The Brazilian Spiritist Federation (FEB), founded in 1884, is a public utility body that constitutes the most important and influential representative organization of Spiritism in Brazil and in nearly all countries where the Spiritist movement is present.
Through notable Spiritist leaders, especially Dr. Bezerra de Menezes, the Brazilian Spiritist Federation quickly established the format of Spiritism as a religion in Brazil. In various countries, the federation provides extensive support to mediums, speakers, and other Spiritist organizations, publishes and translates books on the subject, and promotes charitable actions. The FEB is the representative association of Brazil in the International Spiritist Council (CEI).
According to data from 2006, the FEB provided philanthropic social assistance to approximately a thousand families and maintained a daycare center for 800 children in Santo Antônio do Descoberto, Goiás. The FEB has published over 10 million books by Allan Kardec. The works psychographed by the mediumship of Francisco Cândido Xavier, better known as Chico Xavier, have surpassed 15.5 million copies. Among them, Nosso Lar (dictated by the spirit André Luiz) is the most read, having surpassed the mark of 1.5 million copies.
History
Origins and foundation
The roots of the national federative organization date back to the publication, in Rio de Janeiro, then the capital of the Empire, on January 21, 1883, of the periodical "Reformador", initiated and financed by Augusto Elias da Silva, a Portuguese photographer who settled in Brazil, with intellectual direction by Major Francisco Raimundo Ewerton Quadros. It should be remembered that in the same year, Elias da Silva organized a fraternal meeting of Spiritist leaders due to the disagreements among the members of Spiritist institutions in the capital at that time – the Grupo dos Humildes, the Sociedade Acadêmica Deus, Cristo e Caridade, the Centro da União Espírita do Brasil, and the Grupo Espírita Fraternidade.
With these factors combined, the Brazilian Spiritist Federation was founded on January 1, 1884, in a meeting organized by Elias da Silva. In addition to Augusto Elias da Silva, Francisco Raimundo Ewerton Quadros, Manoel Fernandes Filgueiras, João Francisco da Silveira Pinto, Maria Balbina da Conceição Batista, Matilde Elias da Silva, Luis Móllica, Elvira P. Móllica, José Agostinho Marques Porto, Francisco Antônio Xavier Pinheiro, Manoel Estêvão de Amorim, and Quádrio Léo were present.
On the following day (January 2), its first board of directors was elected and inaugurated, consisting of Major Ewerton Quadros as president, Fernandes Filgueiras as vice-president, Silveira Pinto as secretary, Elias da Silva as treasurer, and Xavier Pinheiro as archivist. The institution was initially headquartered in Elias da Silva's own residence, a house on Rua da Carioca, 120.
First decades
In its founding year, the Brazilian Spiritist Federation soon began charitable social work. However, in its early years, the FEB also faced various difficulties, both administrative and financial, as well as ideological issues internally, and the political and social upheavals of the country's capital externally. As an example of the former, there was a division within the movement between the so-called "secular" or "scientific" faction, led by Professor Afonso Angeli Torteroli, and the "religious" or "mystical" faction, led by Dr. Bezerra de Menezes. As an example of the latter, following the Abolition of Slavery (1888), the Proclamation of the Brazilian Republic (1889) occurred along with the upheavals experienced during the República da Espada (Republic of the Sword), including the Second Revolt of the Armada (1893). These circumstances led to the departure of a significant portion of the FEB's initial members, leaving the survival of the institution in the hands of a few collaborators.