A long time ago, in the year 1739, a boy was born in the town of Guaratinguetá, in the valley of the Paraíba River, in Brazil. His name was Antônio Galvão de França. His father, who was also called Antônio, was the captain of the town, and his mother, Isabel, was known all over Guaratinguetá for her kindness to the poor. In their house, no one who knocked on the door hungry ever went away with empty hands.

Little Antônio grew up watching all of this. He watched his mother share food and clothing with anyone in need. He watched his father gather the family for prayers every evening. And so, little by little, the boy's heart learned two things it never forgot: to love God and to care for people.

The Boy Who Went Far Away to School

When Antônio was thirteen, his father made an important decision. The boy would study at the school of the Jesuit priests in Belém da Cachoeira, in Bahia, far to the north. It was a long journey of many, many days, along dirt roads and forest trails. Antônio said goodbye to his mother, his father, and his brothers and sisters, and set off.

At the school, he studied hard from 1752 to 1756. He learned to read thick books, to write with a fine hand, to think calmly and carefully. But in the quiet of the chapel, Antônio felt a different kind of call. He did not want to be a captain like his father, or to run farms. He wanted to give his whole life to God.

The Young Man Who Became a Friar

At the age of twenty-one, Antônio joined the Order of Saint Francis at the friary of Macacu, in Rio de Janeiro. There he put on the brown habit of the Franciscans, plain as the clothes of the poor, and received a new name: Friar Antônio de Sant'Ana Galvão. In 1761 he made his vows, promising to live poor, obedient, and wholly given to God. The following year, in 1762, he became a priest.

Soon afterward, Friar Galvão went to live at the friary of Saint Francis in the city of São Paulo. And it was there that people truly came to know him. He heard confessions with patience, gave advice with gentleness, visited the sick, and looked after prisoners and forgotten people. Whoever spoke with him walked away with a lighter heart. The people said Friar Galvão was a man of peace and charity.

The Monastery of Light

In those days, Friar Galvão was the confessor of a house of women who prayed and served God, the Recollection of Saint Teresa. There he met Sister Helena Maria of the Holy Spirit, a deeply devout religious woman. She told Friar Galvão about a great longing she carried in her heart: to found a new house of prayer, dedicated to Our Lady.

Friar Galvão listened, prayed, and believed. And on the second of February, 1774, the two of them together founded the Recollection of Our Lady of Light, which everyone today calls the Monastery of Light. But the very next year, Sister Helena died. Friar Galvão was left alone with that enormous work in his hands.

He did not give up. He drew the plans for the monastery walls himself, like an architect. He asked for help, gathered stone and timber, and watched over the building brick by brick. It is said that whenever materials ran out, he prayed, and help arrived at just the right moment. The building took years and years, and the monastery church was only finished in 1802. The Monastery of Light still stands in São Paulo today, steady and serene, like the faith of the man who built it.

Friar Galvão's Little Pills

One day, people came to Friar Galvão because of a man who was suffering terrible pain. In those days there were not many medicines, and the doctors no longer knew what to do. Friar Galvão had no medicine to give either. But he had something no one could take from him: his trust in Our Lady.

So he took little slips of paper and wrote on them a short prayer in Latin, which means:

— After childbirth, O Virgin, you remained untouched. Mother of God, intercede for us.

He rolled the little papers up tight, until they were the size of pills, and told the sick man to swallow them with faith, praying to Our Lady. The man got better. Some time later, tradition tells us, a mother who was suffering greatly as her baby was being born also asked for the prayer pills, and she and her child were both well.

The news spread like the wind. From every corner, people came asking for Friar Galvão's pills. And he always explained, in his gentle way, that the paper worked no magic at all. It was God who healed, through the intercession of Our Lady. The pill was simply a way of praying with your whole heart.

The most beautiful part is that this story never ended. To this day, the sisters of the Monastery of Light still prepare Friar Galvão's pills, with the same prayer written on a tiny rolled-up paper, and give them to all who come with faith.

The Farewell and the Glory

Friar Galvão worked his whole life long. In 1811, already an old man, he founded yet another religious house, in Sorocaba. When his strength began to fade, he asked for one simple thing: to spend his last days at the Monastery of Light, close to the sisters and to Our Lady. It was there that he died in peace, on the twenty-third of December, 1822. He was buried in the monastery itself, and the people never stopped visiting his tomb.

The years went by, and the Church carefully studied Friar Galvão's life and miracles. In 1998, Pope John Paul II declared him blessed. And on the eleventh of May, 2007, came the great celebration: Pope Benedict XVI traveled to Brazil and, at Campo de Marte in São Paulo, before an immense crowd, declared Friar Galvão a saint.

On that day, Brazil received its first saint born on Brazilian soil: Saint Antônio de Sant'Ana Galvão. The boy from Guaratinguetá, who learned from his mother how to share bread, is now remembered all over the world as the friar of peace and charity.