Querubina de Jesus dos Santos

19th-century Brazilian spiritual leader who challenged colonial oppression through religious innovation

Querubina de Jesus dos Santos (1844-1923) was a visionary leader who founded the Spiritist Federation of Pernambuco, creating one of Brazil's first Afro-Brazilian religious movements to resist colonial oppression. Born to enslaved parents in Recife, she developed a unique syncretic religion blending Catholicism with African Yoruba and Indigenous Tupi-Guarani spiritual practices. Her movement emphasized gender equality, establishing women as spiritual leaders in a patriarchal society, and provided healthcare through herbal medicine when no public services existed for Afro-Brazilian communities.

Through her Conselho Espírita (Spiritist Council), Querubina organized mutual aid networks that sheltered runaway slaves and provided legal defense for marginalized groups. Her 1889 manifesto Carta aos Homens de Bem became a foundational text for Brazil's abolitionist movement. Modern scholars recognize her as a pioneer of Brazil's quilombola resistance traditions. Learn more on Wikipedia or in the British Library's 19th-century religious manuscripts collection.