The Cloud, the Jaguar, and the Young Man – Folha de S. Paulo, July 28, 1974
by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira
In my latest article, I advised some people not to read it while encouraging others to do so.
Let me elaborate. Those accustomed to doubting and mocking all things supernatural, sublime, or graceful should stop reading here. Once they have finished, they will say they have wasted their time. On the contrary, those firm in the rationabile obsequium of the Faith, eager for the certainties it provides, and thirsting for the sublime and the graceful will find encouragement, rest, and hope in the facts I will narrate. I need not say how timely this is amid the general offensive of material and moral pollution in our days.
The credibility of the facts I will present rests entirely on human faith, which requires informants of remarkable intellectual maturity and moral integrity.
Friar Antônio de Sant’ana Galvão, the Franciscan who died in São Paulo in the odor of sanctity in 1822, left us a Life of Mother Helena Maria do Espírito Santo, Mistress and Foundress of the Convento da Luz in the City of São Paulo (cf. The Convent of Light in São Paulo, by the Servant of God Friar Antônio de Sant’Ana Galvão, Edition of Mosteiro da Luz, 1974). All the facts in this work were known to the judicious author through personal observation or from witnesses of his complete trust.
The story takes us back about 250 years. It begins in Apiaí, then a remote region in the interior of São Paulo.
“A trustworthy and good Catholic man named Francisco de Paiva,” says Friar Galvão, “saw a white cloud with a supernatural appearance covering a house in the area. It was late at night. The next day, he went to inquire what was happening. He then learned that the couple had a daughter whom they named Helena.”
From the age of reason, she showed exceptional virtues. Among these, I highlight her spirit of penance, which the holy friar, rightly amazed, describes as follows: “For years she wore hair shirts on her flesh, slept with them on the cold ground, macerating her body with almost uninterrupted fasts, tearing her flesh with iron disciplines.” I am well aware that this deeply Christian behavior will strike any Freudian or semi-Freudian reader as unbalanced. On the contrary, Friar Galvão, a prodigiously balanced man and, for this very reason, very knowledgeable about balance, saw only virtue in this. He also understood virtue as very few others did.
God responded to such great penances with special graces. One night, Helena ventured into the woods, seeking complete solitude to pray more effectively. There, she encountered the terror of the jungle, a jaguar poised to devour her. The girl piously invoked the name of Jesus, and the beast, which would not fear the bravest and best-armed men, fled in terror. The scene, worthy of being painted by Fra Angelico, is material worthy of the talent of a Camões.
Friar Galvão also recounts that Helena, accompanying her parents on the long walks of the Paulistas of that time, “was going along a path where there was no drinking water, felt very thirsty, and asked her Creator to lessen her thirst, for she feared she would not have the strength to endure it. Then, a very handsome young man appeared with a cup of water, and, after drinking it, she never felt thirsty again in her entire life.” It is easy to see that this young man was an angel from Heaven sent to quench the pious girl’s thirst, who was presumably seven years old at the time.
It is not surprising that, following this spiritual path, at the age of seventeen she presented herself at the Recollection of Saint Teresa, where she devoted herself for years to the office of servant with piety and care.
However, another vision, even more gracious than the previous ones, revealed that God had higher designs for her.
