Devotees queue to get Brother Galvao's "pills"
© AFP Daniel KfouriSAO PAULO (AFP) - Outside the Monastery of Light, supplicants line up under a scorching sun convinced the "Galvao pills" will cure them of disease, infertility or abject poverty.
"My six-year-old girl suffers from leukemia, but I'm sure the pills of Friar Galvao, our saint, will cure her," said Conceicao Antunes.
Like many others, Antunes, a 35-year-old domestic employee, has spent hours waiting for her turn to receive her snippet of printed rice paper.
Next in line, is Henrique da Silva, a seemingly well-off 18-year-old, who is confident the long-deceased monk will ensure he passes his university admission exams.
Thousands of Brazilians believe they have been cured of diseases doctors often thought incurable, thanks to the intervention of Antonio de Sant'Ana Galvao.
When he is canonized by Pope Benedict the XVI at a mass in Sao Paulo, Galvao will become first native-born saint in Brazil, the world's largest Roman Catholic country.
A devotee prays in front of Franciscan Brother Galvao's grave
© AFP Daniel KfouriThe Church hopes the move will help reverse major inroads evangelical faiths have made not only in Brazil, but also across Latin America, which is home to almost half the world's 415 million Catholic population.
Galvao, who lived from 1739 to 1822, founded monasteries and convents throughout Brazil, including the Monastery of Light.
He was beatified -- the step before canonization -- by Pope John Paul II in 1998.
During the beatification homily, John Paul II said Galvao "fulfilled his religious consecration by dedicating himself with love and devotion to the afflicted, the suffering and the slaves of his era in Brazil."
But to the faithful, the 18th century priest is best known for what many believe are his healing powers.
The Vatican recognized two of the miracles attributed to Galvao, a requirement for sainthood. In 1990, a four-year-old girl recovered from what was considered incurable hepatitis, and in 1999 a mother and child survived a high-risk birth in what the Vatican called a "scientifically inexplicable" case.
The girl and the woman had both swallowed Galvao's miracle pills, which contain a short prayer to the Virgin Mary.
Devotees queue to get Brother Galvao's "pills"
© AFP Daniel Kfouri"The Church recommends that people go to the doctor and only take the pill when they are terminally ill," said Sister Claudia of the Monastery of Light.
"But people take them for daily problems," she said.
Records at the monastery of Light, show 8,057 cases in which supplicants' prayers to Galvao were answered since the priest was beatified.
"Devotion increased since he was beatified," said Sister Claudia. "And now that he will be declared a saint the number of followers will grow, and not just because of the pills," she said.
©AFP