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Frei Damião
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Frei Damião

Brazilian monk
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Also known as: Pio Gianotti
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Last Updated: • Article History
Quick Facts
Original name:
Pio Gianotti
Born:
Nov. 5, 1898, Italy
Died:
May 31, 1997, Recife, Braz. (aged 98)
Also Known As:
Pio Gianotti
See all related content

Frei Damião (born Nov. 5, 1898, Italy—died May 31, 1997, Recife, Braz.) was an Italian-born Brazilian Roman Catholic monk. He became a Capuchin friar at age 16 and later studied in Rome. In 1931 he was sent to Brazil, where he spent the rest of his life traveling in the poverty-stricken northeastern region. Soon after he arrived he developed a reputation as a miracle worker whose touch or prayers could relieve pain and heal disease. Doctrinally conservative, he was at odds with the region’s left-wing priests, who supported liberation theology, which stressed God’s preference for the poor and oppressed. After his death the bishop of Petrolina began the process of seeking Frei Damião’s beatification.

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