Frei Galvão

Anthony of St. Ann Galvão (; 13 May 1739 – 23 December 1822), more commonly known as Frei Galvão, was a Brazilian friar of the Franciscan Order. He was the second Brazilian to be proclaimed a saint by the Catholic Church.

Life

Early life Galvão was born in the freguesia of Santo Antonio of Guaratinguetá, in the captaincy of São Paulo. He was the fourth of ten children in a deeply religious family of high social and political status. His father, Antônio Galvão de França, was the captain of the village. Although he was active in the world of politics and commerce, Antônio the father also belonged to the Third Order of Saint Francis and was known for his generosity. There, he adopted the religious name of Anthony of Saint Ann, in honor of his family's devotion to Saint Ann. During his novitiate year, he was known for his piety, zeal and exemplary virtues. In 1768 he was appointed preacher, confessor and porter of the friary, an important post. The complex now serves as the Museum of the Sacred Arts of São Paulo.

Mysticism Galvão was a man of great and intense prayer, and mystic phenomena attributed to him include telepathy, premonition and levitation. Once he gave the paper pill to a young woman in excruciating pain from kidney stones: the pain ceased immediately after she consumed it, and she expelled a large amount of renal calculus. On other occasions, he gave it to women suffering during difficult childbirths. After Galvão gave a paper pill to a man with such a suffering wife, the child was quickly born without further complications. Galvão was the first saint canonized by Pope Benedict XVI in a ceremony held outside the Vatican City. Doctors, and some Catholic clergy, have dismissed the pills as placebos. The church recommends that only terminally ill patients take the pills.