In the world of the occult, few figures stand as prominently as Francisco “Chico” Xavier, a prominent philanthropist and medium who was one of the leading figures in Brazil's spiritism movement. Over the course of his career, Francisco Xavier produced 468 books, the profits of which he donated almost completely to charity.
A Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Francisco Xavier believed that he could communicate with spirits through his spiritual guide “Emmanuel”, who in past lives was a professor at the Unversity of Paris, a priest in Spain known as Father Damian, and an ancient Roman Senator named Publius Lentulus. Francisco Xavier differs from many spiritualists with his wide appeal as a humanitarian, rather than solely his work as a medium.
Spiritual Connections
Francisco Xavier's first inklings of psychic ability came about when his abusive godmother claimed that he was possessed by the devil. He claimed his mother helped to allay his godmother's abuses when another of her adopted children, Moacir, was inflicted with a leg wound. The godmother believed a ritual where Francisco licked the wound would help with healing. While he claimed his mother's spirit felt the ritual was snakeoil, he followed his mother's orders. The abuses from his godmother were reduced, and the leg wound healed.
All throughout his school years he claimed to have visions, and advised his disbelieving teachers that his essays were being written by spirits from beyond. After intervention from a priest, who said that they were merely an innocent child hood fantasy, Francisco Xavier followed Catholic orders and did ritual penance, but claimed that the visions never went away.
After the age of 17, Francisco Xavier started to embrace his work in the spiritualist community at the urging of a friend. In May of 1927 Francisco Xavier received a message from his mother to follow his duties as a spiritualist. By 1931, his works started to become more polished, and he began to publish psychographic messages in “O Jornal”, a newspaper from Rio de Janiero, along with publications in a Portuguese newspaper called Almanaque de Notícias.
In 1931, his spiritual career started when he met his spiritual “mentor” Emmanuel. He claims his instructor told him that he would have to transcribe a series of thirty books, which came to be known as the Parnaso de Além-Túmulo. At this time, he became a clerk and volunteered with a spiritualist church called Centro Espírita Luís Gonzaga, where in addition to doing pyschographic work he helped with advice and prescriptions. He started to receive the patronage of farm manager Romulo Joviano, who provided him the time to work on his transcriptions, and left all his money to Francisco Xavier in his will.
Francisco Xavier proved to be a prolific transcriber, with thousands of pieces published within his career. He moved to Uberaba in 1958, where thousands of pilgrims consulted him on all manners of issues. He wrote on topical issues throughout the 1960s, including drugs, sex, and space travel. In 1965, Fracisco Xavier traveled throughout the United States to promote the Christian spiritualist movement. His work culminated in the 1975 founding of the Casa da Prece spiritualist center in Uberaba.
Pyschographic Works
Francisco Xavier was most famous for his psychographic book; despite the many publications credited to his name, he's never claimed authorship of any of the books. His spirits could be considered literal “ghost writers”; that is, Francisco Xavier claimed he only wrote whatever the spirits told him to write. 50 million copies of his books, with translations in languages such as English, Japanese, French, Italian, Russian, Mandarin, and other languages produced.
Chico Xavier didn't only write books, however; he also claimed to have transcribed tend thousand letters to the families members, which in some cases were considered so legitimate that they were used in evidence in six trials. The most shocking part of the letters was that 35% of them had signatures identical to the departed “author”. Francisco Xavier's status as a legitimate medium was supported by his lack of profit motive; the copyrights to the books were given to a charitable institution.
Despite a lack of primary education, Francisco Xavier produced pieces at a prolific rate; he would write six books a year, of many different genres, including poems, philosophy, and ancient tales. Some sources claim he may be the most read author of Latin America.
One of the most famous of his works included the case of murder in a Brazilian city of Goiania, where a man was accused of murdering his best friend. Evidence from Francisco Xavier's pyschographs led to the man, Jose Divino Nunes, being freed. Supporting other evidence, in the pyschograph the man claimed he had died in an accident.
In his first few volumes, known as the Parnaso de Alem-Tumulo, he included 256 poems from Portugese and Brazilian authors who were deceased. The book circulated in wide publication, along with his 1944 Nosso Lar, which he attributes to Andre Luiz. Francisco Xavier also published many books he claimed to have psychographed with the assistance of Doctor Waldo Vieira, another medium of the time.
Humanitarian Donations
The medium copyrighted all of his books to Federação Espírita Brasileira, which was a Brazilian spiritualist foundation. He felt that since he was not the one authoring the book, simply transcribing them, he had no rights to the proceeds. His money for the first part of his career came from working as a clerk, while later on he relied on money from grants and patron.
Death
Francisco Xavier, according to his family, requested to die on a day when Brazil was in celebration; ironically, his death came in 2002 during his home country's celebration of the world cup. He died at the age of 1992 from cardiac arrest. Afterwards, mourners built statues of him all over Brazil, and in 2006 he was voted “The Greatest Brazilian of History” by a regional magazine.
Conclusion
In summary, Francisco Xavier served Brazil as a humble psychographer, going out of his way not to profit from his work. His work with Emmanuel and many other spirits became sought after the world over, and his writings so respected he was nominated for a Nobel Prize. In the world of spiritualism and occult, few men stood as respected as this medium, and he is still beloved in Brazil. His transcriptions may represent the thoughts and musings of souls from thousands of years ago, and it is unlikely Francisco Xavier will disappear into the annals of history anytime soon.
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