Imperial period , spiritist pioneer in Brazil. . In the city of
Rio de Janeiro, then capital of the
Empire of Brazil, the first Spiritist sessions were held by French individuals, many of whom were political exiles from the regime of
Napoleon III of France (1852–1870), in the 1860s. Some of these pioneers were the journalist
Adolphe Hubert, editor of the periodical
Courrier do Brésil, the professor
Casimir Lieutaud, and the psychographic medium, Madame
Perret Collard. In 1860 Professor Casimir Lieutaud, founder and director of the French School in Rio de Janeiro, published a
Portuguese translation of the works "
The Times Are Coming" ("
Les Temps sont arrivés") and "
Spiritism in Its Simplest Expression" ("
Le Spiritisme à sa plus simple expression"). The first newspaper to publish translated excerpts from Allan Kardec's works was the
"Verdadeira Medicina Física e Espiritual associada a Cirurgia: jornal cientifico sobre as ciências ocultas e especialmente de propaganda magnetotherapia", published from January to April 1861 by Dr
Eduardo Monteggia, not because he considered himself a Spiritist, but rather a democrat. In the same period, the
Jornal do Commercio, a traditional newspaper of the Brazilian capital at the time, in an article published on 23 September 1863 in the section "Chronicles of Paris," addressed the shows about spirits that were popular in the theaters of Paris and then went on to make comments about spiritism. This article is mentioned in the
"Revue Spirite", where Kardec comments that the author of the article did not delve into the study of spiritism, of which he was ignorant of the theoretical aspects. But Kardec praises his sensible behavior in the face of the facts, for which he did not raise reckless theories. "
At least" – Kardec referred to – "
he does not judge what he does not know." And he adds: :"
We verify with satisfaction that the Spiritist idea is making significant progress in Rio de Janeiro, where it has numerous fervent and devoted representatives. The small booklet "Le Spiritisme à sa plus simple expression"
, published in Portuguese, contributed, not insignificantly, to spreading the true principles of the Doctrine there." In this capital the first spiritist institution to be founded was the
Sociedade de Estudos Espiríticos - Grupo Confúcio (Society of Spiritist Studies – Confucius Group), in 1873. As stated in its bylaws, it was to follow the principles and formalities set forth in
The Spirits' Book and
The Mediums' Book, by
Allan Kardec. Its activities also included free homeopathic prescriptions and the application of passes to those in need. However, its greatest virtue was promoting the translation of Kardec's basic works into the Portuguese language. The reaction in the press of the time is expressed, for example, in a comment published in the pages of the
Jornal do Commercio, accusing spiritism of creating "madmen" and calling for police intervention, concluding: "
It is an epidemic more dangerous than yellow fever..." (Jornal do Commercio, 13 December 1874) In 1875 the Confúcio Group launched the second spiritist periodical in the country (the first in Rio de Janeiro), the
Revista Espírita (Spiritist Review), edited by
Antônio da Silva Neto. Prominent figures associated with this group include
Joaquim Carlos Travassos, who in 1875 presented the first translation of "The Spirits' Book" into the
Portuguese language to
Bezerra de Menezes. The group dissolved in 1876, giving way to the
Sociedade de Estudos Espíritas Deus, Cristo e Caridade (Society of Spiritist Studies God, Christ, and Charity), under the direction of
Francisco Leite de Bittencourt Sampaio. Its doctrinal program, in which the work codified by Allan Kardec was an essential part, included the study of
The Four Gospels by
Jean-Baptiste Roustaing. However, ideological disagreements between those advocating for a "scientific" Spiritism and others supporting a "mystical" Spiritism, led to dissensions within the Society of Studies. Initially, in 1877, a group separated to establish the
Congregação Espírita Anjo Ismael (Spiritist Congregation Angel Ismael) (20 May). The following year (1878), another group formed the
Grupo Espírita Caridade (Charity Spiritist Group) (8 June). Both had short durations and had disappeared by 1879. In the same year, the Society of Studies gave way to the
Sociedade Acadêmica Deus, Cristo e Caridade (Academic Society God, Christ, and Charity) (3 October 1879), following the orientation of the "scientific" group, which opposed the religious character of the Doctrine. Consequently, a final group, under the leadership of medium
João Gonçalves do Nascimento, inspired by the
spirit Ismael, formed a new organization called the
Grupo Espírita Fraternidade (Fraternity Spiritist Group) (1880). Still in this context, Antônio Luís Sayão, who unsuccessfully attempted to reconcile the "Academic Society God, Christ, and Charity" with the "Fraternity Spiritist Group," founded, together with
Frederico Pereira Júnior, João Gonçalves do Nascimento,
Francisco Leite de Bittencourt Sampaio, and others, the so-called "
Grupo dos Humildes" (Group of the Humble), popularly known as the "Sayão Group" (15 July 1880). This group, in its first phase, which lasted about a year, held productive meetings. Later, the group came to be called the "Ismael Group" and integrated into the
Federação Espírita Brasileira (Brazilian Spiritist Federation), where it exists to this day. Also in 1880,
Augusto Elias da Silva, the future founder of the
Reformador and the
Federação Espírita Brasileira (Brazilian Spiritist Federation), founded the
União dos Espíritas do Brasil (Union of Brazilian Spiritists), of which he presided over. Regarding this turbulent period, researcher Pedro Richard stated: :"
At that time, a significant event occurred: Spiritists, either due to disagreement of ideas or criminal pretension, created a considerable number of groups, whose members, for the most part, were unaware of the most rudimentary precepts of the Doctrine. Any Spiritist would form a group, solely to satisfy their vanity by giving it a name they revered. Only a few groups were productive, but they were too few in number." The following year (1881), as an offshoot of the "Fraternity Group," the
Grupo Espírita Humildade e Fraternidade (Humility and Fraternity Spiritist Group) was founded, with the support of
Francisco Raimundo Ewerton Quadros, who would later become one of the founders of the FEB and its first president (7 June). However, the year was marked by the beginning of official persecution of spiritism (28 August). The Rio de Janeiro newspapers
O Cruzeiro and
Jornal do Commercio announced in their pages, in an exclusive report, the police order that banned the activities of the "Academic Society God, Christ, and Charity" and its affiliated centers, making spiritists who contradicted the police provisions subject to criminal sanctions. On the same day, the Society held an extraordinary session to take defensive measures if the news were confirmed. Still on the same day, the Board of the Academic Society appeared before the Minister of Justice, who received them warmly, stating that there must have been some misunderstanding and that he would not allow the persecution of anyone. However, on 30 August, a judicial officer presented the Society with a copy of the summons from the 2nd Police Delegate of the Municipality of the Court, a summons that suspended and prohibited the meetings of the said Society, alleging that it was not legally constituted. Immediately, the Board of the Academic Society sent letters to the Chief of Police and the Minister of Justice, Counselor
Manuel Pinto de Souza Dantas, demonstrating the arbitrariness of that measure. A committee, composed of Dr.
Antônio Pinheiro Guedes,
Carlos Joaquim de Lima e Cirne, and Dr.
Joaquim Carlos Travassos, contacted the Chief of Police, who, despite receiving them amiably, resolved nothing, suggesting that the order came from a higher authority. In this context, on 6 September 1881, the first Spiritist Congress in Brazil took place, promoted by the Academic Society. On the same day, a committee of spiritists was received by Emperor
Pedro II of Brazil, to whom they handed a document with a detailed exposition of the facts and a request for justice to be served. The Emperor, on that occasion, is also said to have stated: "
I do not consent to persecution." Two weeks later, on the 21st, the same committee returned to the palace to learn of the response to the considerations expressed in the exposition delivered to the Emperor. He stated that he had sent the papers to the Minister of the Empire to resolve the case and once again affirmed, with a touch of humor, "''No one will persecute them. But... they shouldn't try to be martyrs now.''" Although the police order was never officially revoked, it also did not proceed. Finally, in an official letter dated 10 January 1882, addressed to H.M. D. Pedro de Alcântara, Emperor of Brazil, the Board of the Academic Society expressed its jubilation "
for the beginning of tolerance" towards that Society, "
a clear sign that the persecutions initiated against Spiritism and Spiritists have ended". This first police action against spiritism resulted in the foundation, in Rio de Janeiro, in September or October 1881, of the
Grupo Espírita Vinte e Oito de Agosto (Twenty-Eighth of August Spiritist Group), a date that the spiritists of that time wanted to preserve for posterity. As a result of the Spiritist Congress, on 3 October of the same year, the
Centro da União Espírita do Brasil (Center of the Spiritist Union of Brazil) was founded within the "Academic Society," by Professor
Afonso Angeli Torteroli. The new institution aimed to bring together and guide Spiritist societies at the national level. Among its members was the name of Lima e Cirne. This Society launched a magazine in January 1881, the second Spiritist periodical in Rio de Janeiro, with Major Ewerton Castro as one of its contributors. To mark the first anniversary of the news about the repression of Spiritists, the I Espírita Exposition of Brazil was opened on 28 August 1882, at the headquarters of the Academic Society, at 120 Rua da Alfândega. The commemorative program, organized by the Society itself, was entitled "Celebration of Spiritism in Brazil" and extended until 3 September. Visitors had the opportunity to appreciate various mediumistic works, such as psychographic writings in normal characters, shorthand and telegraphy in foreign languages (including Oriental languages), psychopictography, copies of correspondence between the Academic Society and foreign spiritist associations, spiritist newspapers and magazines from Europe and America, various Spiritist works, portraits of notable figures of Spiritism from various countries, as well as books and newspapers opposing the Doctrine. On this occasion the newspaper "
O Renovador" (The Renewer) was also launched by Major
Salustiano José Monteiro de Barros and Professor Afonso Angeli Torteroli. A few months later, the "
Reformador" (The Reformer) would be published, under the direction of
Augusto Elias da Silva (21 January 1883). The idea of publishing the latter was influenced by a pastoral letter opposing spiritism, published in 1882 by the Bishop of Rio de Janeiro, which prompted responses from the physician
Antônio Pinheiro Guedes. It was Elias da Silva who, at the end of that year (27 December 1883), held a preparatory meeting for the reorganization of the movement in the Municipality of the Court at his own residence, given the apparent lack of understanding among the members of the various existing spiritist entities there: the "Centro da União Espírita do Brasil," the "Grupo dos Humildes," the "Grupo Espírita Fraternidade," and the "Sociedade Acadêmica Deus, Cristo e Caridade." As a result of this understanding, the
Federação Espírita Brasileira (Brazilian Spiritist Federation) was founded on 1 January 1884, considered as the "House of Ismael," with the aim of federating all groups through a "balanced or mixed program" and disseminating Spiritism through all means, especially the press and books. On 17 August 1885, in a room on Rua da Alfândega, FEB inaugurated a cycle of public conferences that became prominent, with speakers including Elias da Silva, Bittencourt Sampaio, and other pioneers of spiritism in the country. The increase in the public's attendance led these lectures to be moved to Salão da Guarda Velha (in the street of the same name, currently Av. 13 de Maio), where, on 16 August 1886, Dr.
Adolfo Bezerra de Menezes publicly proclaimed his Spiritist convictions before an audience of over a thousand people (1,500 or two thousand, according to sources). In 1887, Elias da Silva founded the
Grupo Espírita Sete de Março (Seventh of March Spiritist Group), which remained active until 1890. During the tumultuous days that stretched from the Abolition of Slavery in Brazil (1888) to the proclamation of the Republic (1889), the following stand out: • a series of articles on the spiritist doctrine published in
O Paiz, the most widely circulated periodical of the time. Under the name "Estudos Filosóficos – Espiritismo" (Philosophical Studies – Spiritism), the articles were regularly published on Sundays from 23 October 1887, to December 1893, signed under the pseudonym "Max." • the message of the spirit of Allan Kardec in the "Grupo Espírita Fraternidade," calling on spiritists to seek harmony (1888); and • the decision of Bezerra de Menezes, who, after preaching the need for greater understanding among spiritists through articles and advice, finally accepted the position of director of FEB, succeeding Ewerton Quadros, who had managed it from 1884 to 1888 and had been transferred to the then Province of
Goiás due to his military duties. • the visit of American physical medium
Henry Slade (1835–1905) to Brazil. It was at this moment that the Center of the Spiritist Union of Brazil, in its second phase, was reorganized and installed in the FEB's facilities, with Bezerra de Menezes as president and later Elias da Silva (1893). It was also Bezerra de Menezes who incorporated the "Grupo dos Humildes" (Group of the Humble), later renamed "Grupo Ismael" (Ismael Group), into FEB. After the
proclamation of the Republic, the Grupo Espírita Fraternidade (Fraternity Spiritist Group) would also join FEB. Prominent figures in the republican movement, such as
Joaquim Saldanha Marinho (1816–1895) and
Quintino Bocaiuva (1836–1912), sympathized with the Spiritist doctrine. In the literary field, noteworthy individuals include
Machado de Assis (1839–1908) as a critic; Spiritist
Manuel de Araújo Porto-Alegre (1806–1879), who held psychographic sessions in Paris and wrote a play ("
Os Voluntários da Pátria" – "The Volunteers of the Fatherland") incorporating Spiritist elements; and sympathizers such as
Castro Alves (1847–1871), who intended to write a spiritist work as the final poem of "Os Escravos" (The Slaves);
Augusto dos Anjos, who conducted spiritist sessions and engaged in psychography in his hometown;
Antônio Castro Lopes (1827–1901), a poet and philologist; and
Alexandre José de Mello Moraes (1816–1882), a physician, historian, and politician. In 1893, at the height of the second
Revolt of the Navy, the government further hardened the regime. Spiritists submitted a new protest to the
National Congress against the Penal Code, once again in vain, as the code's review committee did not meet their demands. Faced with external and internal difficulties, the
Reformador ceased circulation in the last quarter of that year. The "Fraternity Spiritist Group," after changing its bylaws and renaming itself the "Psychological Fraternity Society," dissolved during the
Revolt of the Navy, and on Christmas of that same year, Bezerra de Menezes concluded the series "Philosophical Studies" he had been publishing in
O Paiz newspaper. The following year (1894), with the easing of the political situation, Augusto Elias, together with Fernandes Figueira and Alfredo Pereira, launched a fundraising campaign to support FEB's projects. The
Reformador resumed circulation. Historians of the movement record that at the time, there was an ideological and doctrinal division between the so-called "lay" or "scientific" individuals, represented by Prof. Angeli Torteroli, who advocated the scientific aspect of spiritism, and the "mystics," led by Dr. Bezerra de Menezes, who advocated the religious aspect. Thus, on 4 April 1894, the "Center of Spiritist Union" changed its name to the
Center of Spiritist Union for Propagation in Brazil, under the direction of Prof. Angeli Torteroli, located at 9 Silva Jardim Street. Its board of directors included names such as
Júlio César Leal and Bezerra de Menezes, who resigned from it in 1896 due to a campaign of personal insults against him, as he was considered a mystic who did not bother to reason. With Júlio César Leal's resignation from the presidency of FEB, after seven months in office due to a profound administrative, financial, and ideological crisis experienced by the institution, Bezerra de Menezes accepted to assume the position once again on 3 August 1895. In the exercise of his functions, he imparted an evangelical orientation to the institution's work and remained in office until his death in 1900. . During this time, on 28 August 1897, the "Center of Spiritist Union for Propagation in Brazil" held the "Permanent Spiritist Congress," paying tribute to the "Academic Society God, Christ, and Charity," which had been the target of an attempted persecution against spiritists in 1881. However, the "Center" disappeared during the same period as the Congress. By 1904, there were no less than 19 periodicals dedicated to spiritism circulating in the country. In the same year, he delivered a speech about his adherence to the
spiritist doctrine at the Salão da Guarda Velha in Rio de Janeiro. That same year, the prescribing mediumship service of FEB reached its highest number of consultations, with nearly 400,000 people attended to. Outside the then
Federal District, notable developments during this period include: , founded by
Eurípedes Barsanulfo. . • In
São Paulo,
Batuíra founded the
Truth and Light Spiritist Group and a periodical with the same name, composed and printed in its own typography (1890); • In
Recife, the founding of the
God and Charity Association of the Afflicted Spiritists, on Futuro Street, Aflitos neighborhood, on 26 August 1894, the first spiritist society in
Pernambuco. • In Recife, the founding of the
Pernambuco Spiritist Federation (8 December 1904); • In
Minas Gerais, the founding of the
Minas Gerais Spiritist Union, with
Antônio Lima as its first president, the beginning of the activities of
Eurípedes Barsanulfo in the Triângulo Mineiro region (1904), and the start of
Cairbar Schutel's spiritist advocacy, who founded a spiritist center and began publishing "
O Clarim" (1905), a periodical that continues to be published to this day; • In Minas Gerais, 1916 marked the beginning of
psychography through the mediumship of
Zilda Gama, receiving messages signed by the spirit of
Victor Hugo; • Also in Minas Gerais, in 1926, medium
Yvonne do Amaral Pereira started attending the
Spiritist Center of Lavras, where she began receiving messages from spirits of suicide victims through her mediumship. The following year (May 1927), the first spiritist session was held at the Xavier residence in
Pedro Leopoldo, which led to the establishment of the
Luiz Gonzaga Spiritist Center, presided over by José Cândido Xavier, brother of the medium
Francisco Cândido Xavier. • In São Paulo, the founding of the
São Paulo Spiritist Union (1908), and later, during the
First World War, the mediumistic phenomena of
Carmine Mirabelli; • In
Salvador, Bahia, the founding of the
Bahia State Spiritist Federation (25 December 1915); • In
Matão, São Paulo, the launch of the
International Spiritist Review, under the direction of Cairbar Schutel (15 February 1925). • In
Goiás, the founding of a spiritist center at Palmella Farm (1929), which later became the municipality of Palmelo, known today as the "Spiritist City." The first major dissensions within the spiritist movement occurred in the early 20th century. The first took place in
Niterói, with the establishment of
Umbanda, traditionally initiated by the
Caboclo das Sete Encruzilhadas (1908), and the second occurred in
Santos (1910) and called itself "
Espiritismo Racional e Científico Cristão" (Rational and Scientific Christian Spiritism), systematized by
Luís de Matos and
Luís Alves Tomás. ==From Estado Novo to Pacto Áureo==