Irmã Dulce, also known as Saint Dulce of the Poor (26 May 1914 – 13 March 1992) was a Brazilian Catholic Franciscan Sister who was the founder of the Obras Sociais Irmã Dulce (Charitable Works Foundation of Sister Dulce).
In 1949, she started caring for the poorest of the poor in her convent's chicken yard in Salvador, Bahia. Today, more than 3,000 people arrive every day at this same site (where the Santo Antônio Hospital now stands) to receive free medical treatment. She also established CESA, a school for the poor in Simões Filho, one of the most impoverished cities in the state of Bahia.
At the time of her death in 1992, Pontes had been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, she had received two personal audiences with Pope John Paul II, and she had, almost single-handedly, created one of the largest and most respected philanthropic organizations in Brazil. She was named the most admired woman in the history of Brazil by O Estado de S. Paulo newspaper and the most influential religious person in Brazil during the 20th century, by ISTOÉ magazine.
In 2011, she was beatified with papal approval by Cardinal Geraldo Majella Agnelo, the penultimate step toward sainthood. In May 2019, Pope Francis, during an audience given to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints Prefect Giovanni Angelo Becciu, recognized the second miracle needed to officially canonize her as a saint. She was formally canonized on 13 October 2019, making her the first Brazilian female saint.
Early life
Born in Salvador, Bahia, the second daughter of Augusto Lopes Pontes and Dulce Maria de Souza, as Maria Rita de Souza Pontes, she entered religious life when she was 18 years old. When she was thirteen years old, her aunt had taken her on a trip to the poor area of the city. The sight of the misery and poverty she encountered there made a deep impression on the young girl, who came from an upper middle-class background.
She began to care for the homeless and beggars in her neighborhood, giving them free haircuts and treating their wounds. By that time, she had already shown interest in following religious life. Her father, however, did not like the idea and insisted that she become a teacher .
Graduation and religious life
She graduated from high school at the age of 18. She, then, asked her father to allow her to follow her religious calling. He agreed and she joined the Congregation of the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God, in Our Lady of Carmel Convent, in Sergipe. A year later, she received the religious habit of that Congregation and was given the name Dulce, in memory of her mother (who had died when she was 6 years old).
Social works
During the same year, she founded the "São Francisco's Worker's Union", the first Christian worker's movement in Bahia. A year later, she started welfare work in the poor communities of Alagados and Itapagipe. It was then that they started calling her the "Angel of Alagados". In 1937, she transformed the Worker's Union into the Worker's Center of Bahia.
Determined to house sick people who came to her for help, in 1939 Pontes started to shelter them in abandoned houses in Salvador's 'Ilha dos Ratos' (rats' island) district. Then she would go in search of food, medicine and medical care. Later, when she and her patients were evicted from the neighborhood, she started housing them in an old fish market, but City Hall denied her the use of the space and told her to leave.
Facing a big problem and already taking care of over 70 people, she turned to the Mother Superior of her convent and asked her permission to use the convent's chicken yard as an improvised hostel. The Superior reluctantly agreed, so long as Pontes could take care of the chickens (which she did, by feeding them to her patients). That improvised hostel gave rise to the Hospital Santo Antonio, the center of a medical, social and educational complex which continues to open doors for the poor in Bahia and throughout Brazil.
The foundation of OSID
There, in 1960, the Santo Antônio Hospital, consisting of 150 beds, was inaugurated. On 26 May 1959 the Charitable Works Foundation of Sister Dulce was born, a result of the determination of a religious sister who was tireless in her attendance to the sick and to the beggars who lived on Salvador's streets.
Pontes's work impressed the President of Brazil, José Sarney, who in 1988 nominated her for the Nobel Peace Prize, with support of Queen Silvia of Sweden.
The organization she founded, known by its Portuguese acronym as OSID (Obras Sociais Irmã Dulce), is one of the most well-known and respected philanthropic organizations in Brazil.