Antônio Conselheiro

Antônio Conselheiro
The only known photograph of Antônio Conselheiro, taken after his death in September 1897
Priest, Mystic, Religious
Born	Antônio Vicente Mendes Maciel 13 March 1830 Quixeramobim, Brazil
Died	22 September 1897 (aged 67) Canudos, First Brazilian Republic
Venerated in	Folk Catholicism
Attributes	Blue cassock, straw hat, cord with wooden cross

Antônio Conselheiro, in English "Anthony the Counselor", real name Antônio Vicente Mendes Maciel (March 13, 1830 – September 22, 1897) was a Brazilian religious leader, preacher, and founder of the village of Canudos, the scene of the War of Canudos (1896–1897), a civil rebellion against the central government which was brutally stamped out with the loss of more than 15,000 lives.

Born at Quixeramobim, Antônio Maciel was the son of Maria Joaquina de Jesus and Vicente Mendes Maciel, a rugged family of cattle breeders in the sertão ("backlands"), the semi-arid 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 and honour 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 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, French, Portuguese, mathematics, geography and history. 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 salesman, teacher and lay counselor (poorman's lawyer). 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. 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.