Antônio Conselheiro
A lay preacher of the Bahian backlands and founder of the Canudos community, who died as the Republic's army besieged it.
Life
Preacher of the backlands
Conselheiro, born Antônio Vicente Mendes Maciel, was a native of Ceará. After family misfortunes he traveled widely through the drought-stricken backlands of the Northeast, building churches and cemeteries and preaching to poor peasants, who called him "the Counselor" (Conselheiro).
Canudos
He opposed the secularizing measures of the Republic established in 1889. In 1893 he led his followers to settle at Canudos in Bahia, where the community quickly grew to more than ten thousand people, alarming landowners, the Church and the government.
Besieged and crushed
In 1896–1897 the republican government sent four military expeditions against it; the first three were driven back, and only the fourth, a massive force, took Canudos, with most of its inhabitants killed. Conselheiro died shortly before the city fell (September 1897).
Legacy
The Canudos tragedy exposed the vast gulf between urban elites and the impoverished backlands in the early years of the Brazilian Republic.
Did you know? The writer Euclides da Cunha accompanied the army as a reporter and went on to write the Brazilian literary classic Os Sertões (Rebellion in the Backlands).
Key dates
- 1874Begins preaching in the backlands (approx.)
- 1893Settles in Canudos
- 1896Government sends its first expedition
- 1897Dies at Canudos; the community is destroyed