Mãe Cleusa Millet

Cleusa da Conceição Nazaré de Oliveira, better known as Mãe Cleusa Millet or Mother Millet (1923–1998), was the hereditary spiritual leader (iyalorixá) of Brazil's most noted Candomblé temple, Terreiro do Gantois, located in Alto do Gantois in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil.

[3] Cleusa's mother Menininha was one of the most celebrated Candomblé iyalorixás in Brazil: of royal Yoruba ancestry, she served as the high priestess of the Terreiro do Gantois for nearly 65 years.

[1] For a while she continued practicing medicine in Bahia, but increasingly she found herself offering medical services for free, delivering babies at home, or helping in the neighborhood.

The community and social work soon began to be the focus of her life and she stopped making rounds at the hospital, finding herself helping her mother more and more as she aged.

Once she became iyalorixá (sometimes translated as mother-of-saints, mother-of-orishas or priestess),[2] Cleusa held the highest office of Candomblé and became a spiritual guide for her followers.