Catholic Resistance in Colonial São Paulo – Folha de S. Paulo, December 22, 1974

by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira

Today, I fulfill a longstanding promise to recount the most dramatic episode that enriches the history of the Convento da Luz. With Christmas approaching, the subject is especially appropriate given its essentially religious nature.

In June 1775, Dom Luís Antônio de Sousa Botelho e Mourão, the famous Morgado de Mateus, retired from his post as captain-general. He had governed the Captaincy of São Paulo with wisdom, firmness, and kindness. He was immediately succeeded by Martim Lopes Lobo de Saldanha, who ruled São Paulo for eight years marked by despotism and arbitrariness.

A zealous enforcer of Pombal’s tyrannical laws of religious persecution, Martim Lopes wasted no time informing the viceroy, Marquês do Lavradio, that he had ordered the closure of the Convento da Luz, where ten nuns were then living.

The captain-general had carried out this order through the Bishop of São Paulo. On June 29, the feast of St. Peter, the submissive prelate summoned Friar Galvão, the founder and chaplain of the small monastery, and ordered him to begin dissolving the convent immediately. As soon as he received the order from the pastor—whose duty, however, was to protect the nuns rather than disperse them—Friar Galvão went to the monastery, where the chapel was filled with people waiting for Mass. After Mass, Friar Galvão informed the nuns of the arbitrary and devastating decision. They were overcome with grief as he told them to notify their families to come and fetch them. The convent would have to close its doors within a month.

Three nuns left. The others, however, having been endorsed by the bishop, decided to resist the governor’s order within the limits of canon law. The order they received required them to close the convent but not to disband. They closed it but continued living there clandestinely.

Their resistance seemed absurd. If the governor or the bishop found out, they had the power—though not the right—to impose severe canonical and civil penalties on the nuns. How could they remain in seclusion without receiving food and drinking water from outside, both of which were in short supply? How could they make contact with people outside the convent without risking denunciation?

However, some decisions seem absurd to those without faith but entirely appropriate to those whose faith moves mountains. The nuns decided to confront what was humanly impossible. They closed the doors and windows and cut off all contact with the outside world.

Once the convent’s few supplies were gone, the nuns began to live on whatever herbs they had in the garden. Meanwhile, a strawberry plant in the same garden produced so much fruit that the nuns could not eat it all. With no water, they gathered in the choir on a clear, calm day and prayed for rain. The sky soon filled with clouds. Thunder rumbled, and copious rain fell, filling the jugs and bowls the sisters had set out to collect it. Once the containers were full, the rain stopped.

Heaven granted the “resisters” even greater relief. Joy flooded the nuns’ souls with remarkable graces amid their catacomb-like lives.

An entire month passed in this holy “maquis.” Suddenly, a few days later, loud knocks on the door shook the community. Had everything been discovered? Would they be arrested? They listened carefully and heard Friar Galvão’s voice calling their names. As they opened the door, he announced the news with radiant joy: Marquis do Lavradio, the viceroy, had canceled the order to close the convent and had ordered its reopening. This was conveyed in a letter that had just arrived from Rio, and the bishop hastily agreed. The time had come for the victorious nuns to receive their reward and to sing the Te Deum and the Magnificat.

These facts, which I have gathered from the authoritative book Frei Galvão, Bandeirante de Cristo (Frei Galvão, Pioneer of Christ), reveal not only the strength of soul of the nuns but also that of Frei Galvão. It seems obvious to me that he knew about and supported the nuns’ holy resistance. Otherwise, how could he have known they were in the closed convent?

Thus, the great Franciscan from São Paulo, in addition to his titles of priest, religious, distinguished mystic, slave of Mary, and founder, also added that of a resister in the spirit and letter of canon law.