An enslaved woman of African descent, Anastácia is depicted as possessing incredible beauty, having piercing blue eyes and wearing a punitive iron facemask.

The reasons given for this punishment vary: some stories report her aiding in the escape of other slaves, others claim she resisted rape by her master, and yet another places the blame on a mistress jealous of Anastacia's beauty.

[citation needed] While there are reports of black Brazilians venerating an image of a slave woman wearing a facemask throughout the late 19th and early 20th century, the first wide-scale veneration of the Saint began in 1968 when the curators of the Museum of the Negro, located in the annex of the Church of Our Lady of the Rosary of Black Men and Saint Benedict in Rio de Janeiro erected an exhibition to honor the 80th anniversary of the Lei Áurea abolishing of slavery in Brazil.

The image soon became the object of popular devotion and members of the Brotherhood of Black Men began collecting Anastacia stories in the early 1970s.

[citation needed] In the 1980s, the cult of Anastacia expanded from her original, poor, black base to include many progressive, middle-class whites.

The primary arena of this devotion is the use of small images—like prayer cards, medallions, statuettes, candles, etc.--through which the devotee prays for Anastacia to intercede on her behalf.

In May of 2020, during a demonstration in Humboldt County, California protesting social distancing and mask wearing, one protestor held up a sign showing a picture of Anastacia reading “Muzzles are for dogs and slaves.

Directed by Henrique Martins, written by Paulo César Coutinho and starring Ângela Correa, it portrayed Anastacia as a Nigerian princess captured by slavers.

Given the contemporary use of Anastacia’s image by Black movements, representing the struggle of all under enslavement during colonial times and resistance against racism afterward, it is surprising that the suggestion of portraying her as a free woman was only applied in 2019 by the Brazilian artist Yhuri Cruz [pt].

His intervention reimagines the original image by the French artist Jacques Arago, removing the torture device from Anastacia’s mouth and revealing a “secret-smile”, a reference to the portrait of the Sudanese saint Josephine Bakhita (1869-1947).