Joanna de ÂngelisWho is Joanna de Ângelis
From the website www.ieja.org - Joanna de Ângelis Spiritist Institution
Joanna de Ângelis is the name that the spiritual mentor of medium Divaldo Pereira Franco gives to herself.
In order to know Joanna de Ângelis better, one should read "A Veneranda Joanna de Ângelis"[1] (Venerable Joanna de Ângelis), from which we have transcribed the following chapter:
[1] Celeste e Franco, Divaldo P.; A Veneranda Joanna de Ângelis; Livraria Espírita Alvorada, Salvador, BA, Brasil, 1987
Revelations
"In 1969, Divaldo was giving the last of a series of lectures in Mexico, when his attention was called by a young man who was recording his talk showing a great interest in it. Joanna said that the young man was one of her spiritual family and that Divaldo should ask the man to take him to San Miguel Nepantla, a place located some eighty kilometers from Mexico City.
When the lecture was over, the young man, Eng. Ignacio Domingues Lopez, a manager at Petromex, came up to Divaldo to thank him for the lecture, and Divaldo asked him about the place which Joanna had mentioned. The young man offered to take him there.
Guided by the spiritual Mentor, they arrived at the small village, where there was a property declared National Patrimony. There one could visit the ruins of an ancient building dedicated to Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, who was considered a great poet and the first feminist of the Spanish language. One of her poems was written on one of the walls and Divaldo insisted to have photos taken of him beside that wall. To everyone's surprise, Joanna de Ângelis could be seen in one of the photos.
Joanna asked Divaldo to reveal to the young man that she had been Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz in her last but one incarnation. After hesitating for a while, due to the great importance given to Sor Juana in Mexico demonstrated by the fact that the 1000 peso note bears her image, the young man did as he had been asked to. He took Divaldo to the San Jerónimo Monastery, where Sor Juana had lived and had left her body. Then he offered Divaldo the book "Obras Completas de Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz" (Complete Literary Work of Sóror Juana Inés de la Cruz). While they were there, Joanna told Divaldo other details of that life, including the fact that Sóror Juana had been her religious name and her original name Juana de Asbaje.
The more Divaldo studied the life of Sor Juana, the more he was convinced of her spiritual advancement.
At the time of the 150th anniversary of Brazilian Independence, she told him:
- I have good news for you. During my last incarnation I took part in the Brazilian independence struggles, in the state of Bahia. I lived then in this city of Salvador, at the Convent of Lapa and was called Joana Angélica de Jesus. Let's go there so that I may tell you how the event took place.
Note: Sóror Joana Angélica de Jesus was the Abbess of the Convent of Lapa, in Salvador, Brazil, who was murdered on February 20, 1822 by soldiers that opposed Brazilian independence when courageously defending the honor of the young religious women she tutored.
Divaldo went to the Convent of Lapa and, while he was there, she appeared to him having the same looks she had at that time, told him some interesting details and dictated a message for the commemoration of the event.
When some time later Divaldo read the book "Boa Nova" (Good News), by Humberto de Campos, channeled by Francisco Cândido Xavier, a personage whose story was told by the author particularly touched him. The name of the personage was Joanna of Chuza (Luke 8:3).
In 1978, when he was staying in Rome for the third time, accompanied by Nilson de Souza Pereira, Joanna led them to the Coliseum. Arriving there, she discreetly revealed particularities of the way of life of primitive Christians, showing them celebrated places including the exact spot where Joanna of Chuza and her son had been burnt alive. She talked about the martyr, going into details in such a way that the medium suspected that Joanna of Chuza and herself were one and the same. An interesting coincidence is the fact that the hour of that revelation was exactly the same hour when, many centuries before, in the year 68 A.C., the bodies of Joanna, her son and 500 more Christians had been burnt in such a way that the flames illuminated the city. It was the evening of August 27.
Time passed. When Divaldo went back to Italy another time, accompanied by Nilson, Joanna invited them to pay a visit to Saint Francis of Assisi's tomb, what happened free from the tumult of tourists. At that place, Joanna dictated the message called "Êmulo de Jesus" (Imitation of Jesus) that can be found in page 227 of "A Serviço do Espiritismo" (At The Service of Spiritism). While he was channeling, he could see her transfigured, with a lily like beauty in her face. When she had finished the message, she said she would like them to visit the Convent of Clare of Assisi. Arriving there, Joanna got close to the nun that accompanied them and said a sentence in Italian, asking her to lead them inside. Divaldo repeated the sentence and the nun, induced by the Mentor, opened the door with emotion and led them to the altar where Clare's body was placed. Joanna told him, overwhelmed with emotion:
- Within my soul there is an infinite tendeer love for the one who is the brother of Nature.
Joanna had certainly lived at the same time as Francis of Assisi, probably in one of the orders founded by Clare, what would justify her contrition and the tears she shed while she remembered those marvelous days.
After that, she took them to the Porziuncola chapel, the place where Saint Francis used to pray, in the church of Saint Mary of the Angels, to the church of Saint Damian and to the hermitage high up on the Umbria mountain range. There something beyond human understanding took place when the wind caressed the plantation of lavender leaving everyone impregnated of a sweet perfume.
The years went by. Joanna's message kept giving light and comfort to thousands of creatures in many places around the world.
One day Divaldo asked her why she had never dedicated him a particular message. Joanna answered:
- That is a very strange question. You shouuld have noticed that I only write messages to you. After you publish them, other people may accept them if they will, but each message is always dedicated to you so that you may never say you did not know. I have already written more than two thousand messages using your hands. I showed them to you for your own behavior, for your own life. It is always you.
That spirit hallowed by infinite love and deep wisdom has accompanied Divaldo in all his doctrine propagation activities and helped him with his Social Work. Never forgetting to be present beside every Christian group, she has been leaving her message of enlightenment and comfort just as if she were a Sun, irradiating light, warmth and giving life in many places at the same time." dor, BA, Brasil, 1987
