Antônio Conselheiro was a Brazilian religious leader, preacher

Preacher

Preacher is a term for someone who preaches sermons or gives homilies. A preacher is distinct from a theologian by focusing on the communication rather than the development of doctrine. Others see preaching and theology as being intertwined...

, and founder of the village of Canudos

Canudos

Canudos was a town founded in the racially diverse Bahia state of northeastern Brazil in 1893 by Antônio Vicente Mendes Maciel. Antonio was an itinerant preacher from Ceara who had been wandering through the backroads and lesser-inhabited areas of the country from the 1870s onwards, followed by a...

, the scene of the War of Canudos

War of Canudos

The War of Canudos was a conflict between the state of Brazil and a group of some 30,000 settlers who had founded their own community in the northeastern state of Bahia, named Canudos...

 (1896–1897), a civil rebellion against the central government which was brutally stamped out with the loss of more than 15,000 lives.

Early life

Born at Quixeramobim, Antônio Maciel was the son of Maria Joaquina de Jesus and Vicente Mendes Maciel, a rugged family of cattle

Cattle

Cattle are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos primigenius...

 breeders in the sertão

Sertão

In Portuguese, the word sertão first referred to the vast hinterlands of Asia that Lusitanian explorers encountered. In Brazil, the geographical term referred to backlands away from the Atlantic coastal regions where the Portuguese first settled in South America in the early sixteenth century...

  ("backlands"), the semi-arid

Semi-arid

A semi-arid climate or steppe climate describes climatic regions that receive precipitation below potential evapotranspiration, but not extremely...

 zone of the Brazilian Northeast. His infancy was marked by a bloody feud with the powerful family of the Araújos, causing many deaths in both families, following the tragic cycle of vengeance

Revenge

Revenge is a harmful action against a person or group in response to a grievance, be it real or perceived. It is also called payback, retribution, retaliation or vengeance; it may be characterized, justly or unjustly, as a form of justice.-Function in society:Some societies believe that the...

 and honour

Honour

Honour or honor is an abstract concept entailing a perceived quality of worthiness and respectability that affects both the social standing and the self-evaluation of an individual or corporate body such as a family, school, regiment or nation...

 which were so common in these regions. After the death of his mother in 1834, his father married again, and Antônio and his two sisters suffered with the father's alcoholism

Alcoholism

Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...

 and maltreatment by their stepmother. Antônio went to study with his grandfather, Manoel Antônio Ferreira Nobre, who was a teacher in Quixeramobim. He developed well as a serious, quiet and hard-working pupil, studying Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

, French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

, Portuguese

Portuguese language

Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...

, mathematics

Mathematics

Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...

, geography

Geography

Geography is the science that studies the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...

 and history

History

History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...

. In 1855 his father died and he assumed the family's business, striving to get his sisters married. In 1857, Antônio himself married Brasilina Laurentina de Lima and began working as a sales

Sales

A sale is the act of selling a product or service in return for money or other compensation. It is an act of completion of a commercial activity....

man, teacher

Teacher

A teacher or schoolteacher is a person who provides education for pupils and students . The role of teacher is often formal and ongoing, carried out at a school or other place of formal education. In many countries, a person who wishes to become a teacher must first obtain specified professional...

 and lay counselor (poorman's lawyer

Lawyer

A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...

). Already with two children, he was betrayed by his wife in 1861, and disillusioned and depressed, he separated from them and retired to a farm, working as a rural teacher, and devoting himself more and more to Christian mysticism

Mysticism

Mysticism is the knowledge of, and especially the personal experience of, states of consciousness, i.e. levels of being, beyond normal human perception, including experience and even communion with a supreme being.-Classical origins:...

. Moving again to Santa Quitéria, Ceará, he had a third child, a son named Joaquim Aprígio, after a brief affair with a local artist named Joana Imaginária. He was restless, however, and started to wander around the country, from 1865 to 1869, and then from 1871 and afterwards.

The counselor

He was tall and thin, with long black hair and beard, always dressed in a rough blue tunic, a straw hat and leather sandals, carrying a necklace with a wooden cross, Antônio Maciel cut an impressive figure, reminding people of Jesus Christ. Gradually he became a pilgrim

Pilgrim

A pilgrim is a traveler who is on a journey to a holy place. Typically, this is a physical journeying to some place of special significance to the adherent of a particular religious belief system...

, an itinerant benefactor and counselor of the poor, as well a pious preacher

Preacher

Preacher is a term for someone who preaches sermons or gives homilies. A preacher is distinct from a theologian by focusing on the communication rather than the development of doctrine. Others see preaching and theology as being intertwined...

 and religious leader. He was called alternatively by the simple people of the region as Antônio Conselheiro, Santo Antônio dos Mares, Santo Antônio Aparecido or Bom Jesus Conselheiro, and began to attract not only admirers, but fanatical followers, who started travelling with him.

Trouble with law and Church

In 1874, Antônio Conselheiro began to attract the attention of authorities and the Catholic Church, due to his preaching to the oppressed and poor peasant

Peasant

A peasant is an agricultural worker who generally tend to be poor and homeless-Etymology:The word is derived from 15th century French païsant meaning one from the pays, or countryside, ultimately from the Latin pagus, or outlying administrative district.- Position in society :Peasants typically...

s and common folk of small villages and farm

Farm

A farm is an area of land, or, for aquaculture, lake, river or sea, including various structures, devoted primarily to the practice of producing and managing food , fibres and, increasingly, fuel. It is the basic production facility in food production. Farms may be owned and operated by a single...

s. In 1876 he was arrested by the police

Police

The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...

 in Itapicuru

Itapicuru

Itapicuru is a town and municipality in the state of Bahia in the North-East region of Brazil.-References:...

, Bahia, under the suspicion of being a wanted criminal. After being identified, he was sent by ship to Fortaleza

Fortaleza

Fortaleza is the state capital of Ceará, located in Northeastern Brazil. With a population close to 2.5 million , Fortaleza is the 5th largest city in Brazil. It has an area of and one of the highest demographic densities in the country...

. He was severely beaten, his hair and beard were cut and he was sent back for trial to his city of origin, Quixeramobim. The local judge, however, released Antônio Conselheiro due to the absence of any criminal charges against him. Antônio returned immediately to Bahia and restarted his wandering and preaching. He vowed to construct 21 churches and proceeded to do so in 12 cities in the backlands of the provinces of Bahia and Sergipe

Sergipe

Sergipe , is the smallest state of the Brazilian Federation, located on the northeastern Atlantic coast of the country. It borders on two other states, Bahia to the south and west and Alagoas to the north, and to the east is the Atlantic Ocean...

, as well as cemeteries and small dam

Dam

A dam is a barrier that impounds water or underground streams. Dams generally serve the primary purpose of retaining water, while other structures such as floodgates or levees are used to manage or prevent water flow into specific land regions. Hydropower and pumped-storage hydroelectricity are...

s.

In 1877, one of the periodical catastrophic drought

Drought

A drought is an extended period of months or years when a region notes a deficiency in its water supply. Generally, this occurs when a region receives consistently below average precipitation. It can have a substantial impact on the ecosystem and agriculture of the affected region...

s began in the Northeast. It would be two years long and kill more than 300,000 peasants by hunger

Hunger

Hunger is the most commonly used term to describe the social condition of people who frequently experience the physical sensation of desiring food.-Malnutrition, famine, starvation:...

 and thirst

Thirst

Thirst is the craving for fluids, resulting in the basic instinct of animals to drink. It is an essential mechanism involved in fluid balance. It arises from a lack of fluids and/or an increase in the concentration of certain osmolites, such as salt...

, creating havoc with the predominantly semi-arid agrarian economy of the region. Many villages were entirely abandoned and even instances of cannibalism

Cannibalism

Cannibalism is the act or practice of humans eating the flesh of other human beings. It is also called anthropophagy...

 occurred. Antônio Conselheiro and his followers did what they could to diminish the extreme suffering of the poor people, adding more and more admirers and followers to his group. The sense of an impending end of the world and that the only salvation could come through religion were strong incentives to the surge of religious fanaticism

Fanaticism

Fanaticism is a belief or behavior involving uncritical zeal, particularly for an extreme religious or political cause or in some cases sports, or with an obsessive enthusiasm for a pastime or hobby...

. Conselheiro was widely regarded as a saint

Saint

A saint is a holy person. In various religions, saints are people who are believed to have exceptional holiness.In Christian usage, "saint" refers to any believer who is "in Christ", and in whom Christ dwells, whether in heaven or in earth...

 and a Messiah

Messiah

A messiah is a redeemer figure expected or foretold in one form or another by a religion. Slightly more widely, a messiah is any redeemer figure. Messianic beliefs or theories generally relate to eschatological improvement of the state of humanity or the world, in other words the World to...

. Due to his increasing criticism of the official Church and of his open preachings in the small churches of the backlands, in 1882 the Archbishop of Bahia issued an order forbidding priests to allow him access to the flocks and characterising Antônio Conselheiro as an apostate and as a madman.

The abolition of slavery and the proclamation of the Republic

In 1888 and 1889, Brazil went through the most revolutionary and far-reaching social, economic and political changes of its history since the Discovery, in 1500. On May 13, 1888, slavery

Slavery

Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...

 was abolished by the ruling Emperor, Dom Pedro II

Pedro II of Brazil

Dom Pedro II , nicknamed "the Magnanimous", was the second and last ruler of the Empire of Brazil, reigning for over 58 years. Born in Rio de Janeiro, he was the seventh child of Emperor Dom Pedro I of Brazil and Empress Dona Maria Leopoldina and thus a member of the Brazilian branch of...

, by an act signed by his daughter, Princess Isabel. More than five million black people were suddenly out of work, abandoned the farms and swelled enormously the rural and urban ranks of extremely poor inhabitants. Tens of thousands of farmers went broke and agriculture

Agriculture

Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...

 almost stopped for a while, particularly for cash crops which required intensive labor, such as coffee

Coffee

Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...

, cotton

Cotton

Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....

, tobacco

Tobacco

Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as a pesticide and, in the form of nicotine tartrate, used in some medicines...

 and sugarcane

Sugarcane

Sugarcane refers to any of six to 37 species of tall perennial grasses of the genus Saccharum . Native to the warm temperate to tropical regions of South Asia, they have stout, jointed, fibrous stalks that are rich in sugar, and measure two to six metres tall...

, the mainstays of the Brazilian economy

Economy of Brazil

The economy of Brazil is the world's seventh largest by nominal GDP and eighth largest by purchasing power parity. Brazil has moderately free markets and an inward-oriented economy...

 at the time. Second, on November 15, 1889, the Emperor was deposed by a military coup and the Republic

Republic

A republic is a form of government in which the people, or some significant portion of them, have supreme control over the government and where offices of state are elected or chosen by elected people. In modern times, a common simplified definition of a republic is a government where the head of...

 was proclaimed, further adding instability and strife to the already torn-up country.

All this was important to the make-up of Canudos. Antônio Conselheiro was strongly against slavery and had preached and written about it, incurring in the wrath of farmers and authorities. The number of his flocks increased dramatically, and it is estimated that over 80% were former slaves. In addition, he considered that monarchy was a grant of God

By the Grace of God

By the Grace of God is an introductory part of the full styles of a monarch taken to be ruling by divine right, not a title in its own right....

, and that the Republic, with its separation between Church and State, was morally wrong and would wreck the country and family, a kind of new antichrist

Antichrist

The term or title antichrist, in Christian theology, refers to a leader who fulfills Biblical prophecies concerning an adversary of Christ, while resembling him in a deceptive manner...

. Again he stepped up public criticisms and rallied the social movement around these flags. General nervousness of farmers, priests and government increased to hysterical fear.

Finally, in 1893, violence erupted. Protesting against taxes levied by the new Republican government in Masseté, state of Bahia

Bahia

Bahia is one of the 26 states of Brazil, and is located in the northeastern part of the country on the Atlantic coast. It is the fourth most populous Brazilian state after São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro, and the fifth-largest in size...

, "Conselhistas" (as Antônio Conselheiro's organized following was named) were attacked by a small police force and retaliated.

Canudos

Antônio Conselheiro decided then to retreat and to establish in 1893 a permanent place for his growing band of now quasi-insurrectionaries. Near the city of Monte Santo

Monte Santo (Bahia)

Monte Santo is a town and municipality in the state of Bahia in the North-East region of Brazil.-References:...

, in the Northeast tip of Bahia, he founded the village of Bello Monte (Fair Hill), in an area named Canudos. It was set in an abandoned farm amid several mountain ranges, near the Vaza-Barris River

Vaza-Barris River

The Vaza-Barris River is a river in northeastern Brazil. The Vaza-Barris originates in northeastern Bahia state, and flows east through Bahia and Sergipe states to empty into the Atlantic Ocean near São Cristóvão....

.

In Canudos, Antônio Conselheiro, aided by a local government by committee, composed by 12 "apostles", or elders, established a communist-like social system, with division of labour

Division of labour

Division of labour is the specialisation of cooperative labour in specific, circumscribed tasks and likeroles. Historically an increasingly complex division of labour is closely associated with the growth of total output and trade, the rise of capitalism, and of the complexity of industrialisation...

 and produce, common property, abolition of civil marriage

Marriage

Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...

 and of the official currency, prohibition of taverns, liquor and prostitution

Prostitution

Prostitution is the act or practice of providing sexual services to another person in return for payment. The person who receives payment for sexual services is called a prostitute and the person who receives such services is known by a multitude of terms, including a "john". Prostitution is one of...

, rigid control over crime

Crime

Crime is the breach of rules or laws for which some governing authority can ultimately prescribe a conviction...

s and mandatory religious activities. He also gave a measure of personal freedom from injustice and oppression by landlords and governmental authorities. The fame of Canudos spread rapidly throughout the Northeast, as being a promised land of "milk and honey". Former black slaves, uprooted indigenous people and impoverished and landless mestizos started to come in droves to Canudos. One year later Canudos had already 8,000 new residents; by 1895 its population had grown to more than 30,000 and more than 5,000 dwellings. Two churches and one school were also built and commerce and agriculture became more organised.

The massive presence of such kinds of people started to cause much fear and trouble in the region, since many of the new residents were not-so-peaceful "jagunço

Jagunço

Jagunço, from the Portuguese zarguncho was the name applied to armed hands or bodyguards, usually hired by farmers and "colonels" in the backlands of the Northeast of Brazil...

s" (hired armed men who worked for farmers), leading to appeals to the government for repression and control. Fearing an invasion of the city of Juazeiro

Juazeiro

Juazeiro is a city and municipality in eastern Brazil in the state of Bahia . It had a population of 260,004, according to the 2010 census, and an area of 6,415.4 km². The population density was 31.34 hab/km² . The elevation is 373 meters. It became a city in 1833...

 by the "Conselhistas", who had a dispute with a lumber

Lumber

Lumber or timber is wood in any of its stages from felling through readiness for use as structural material for construction, or wood pulp for paper production....

 merchant, its mayor appealed hysterically to the provincial government. A visit by two Capuchin friars to Canudos was insufficient to calm the population and one of them mistakenly accused Antônio Conselheiro of trying to raise a monarchist

Monarchy

A monarchy is a form of government in which the office of head of state is usually held until death or abdication and is often hereditary and includes a royal house. In some cases, the monarch is elected...

 sedition

Sedition

In law, sedition is overt conduct, such as speech and organization, that is deemed by the legal authority to tend toward insurrection against the established order. Sedition often includes subversion of a constitution and incitement of discontent to lawful authority. Sedition may include any...

.

All was set for the start of a military aggression against the largely pacific settlement.

Death

During the military siege

Siege

A siege is a military blockade of a city or fortress with the intent of conquering by attrition or assault. The term derives from sedere, Latin for "to sit". Generally speaking, siege warfare is a form of constant, low intensity conflict characterized by one party holding a strong, static...

 that ensued, Antônio Conselheiro, anguished with the death, hunger and suffering of his followers, spent his time praying and severe fasting

Fasting

Fasting is primarily the act of willingly abstaining from some or all food, drink, or both, for a period of time. An absolute fast is normally defined as abstinence from all food and liquid for a defined period, usually a single day , or several days. Other fasts may be only partially restrictive,...

. He was no military leader. Due to his severe fasting, he died at the age 67, on September 22, 1897, probably of dysentery

Dysentery

Dysentery is an inflammatory disorder of the intestine, especially of the colon, that results in severe diarrhea containing mucus and/or blood in the faeces with fever and abdominal pain. If left untreated, dysentery can be fatal.There are differences between dysentery and normal bloody diarrhoea...

. His death was the beginning of Canudo's defeat, which eventually brought about the brutal death of probably more than 50% of the city's inhabitants during the military operations and ensuing atrocities committed against civilians by the victors.

The corpse of Antônio Conselheiro was located, disinterred and identified by military surgeons, his head was cut off and sent to Salvador, both as a proof and as a war spoil. It was examined by the noted forensic medicine expert, Dr. Nina Rodrigues, and placed in permanent exhibition in the museum of the Escola Bahiana de Medicina (Medical School of Bahia), where it was destroyed in a fire in May 1905.

Literature

Besides his written preachings, Antônio Conselheiro left only one religious treatise, written in May 1895 and titled Apontamentos dos Preceitos da Divina Lei de Nosso Senhor Jesus Cristo, para a Salvação dos Homens ("Annotations on the Precepts of Our Lord Jesus Christ's Divine Law for the Salvation of Men").

The story of Antônio Conselheiro and the War of Canudos has been dramatized in Euclides da Cunha

Euclides da Cunha

Euclides da Cunha was a Brazilian writer, sociologist and engineer. His most important work is Os Sertões , a non-fictional account of the military expeditions promoted by the Brazilian government against the rebellious village of Canudos, known as the War of Canudos...

's Rebellion in the Backlands (Os Sertões

Os Sertões

Os Sertões is a book written by the Brazilian author Euclides da Cunha, widely considered one of the greatest achievements of Brazilian and even World literature...

). He is also portrayed in The War of the End of the World

The War of the End of the World

The War of the End of the World is a 1981 novel written by Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa. It is a novelization of the War of Canudos conflict in late 19th-century Brazil.-Plot summary:...

, a novel by Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa

Mario Vargas Llosa

Jorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa, 1st Marquis of Vargas Llosa is a Peruvian-Spanish writer, politician, journalist, essayist, and Nobel Prize laureate. Vargas Llosa is one of Latin America's most significant novelists and essayists, and one of the leading authors of his generation...

. The story of Antônio Maciel, foundation and war of Canudos is also told in the novel The First Garment by Georgian

Georgia (country)

Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...

 writer Guram Dochanashvili

Guram Dochanashvili

Guram Dochanashvili is a Georgian prose writer, a historian by profession, who has been popular for his short stories since the 1970s.-Biography:Dochanashvili was born in Tbilisi, the capital of then-Soviet Georgia...

. The Scottish author R. B. Cunninghame Graham wrote A Brazilian Mystic: Being the Life and Miracles of Antonio Conselheiro.

Quotation

"...a thousand flocks shall run from the seacoast to the backlands; and then the backlands will turn into seacoast and the seacoast into backlands." ("...há de vir rebanhos mil correndo do centro da Praia para o sertão então o sertão virará Praia e a Praia virará sertão.")