Cícero Romão Batista (24 March 1844 – 20 July 1934) also known as "Padre Cícero", was a Brazilian Catholic priest who became a spiritual leader to the people of Northeastern Brazil. He was a member of the Association of Salesian Cooperators. He was listed in the Top 100 Greatest Brazilians of All Time in July 2012.Template:Cn. Despite many conflicts with the Church hierarchy during his life, official reconciliation with the Catholic occurred in December 2015. The beatification process was opened on August 20, 2022 after the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints issued the official "nihil obstat" (no objections to the cause) edict and titled him as a servant of God.
Career[]
His relationship with politics began in 1901 with the visit of Count von de Brule, on a mission from the Secretariat of the Interior of Ceará, to land he owned in Crato, in the town of Taboca, where there was knowledge of oil shale outcrops of economic importance. Only in 1919, the then governor of Ceará, João Tomé de Saboia e Silva, would visit the outcrops and order the construction of galleries, who would later be named Mina Santa Rosa. Due to excessive heat and poor ventilation, work was interrupted for two years. In 1921, the Federal Inspectorate of Works against Drought financed drilling in this land and in October 1922, the chemist, geologist and mineralogist Sylvio Froes Abreu, then aged nineteen,[1] reported that the bituminous shale contained potential for the production of lubricating oils and fuels.[2]
Batista was actively involved in the politics of his time and was a member of the Conservative Republican Party of Brazil. When Juazeiro was raised to the status of a municipality in 1911, he was appointed its first mayor. He governed the city in this capacity for most of the next twenty years. In 1926 he was elected federal deputy, but he did not take office. On October 4, 1911, he and sixteen other political leaders from the region met in Juazeiro and signed a mutual cooperation agreement, as well as a commitment to support Governor Antônio Pinto Nogueira Accioli. The meeting was nicknamed the Pact of Colonels, being considered an important passage in the history of Brazilian coronelismo.[3][4]
In 1913, he was removed from office by Governor Marcos Franco Rabelo, returning to power in 1914, when Franco Rabelo was deposed in the event that became known as the Juazeiro Sedition.[5] He was also elected vice-governor of Ceará, in the Government of General Benjamin Liberato Barroso.[6]
At the end of the 1920s, Batista to lose his political strength, which practically ended after the Revolution of 1930. His prestige as a miracle worker however, would increase even more.[7]
Despite some attempts to relate Batista to communism and, much later, to liberation theology, he was deeply anti-communist. In an interview given in 1931, he stated: "Communism was started by the Devil. Lucifer is his name and the dissemination of his doctrine is the war of the Devil against God. I know communism and I know that it's evil. It's the continuation of the war of the fallen angels against the Creator and His children."[8]
In the course of his ministry, he was accused of heresy by Catholic Church officials, eventually becoming suspended but not formally excommunicated.
Legacy[]
Statue of Padre Cícero, erected in the city of Juazeiro do Norte, the motto of which is "The Land of Padre Cícero"
Today, a large statue of Batista stands in Juazeiro do Norte, where he is considered to be the patron saint of the city. A pilgrimage to this statue takes place in his honour every November, attracting hundreds of thousands of followers.
Batista was canonized by the Brazilian Catholic Apostolic Church, an Independent Catholic church. He is not recognized as a saint by the Catholic Church, though Pope Benedict XVI proposed a study on Batista as a candidate for canonization.[9]
On 13 December 2015, as part of the opening ceremonies of the Holy Year proclaimed by Pope Francis, the Bishop of Crato, Fernando Panico, declared the rehabilitation of Batista's status with the Catholic Church. He further declared Batista to have been a man of extraordinary virtues, formally reconciling him with the church.[10]
Beatification process[]
On August 20, 2022, during a Mass held in Largo da Capela do Socorro, in Juazeiro do Norte, the bishop of the Diocese of Crato, Template:Ill, announced that he had received a letter from the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, the Vatican body responsible for beatification and canonization processes, informing about the authorization of Pope Francis for the opening of the beatification process of Batista.[11]
The diocesan phase of the process of beatification and canonisation of the Servant of God Father Cícero Romão Batista, Salesian Cooperator, has been closed[]
- Source: ANS.
(ANS - Juazeiro do Norte, 13 June 2025) - On Saturday afternoon, 7 June 2025, the diocesan phase of the process of beatification and canonisation of the Servant of God Father Cícero Romão Batista (Crato, Brazil, 24 March 1844 Juazeiro do Norte, Brazil, 20 July 1934) came to a close. The solemn Mass was held in the Basilica of Our Lady of Sorrows in Juazeiro do Norte, in the Brazilian State of Ceará, in the presence of civil and religious authorities and devotees of the so-called “Padim Ciço”. Bishop Magnus Henrique Lopes, Bishop of the Diocese of Crato presided over the celebration, and in his homily he emphasised the faithfulness of the Servant of God, who in his lifetime brought the Salesians of Don Bosco to Juazeiro, and who on 3 February 2024 received the posthumous title of Salesian Cooperator from the then Rector Major, Cardinal Ángel Fernández Artime.
‘Today, here, we are not just celebrating a stage in history. We celebrate the fidelity of God, who became close and visible in this inland region, and the miracle of faith lived among the people. Faith that, like the morning dew, waters the arid soil of existence and makes holiness bloom where one least expects it,' said the diocesan pastor. ‘Today we are celebrating the possibility of having on the Church’s altar someone who has already been on the altar of people's hearts for a long time.’
At the end of the celebration, the members of the tribunal and the historical commission took the oath to fulfil the tasks entrusted to them. The official documents of the enquiry, containing historical testimonies, Father Cícero's writings, depositions and various reports, were sealed for forwarding to the relevant offices of the Holy See.
At the end of the tribunal's dissolution, the Postulator of the Cause of Beatification and Canonisation, Dr Paolo Vilotta, highlighted the value of the documentation collected, highlighting the work begun in November 2022. ‘The materials contain all the work of the tribunal, the historical commission and the various teams working together in this diocesan phase of this investigation. It has been tireless work by the tribunal and the historical commission, it has been very important indeed,’ the Postulator said.
Paolo Vilotta will also be responsible for handing over the documents to the Dicastery of the Cause of the Saints for legal validation, where it will be verified that all steps have been carried out correctly. Then, a dossier with a summary of all the work will be made. ‘We pray that now this work will recognise the venerability, the heroic virtues of Father Cicero,’ the Postulator of Father Cicero's cause concluded.
Also represented at the closing ceremony of the diocesan phase of the cause of ‘Padim Ciço’ was the Salesian community in Juazeiro do Norte, and the Superior of the Salesian St Aloysius Gonzaga Province of Recife, Brazil, Fr Francisco Inácio Vieira, also participated. The latter, on the sidelines of the celebration, recalled Father Cícero's pastoral zeal, the dedication to the mission that led him to fight to bring the Salesians of Don Bosco to Juazeiro do Norte, convinced that they would do ‘great charity’ with their educational works and Christian promotion with the region's adolescents and young people.
‘Once he invited us, he also entrusted us with a mission. The significant work in Juazeiro still carries on this beautiful mission that Father Cícero left us. Today is an evening of true gratitude to God, for the gift of Father Cícero and for the pastoral zeal that brought us here, that brought the Sons of Don Bosco to this city.’
Thaís Cândido
References[]
Further reading[]
- Pequena Biografia do Padre Cícero - O Cearense do Século (archived copy)