A Girl from Minas

Long ago, back when Brazil still had an emperor, a baby girl was born in a tiny village called Santo Antônio do Rio das Mortes, near the town of São João del-Rei, in Minas Gerais. It was around the year 1810. Her mother, Izabel, was an enslaved woman, and so the little girl came into the world without her freedom, like so many children of that sad time. On April 26, 1810, she was carried to the church and baptized with a long, beautiful name: Francisca de Paula de Jesus.

While she was still small, Francisca was given her freedom. With her mother and her brother Teotônio, she moved to a little town ringed by mountains in the south of Minas, a place called Baependi. There, among stone streets and church bells, she would live the rest of her long life.

The joy of arriving did not last long, though. Izabel fell ill when Francisca was about ten years old. Feeling that her time was near, the mother called her daughter close to her bed and made one request.

— My daughter, stay close to Our Lady — she said softly. — Serve God, and take care of the poor.

Francisca kept those words in her heart the way you keep a treasure.

The Young Woman and the Statue

Francisca grew up poor and never had the chance to go to school. She did not learn to read or write, and in her whole life she never once signed her own name. But she learned things that are not found in books: she learned to pray, to listen patiently, and to share the little she had.

Her companion through every hour was a small statue of Our Lady of the Conception. Before it, Francisca talked with the Virgin the way a daughter talks with her mother. She told her sorrows, asked for guidance, gave thanks for her joys. When she grew into a young woman, suitors came asking to marry her, but Francisca turned them down, every one. Her heart was already promised: it belonged to God and to Our Lady.

In time, the people of Baependi began calling her by an affectionate nickname: Nhá Chica, which in Minas was a homey way of saying Miss Francisca. And it was by that simple name that all of Brazil would come to know her.

The Door That Never Closed

Nhá Chica lived in a humble two-room house on the slope of a hill. And then a curious thing happened: that little door became one of the most visited doors in all of Minas Gerais. First came the neighbors, then the poor from the countryside around, then people from far away. Landowners, doctors, and important politicians traveled for days, all the way from São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, just to ask advice from the woman who could not read.

She welcomed everyone in exactly the same way, making no difference between rich and poor. She listened calmly, went to her statue of Our Lady, prayed in silence, and came back with her answer. They were simple words: be patient, forgive, trust in God, look after your family. But whoever heard them went away with a lighter heart, as though the Virgin herself had spoken.

And no one left that house empty-handed. Nhá Chica gave away food, clothing, and what little money she received, keeping almost nothing for herself. That is why the people gave her another name, the most beautiful one of all: mother of the poor. Whenever someone in Baependi had a problem too big to carry, they always heard the same advice:

— Go and talk to Nhá Chica.

The Promised Chapel

In 1862 Nhá Chica's brother Teotônio died and left her an inheritance. Suddenly that poor woman could have bought a better house, new clothes, a comfortable life. But Nhá Chica had already decided what to do with every coin: she was going to build a chapel for Our Lady of the Conception, right beside her little house.

The building took years. Nhá Chica watched over everything, wall by wall, and kept on welcoming her poor while the chapel grew. When it was finished, it was the loveliest home she could offer her Mother in heaven. Inside it she placed the same small statue as always, and there she prayed with the people who never stopped coming.

A Whole Life Long

Nhá Chica grew old in that same rhythm of prayer and charity, until her hair turned white. On June 14, 1895, at about eighty-five years of age, she died in peace, close to the chapel she had built. All of Baependi stopped to say goodbye, and people came from many towns for her burial. The old folks used to tell that in those days a gentle perfume hung in the air, like the scent of flowers.

She was laid to rest inside her own chapel, near Our Lady of the Conception. And the people kept going there, year after year, to ask the help of her prayers.

Almost a hundred years later, a woman who suffered from a grave illness of the heart prayed for Nhá Chica's intercession and was healed, in a way the doctors could not explain. The Church studied the case with great care, and Pope Benedict XVI recognized the miracle. Then, on May 4, 2013, Baependi held the greatest celebration in its history: before thousands of people, Pope Francis's envoy, Cardinal Angelo Amato, declared Francisca de Paula de Jesus blessed. The girl born without her freedom was now honored on the altars, and her feast is kept every year on June 14.