Kardecist spiritism is the main form of spiritualism in Brazil. Following the emergence of modern spiritualist events in Hydesville, New York, United States, via the mediumship of the Fox sisters (1848), the phenomena quickly spread to Europe, where in France the so-called "turning tables" became a popular fad. In 1855 in France this type of phenomenon caught the attention of the educator Hippolyte Léon Denizard Rivail.Professor Rivail had heard about the subject a year earlier (1854), through a friend, Mr. Fortier, who was also a magnetizer. As a result of his research he published the first edition of The Spirits' Book (Paris, 1857), under the pseudonym "Allan Kardec". The foundation of the spiritist doctrine is contained in this book and four others published later: The Mediums' Book, 1861; The Gospel According to Spiritism, 1864; Heaven and Hell, 1865; The Genesis According to Spiritism, 1868. These combined books are called the "Kardecist Pentateuch".
Background In Brazil the ideas that gave rise to spiritism date back to the early experiences with the so-called "vital fluid" (animal magnetism, mesmerism) by practitioners of homeopathy, namely the physicians Benoît Jules Mure, a native of France, and João Vicente Martins, from Portugal, who arrived in the country in 1840 and applied it to their patients.Both were the founders of the Homeopathic Institute of Brazil, in 1843. Historical-Biographical Dictionary of Health Sciences in Brazil (1832–1930) . Accessed on 25 May 2011. Among the personalities interested in the study of the "vital fluid" were José Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva, the patriarch of Independence, also a cultivator of homeopathy, and Mariano José Pereira da Fonseca (Marquis of Maricá), who published a work with spiritualist teachings in 1844.Reformador, 1944, p. 207. The oldest group of these scholars and practitioners was formed in Rio de Janeiro, then the capital of the Empire of Brazil, around the figure of the physician and historian Alexandre José de Mello Moraes,Reformador, 1 May 1883. and included Pedro de Araújo Lima (Marquis of Olinda), Bernardo José da Gama (Viscount of Goiana), José Cesário de Miranda Ribeiro (Viscount of Uberaba), and other prominent figures of the Second Reign.
A history of spiritism in Brazil can be divided into three major stages:
Pioneering in Bahia
It is claimed that the history of spiritism in Brazil dates back to the year 1845 when, in the district of Mata de São João in the then Province of Bahia, the first manifestations were said to have been registered. According to Divaldo Pereira Franco, the year would have been 1849, characterized by a confrontation between elements of the Catholic Church and spiritists, with the intervention of police forces.
The phenomenon of turning tables was first reported in the country by the newspaper "O Cearense" in 1853.
In Salvador, the capital of Bahia, the Conservatório Dramático da Bahia was founded in August 1857, with the participation of personalities such as Rui Barbosa and Luís Olímpio Teles de Menezes. It was in this group that Teles de Menezes came into contact with the strange phenomena and corresponded with French spiritists.Luís Olímpio Teles de Menezes in "História da Educação na Bahia" Accessed on 12 June 2011.
In the pages of the Revue Spirite, under the title "Spiritism in Brazil", Kardec informed his readers that the newspaper "Diário da Bahia" in its editions of 26 and 27 September 1865, published two articles, a Portuguese translation of those that had been published six years earlier by Dr. Amédée Dechambre (1812–1886), coordinator of the publication of the "Dictionnaire encyclopédique des sciences médicales". The articles were transcriptions from the "Gazette Médicale", where the doctor made a semi-burlesque exposition of the subject, stating, for example, that the phenomenon of turning and speaking tables had already been mentioned by the Greek poet Theocritus (300–250 BC), from which he concluded that, since this phenomenon was not new, it had no basis in reality.
"We regret that Mr. Déchambre's erudition" – commented Kardec – "did not allow him to go further, because he would have found the phenomenon in ancient Egypt and India." (Op. cit., v. VIII, p. 334-335). The spiritists in Bahia immediately refuted these articles in the very "Diário da Bahia", in the edition of 28 September. The letter that preceded the refutation, addressed to the editorial office of the Bahian newspaper and signed by Teles de Menezes, José Álvarez do Amaral, and Joaquim Carneiro de Campos, suggests that the newspaper published Dr. Déchambre's work because it believed that it provided an accurate assessment of spiritist doctrine.
The refutation consisted of an extensive excerpt from the introduction of "The Spirits' Book", which led Kardec to state: "The verbatim quotations from Spiritist works are, in fact, the best refutation of the distortions that certain critics impose on the Doctrine." (Op. cit., p. 336. Apud Zêus Vantuil and Francisco Thiesen. Allan Kardec – Bibliographic Research and Interpretation Essays. Rio de Janeiro: FEB.)
This episode coincided with the foundation, in the same year (1865), in Salvador, of the Family Group of Spiritism by Teles de Menezes. It was this same individual who guided, that year, the first recorded spiritist session in the annals of Spiritism in the country, on 17 September.Tiago Cordeiro. Allan Kardec and Spiritism, a Very Brazilian Religion (14 October 2014). Aventuras na História – Guia do Estudante. Accessed on 18 November 2014.
The 1866 in the city of São Paulo, the Literary Typography published "Spiritism Reduced to Its Simplest Expression" by Kardec, without indicating the translator.
It was also in Bahia that the reaction of the Catholic Church began, through the pastoral letter "Against the Pernicious Errors of Spiritism", authored by the then Archbishop of the Archdiocese of São Salvador da Bahia, Manuel Joaquim da Silveira (16 June 1867).PALMEIRA, Vivian. "Curious Stories of Spiritism". in: "Universos Espírita", nº 49, year 5, 2008. pp. 8–12.
In July 1869 in Salvador, the publication of the magazine "O Écho d'Alêm-Tumulo" began under the direction of Teles de Menezes.
In November 1873 the Brazilian Spiritist Association was founded in Salvador, a continuation of the "Family Group of Spiritism", and the following year (1874) in the same city some members of this association founded the "Santa Teresa de Jesus Group."
Development in Rio de Janeiro Imperial period
In the city of Rio de Janeiro, then capital of the Empire of Brazil, the first Spiritist sessions were held by French individuals, many of whom were political exiles from the regime of Napoleon III of France (1852–1870), in the 1860s. Some of these pioneers were the journalist Adolphe Hubert, editor of the periodical Courrier do Brésil, the professor Casimir Lieutaud, and the psychographic medium, Madame Perret Collard.PALMEIRA, Vivian. "Curious Stories of Spiritism". in: "Universos Espírita", no. 49, year 5, 2008. pp. 8–12.
In 1860 Professor Casimir Lieutaud, founder and director of the French School in Rio de Janeiro, published a Portuguese translation of the works "The Times Are Coming" ("Les Temps sont arrivés") and "Spiritism in Its Simplest Expression" ("Le Spiritisme à sa plus simple expression").RIBEIRO, Gérson. Kardecism in São Paulo. Accessed on 12 December 2010. Spiritist Chronology 1857–1869 in GEAE, accessed on 12 December 2010.Juvanir Borges de Souza, in a lecture entitled Beginnings of the Spiritist Movement in Brazil, delivered during the Spiritist Conference Brazil-Portugal (Salvador (BA), 16–19 March 2000), attributes the work "The Times Are Coming" to the authorship of Professor Lieutaud and the translation of "Spiritism in Its Simplest Expression" to Professor Alexandre Canu, mentioning that the latter's name as a translator only appeared in the third edition of the work, published in 1862.
The first newspaper to publish translated excerpts from Allan Kardec's works was the "Verdadeira Medicina Física e Espiritual associada a Cirurgia: jornal cientifico sobre as ciências ocultas e especialmente de propaganda magnetotherapia", published from January to April 1861 by Dr Eduardo Monteggia, not because he considered himself a Spiritist, but rather a democrat.
In the same period, the Jornal do Commercio, a traditional newspaper of the Brazilian capital at the time, in an article published on 23 September 1863 in the section "Chronicles of Paris," addressed the shows about spirits that were popular in the theaters of Paris and then went on to make comments about spiritism. This article is mentioned in the "Revue Spirite", where Kardec comments that the author of the article did not delve into the study of spiritism, of which he was ignorant of the theoretical aspects. But Kardec praises his sensible behavior in the face of the facts, for which he did not raise reckless theories. "At least" – Kardec referred to – "he does not judge what he does not know.""Revue Spirite", July 1864, p. 213 And he adds:
"We verify with satisfaction that the Spiritist idea is making significant progress in Rio de Janeiro, where it has numerous fervent and devoted representatives. The small booklet "Le Spiritisme à sa plus simple expression", published in Portuguese, contributed, not insignificantly, to spreading the true principles of the Doctrine there."
In this capital the first spiritist institution to be founded was the Sociedade de Estudos Espiríticos - Grupo Confúcio (Society of Spiritist Studies – Confucius Group), in 1873. As stated in its bylaws, it was to follow the principles and formalities set forth in The Spirits' Book and The Mediums' Book, by Allan Kardec. Its activities also included free homeopathic prescriptions and the application of passes to those in need. However, its greatest virtue was promoting the translation of Kardec's basic works into the Portuguese language. The reaction in the press of the time is expressed, for example, in a comment published in the pages of the Jornal do Commercio, accusing spiritism of creating "madmen" and calling for police intervention, concluding: "It is an epidemic more dangerous than yellow fever..." (Jornal do Commercio, 13 December 1874)
In 1875 the Confúcio Group launched the second spiritist periodical in the country (the first in Rio de Janeiro), the Revista Espírita (Spiritist Review), edited by Antônio da Silva Neto.
Prominent figures associated with this group include Joaquim Carlos Travassos, who in 1875 presented the first translation of "The Spirits' Book" into the Portuguese language to Bezerra de Menezes.
The group dissolved in 1876, giving way to the Sociedade de Estudos Espíritas Deus, Cristo e Caridade (Society of Spiritist Studies God, Christ, and Charity), under the direction of Francisco Leite de Bittencourt Sampaio. Its doctrinal program, in which the work codified by Allan Kardec was an essential part, included the study of The Four Gospels by Jean-Baptiste Roustaing.