# Divaldo Franco

Divaldo Pereira Franco (born May 5, 1927) is a Brazilian spiritist speaker and medium. In 1952 he founded the charity Mansão do Caminho in Salvador, Bahia, which serves and shelters thousands of people, hundreds of whom are registered as children of the medium. The copyrights of his psychographed books were donated to this and other philanthropic institutions. He was nicknamed the "Paul of Tarsus of spiritism" for his work in spreading the spiritist doctrine.

## Biography

Divaldo Pereira Franco was born on May 5, 1927, in Feira de Santana, Bahia. Since he was a child, he already showed signs of mediumship, being reprimanded by his father and older brothers, who considered it to be something demonic. He managed to convince his mother when he reported that he saw the spirit of his deceased grandmother to his aunt. His sister Nair committed suicide in 1939, and he saw his sister's spirit begging for help. Her spirit reincarnated as the daughter of a poor woman who came to the Mansão do Caminho, in fragile health, was taken in by her brother and died as a child.
Divaldo Franco was introduced to the Spiritist doctrine when he was cured of paralysis by a medium. The medium identified his strong mediumship and, under her influence, moved to Salvador in 1945. In this city he founded the Centro Espírita Caminho da Redenção, which would become the Mansão do Caminho ("Mansion of the Way") in 1952.
A large part of her psychographed works are attributed to a spirit called Joanna de Ângelis, who, according to Divaldo, lived as Joanna, wife of Chusa, Clare of Assisi, Juana Inés de la Cruz and Joana Angélica. In 1964 Joanna de Ângelis selected several of her messages and compiled them into a book, which received the suggestive title Messe de Amor ("Harvest of Love"). It was the first book that Divaldo Franco published. In his more than 250 published books, 211 alleged spiritual authors are presented, in addition to Joanna de Ângelis, among them, Victor Hugo, Rabindranath Tagore, and Bezerra de Menezes. The books encompass a wide variety of literary studies in prose, novels and narratives, covering philosophical, doctrinal, historical, children's, psychological and psychiatric themes.
He was awarded the Order of Rio Branco in 2022 and was criticized by part of the spiritist movement for his approach to Jair Bolsonaro and his criticism of gender ideology, calling it a "social hallucination created by cultural Marxism to enslave society". However, he was defended by spiritist leaders and scholars, who stated that the medium has the right to express himself as he wishes, without this characterizing the exclusive vision of the doctrine of the spirits.

## Books about Divaldo

* "Divaldo, médium ou gênio?" – by journalist Fernando Pinto, 1976, 160 pages;
* "Moldando o Terceiro Milênio – Life and work of Divaldo Pereira Franco" – By journalist Fernando Worm;
* "O Semeador de Estrelas" – By Suely Caldas Schubert – Stories about Divaldo's life;
* "Viagens e entrevistas" – By Yvon Luz – Different interviews with Divaldo.

## Books by Divaldo translated to English

* Child of God (1986)
* Recipes for Peace (1996)
* Self-Discovery: An Inner Search (2005)
* Living and Loving (Audio CD – 2005)
* The Dynamics of Our Sixth Sense (2006)
* Obsession (1979)
* I Love Myself, I Am Addiction-free: Spiritual Tools to Fight Addiction (2005)
* The New Generation: The Spiritist View on Indigo and Crystal Children with Vanessa Anseloni (2007)
* Open Your Heart and Find Happiness (2006)
* Therapeutic Visualizations (Audio CD – 2005)
* Understanding Spiritual and Mental Health (2005)