Nhá Chica

Biography

Francisca de Paula de Jesus (São João del-Rei, Minas Gerais, 1810 – Baependi, Minas Gerais, 14 June 1895), also known as Nhá Chica ("Aunt Francie" in Portuguese), was a formerly enslaved Afro-Brazilian Catholic laywoman known for her humble life and her dedication to God. Nhá Chica bore no surname and was an illegitimate child born to an enslaved mother; she herself was enslaved until being freed in 1820 which allowed her to dedicate herself to the plight of the region's poor and the construction of a Marian chapel near which she resided for the remainder of her life. Her beatification was celebrated in Brazil in mid-2013 and made her the first Afro-Brazilian woman to be beatified.

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