Divaldo Franco

Divaldo Pereira Franco (May 5, 1927 – May 13, 2025) was a Brazilian spiritist speaker and medium. In 1952, he founded the charity Mansão do Caminho in Salvador, Bahia, which serves and shelters thousands of people, hundreds of whom are registered as children of the medium. The copyrights of his psychographed books were donated to this and other philanthropic institutions. He was nicknamed the "Paul of Tarsus of spiritism" for his work in spreading the spiritist doctrine.

Biography

Divaldo Pereira Franco was born in Feira de Santana, Bahia on May 5, 1927. Since he was a child, he already showed signs of mediumship, being reprimanded by his father and older brothers, who considered it to be something demonic. He managed to convince his mother when he reported that he saw the spirit of his deceased grandmother to his aunt. His sister Nair committed suicide in 1939, and he saw his sister's spirit begging for help. Her spirit reincarnated as the daughter of a poor woman who came to the Mansão do Caminho, in fragile health, was taken in by her brother and died as a child.

Divaldo Franco was introduced to the Spiritist doctrine when he was supposedly cured of paralysis by a medium. The medium identified his strong mediumship and, under her influence, moved to Salvador in 1945. In this city he founded the Centro Espírita Caminho da Redenção, which would become the Mansão do Caminho ("Mansion of the Way") in 1952.