By Brian Foster



Abstract

Many people do not know about Chico Xavier, full name of Francisco C. Xavier. He revived the pursuit of the Spiritist doctrine by the world, after organized religion did their best to squash it. Through Chico, the Spirit Realm has fully revealed what life is actually like after death and precisely how the process of multiple lives functions. You may not hear his name on every street corner, but later in the 21st century you will.

Introduction

There have been many books and even one movie about Chico Xavier. This modest article is intended to present a brief survey of his life and the miraculous achievements that has defined him. The most important fact upfront to know about Chico is that almost all of the money made from the sale of his books went to charity. He lived very modestly, although he had people helping him constantly, cleaning his room, preparing meals, planning out his days, all so he could focus on his mission on earth – Helping us to discover the word of God and the doctrine of Spiritism.

Childhood

Chico was born on April 2, 1910, to João Cândido Xavier (a lottery ticket vendor) and Maria João de Deus.[1] Chico demonstrated his ability to talk to the spirits at an early age. When he was four-years old, after returning from a long walk back from Church to the family’s home, he heard his father gossiping about a neighbor woman who had a natural abortion of her child. Not liking the tone of his father’s gossip, he told his astonished parents that the abortion was due to an ectopic pregnancy and therefore unavoidable.[2] His father remarked that they must have brought home the wrong boy from church.

At the age of five, his mother died. Unable to care alone for his nine children, Chico’s father split the children up amongst various friends and family. Chico went to his godmother, who was an extremely cruel person. She spanked and tortured Chico. She would stab him with a fork in his stomach and not let him pull it out.[3] He only gained solace during these times by speaking with the spirit of his dead mother.

Thankfully, his father remarried, to a wonderful woman, Cidália Batista, who agreed to marry only if João would reunite all of his children. From then until the time of her death, when Chico was seventeen, Chico possessed his greatest support among the living. He had to work at an early age supporting his large extended family. Finally in 1924, while working, he finished primary school , afterwards he never went back.[4] In 1927, his step-mother passed away, in May of the same year, his mother directed to him to read Allan Kardec’s The Spirits Book.

Psychographing Books

Wikipedia describes the beginning of his early writing;

In 1931, In Pedro Leopoldo, (Francisco’s hometown) he started to psychograph the book Parnaso de Além-Túmulo. That year was marked by the medium’s “adulthood”, it was the year the medium met his spiritual mentor Emmanuel, “Under a tree, near a water reservoir…” (SOUTO MAIOR, 1995:31). His mentor informs him on his mission to psychograph a sequence of thirty books and the spirit explains to him that, to achieve such a task, it would be demanded three very important conditions: ‘discipline, discipline and discipline’.

Severe and demanding, the mentor instructed him to be loyal to Jesus and Kardec, even if it was against his religious basis. Later on, the medium found out that Emmanuel had been the Roman senator Publius Lentulus, further reborn as a slave who sympathized with Christianity, still in another reincarnation, had been a Jesuit priest Manuel da Nóbrega, involved with the evangelization of Brazil.[5]

Chico was attacked by many as being one of a large legion of imposters, whose only aim was to increase his personal wealth. Chico said that he could never fall down, since he never stood up, meaning that he couldn’t be charged as a person desiring wealth because he never took money. All proceeds from his books were donated to charity. As a Spiritist, he knew that selling his services that he received as a gift from God is immoral.

The range of books written by Chico was enormous. From books by deceased poets, suicides, a young man describing learning at a school in heaven, to books by Emmanuel, which were past lives of people he knew while he was on earth. Including, Emmanuel’s first encounter with Jesus Christ, in which he at first completely rejected Jesus. An interesting string of books, were by the physician Dr. Andre Luiz, who wrote about his own death and experiences in the lower zones and his entrance into Nosso Lar (the Spirit City above Rio de Janeiro) and subsequently his experiences with assisting various departments and their work in heaven, on the earth, and one below the earth.

Chico was the first person to tell the world, that he never wrote anything, he only wrote what was communicated to him by the Spirit Realm. He wrote a total of 469 books before he died, on June 30, 2002. His death occurred right after Brazil won the World Cup. He has wished that he would die on day that wouldn’t make the Brazilian too unhappy.

Chico Xavier the Man

Originally, Emmanuel gave Chico a goal of thirty books. In Geraldo’s lecture on Chico, he tells that when Chico finished his quota of thirty books, his spirit mentor Emmanuel told Chico, “Now that you have finished thirty books, how about doubling that to get to a goal of sixty books?”

“No problem”, replied Chico. Then when Chico reached that goal, Emmanuel asked, “Why not go to one hundred books?”

Again, Chico said, “No problem.”

Chico reached his one hundredth book around the time when he was sixty. He wanted to retire, however, his spirit guide, Emmanuel, told him that he had bad news for Chico, Jesus had decreed that Chico will spend the rest of his life writing more books. Chico liked to tease and responded, “Well, we have freewill, don’t we?”

“Of course you have freewill, you can choose not to write more books.” replied Emmanuel.

“Then, I don’t wish to write more books.” Chico responded.

Emmanuel then told Chico, “In that case I have a second decree from Jesus, if you don’t wish to write more books, then your life will end tomorrow.”

Chico laughed and said, “No, no, no, I will write more books.”[6]

As stated before, Chico eventually wrote 469 books. This goes to show you that in heaven as well as on earth, the reward for good work is more work. Not only did he write, but he spent a couple of nights a week, writing out messages from the Spirit world to people who came to his house in search of comforting news about their deceased son, daughter, husband, or wife. He would go from early evening to four or five in the morning during these sessions. Afterwards, he would want to talk to his support staff like it was lunch time. Geraldo was part of the people who helped him, and he was amazed at the stamina of Chico.[7]

Geraldo also listened to Chico tell about the depth of love that Jesus and all of the Spirit world has for all of us. Chico loved all of us, he would go to bed at night thinking of the people he wanted to pray for, and wander from house to house, praying for people in his mind until the dawn came.

Chico was able to know the future. Geraldo tells of a time in the mid-1980’s when Chico told a group that Brazil would be a major oil exporter and that the oil would be found over 5000 meters under the sea. Everyone silently laughed, they had had plenty of experience of the Brazilian government trying to find oil and nothing ever was successful.[8] Now, of course, Brazil is a major oil producer from fields of oil found deep in the ocean.

In summary, Chico lived a hard, but a fulfilled life. He demonstrated his love for all us over and over. He accomplished his mission while on earth, with very little reward while he was with us. He was sent by the Spirit World to expose more information about how the Spirit realm works, what does it mean to each of us, and for all to realize that adherence to the golden rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”, love for your fellow beings, and living an honorable life are the keys to enter heaven. Where, we are not at eternal leisure, but at eternal work, work to help others advance themselves as we advance through the trials of successive lives.

Learn more about Spiritism and the knowledge that Francisco (Chico) C. Xavier brought to us and what it means in our lives. I have assembled his and other Spiritist writings to bring you information about reincarnation, in my book The Case for Reincarnation, and about heaven and other surrounding areas circling the earth in my book, Explore Your Destiny.

Author:

Brian Foster has a BSCS degree and a MBA. He has worked in R&D for medical device corporations and in IT for large financial institutions. Brian Foster has a blog at http://www.nwspiritism.com.

Works Cited

Neto, G. L. (2013, June 15). Remembering Chico Xavier and His Legacy. Retrieved from YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wY5m3bk0AsY&list=TL01TkXUPh4dbuxLuFJq7Gmn-QZpLdKa5H

Wikipedia. (2014, March 7). Chico Xavier. Retrieved from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chico_Xavier

[1] Wikipedia, “Chico Xavier”, n.d., http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chico_Xavier, (accessed May 4, 2014)

[2] Neto, G. L. Remembering Chico Xavier and His Legacy, YouTube, (accessed May 3, 2014)

[3] Wikipedia, “Chico Xavier”, n.d., http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chico_Xavier, (accessed May 4, 2014)

[4] Wikipedia, “Chico Xavier”, n.d., http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chico_Xavier, (accessed May 4, 2014)

[5] Wikipedia, “Chico Xavier”, n.d., http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chico_Xavier, (accessed May 4, 2014)

[6] Neto, G. L. Remembering Chico Xavier and His Legacy, YouTube, (accessed May 3, 2014)

[7] Neto, G. L. Remembering Chico Xavier and His Legacy, YouTube, (accessed May 3, 2014)

[8] Neto, G. L. Remembering Chico Xavier and His Legacy, YouTube, (accessed May 3, 2014)