pro nobis intercede," which he prescribed to the sick or to women in difficult labor. This practice of popular piety continues at the sanctuary of São Paulo, where some three hundred faithful request them every day.

His contemporaries recognized very early in Anthony Galvão a man of intense prayer and heroic charity. Benedict XVI, in his canonization homily on May 11, 2007, described him as a wise and prudent guide of souls, sought out to hear confessions with zeal, wisdom, and prudence, reconciling hearts with God and bringing peace to souls and families. His spiritual life was centered around two fundamental devotions: perpetual Eucharistic adoration, which he sought to establish in his community in the manner of a laus perennis, and the veneration of the Immaculate Conception, to the point of proclaiming himself a "perpetual son and slave of the Immaculate Conception." His mother had bequeathed to him this ideal of radical charity, she who had distributed her clothes to the poor before dying. Anthony perpetuated this legacy by welcoming the sick, the poor, and sinners with the same paternal kindness. Extraordinary phenomena were attributed to him during his lifetime—levitation, bilocation, the gift of prescience—but it was above all his constancy in humble daily service that formed the foundation of his reputation for holiness. The conversion of sinners was, according to the testimonies of his contemporaries, the great passion of his life.

The instruction for the cause of beatification and canonization was opened in 1938. On March 8, 1997, John Paul II declared him venerable. On October 25, 1998, at the conclusion of a ceremony in Rome, the same pope proclaimed him blessed: he thus became the first Brazilian born in Brazil to be beatified. The miracle accepted for the beatification concerned little Daniella Cristina da Silva, then four years old, who was healed in 1990 of fulminant type A hepatitis when doctors had deemed her case hopeless, following the use of the venerable's pílulas and a fervent novena. The second miracle, accepted for the canonization, occurred in favor of Sandra Grossi de Almeida, who suffered from a uterine malformation that prevented her from carrying a pregnancy beyond the fourth month; after using the pílulas, she gave birth on December 11, 1999, to a son, Enzo, whose initially critical health recovered unexpectedly. This miracle was recognized by pontifical decree on December 16, 2006. The canonization took place on May 11, 2007, during the apostolic visit of Benedict XVI to Brazil: the mass celebrated at the Campo de Marte in São Paulo gathered some eight hundred thousand faithful and constituted the first canonization performed by this pontiff outside the Vatican. His liturgical memorial is set for October 25, the anniversary of his beatification, a date inscribed in the proper calendar of Brazil.

The figure of Anthony of St. Ann Galvão occupies a unique place in Brazilian Catholicism: as the first saint born on Brazilian soil, he embodies the rooting of a Church that knew how to embrace popular devotions without separating them from a solid sacramental life. The Recolhimento de Nossa Senhora da Luz, which he founded in São Paulo, became the Mosteiro da Luz: the left wing of the building has housed the Museum of Sacred Art of São Paulo since 1970, while the Conceptionist nuns remain there in enclosure. The complex was classified as a national historical monument by the SPHAN (now IPHAN) in 1943, as one of the rare 18th-century colonial buildings preserved in São Paulo. The Frei Galvão sanctuary, also in São Paulo, remains a highly frequented place of pilgrimage: every day, the pílulas da fé—those small paper pills inherited from his pastoral practice—are given to hundreds of faithful who ingest them as a sign of trust in the Virgin Mary. He is notably invoked by pregnant women and people suffering from serious illnesses. His Franciscan example—evangelical poverty, boundless charity, humble spiritual direction—continues to inspire the Franciscans of Brazil and, more broadly, a lively popular devotion throughout the country. During the 2013 World Youth Day, celebrated in Rio de Janeiro, his figure was highlighted as a model of Brazilian faith for young Catholics from all over the world.