[2] One of the best-known religious figures in colonial Brazil, renowned for his healing powers, Galvão was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI on 11 May 2007, becoming the first Brazilian-born saint.

[2] His mother, Isabel Leite de Barros, was from a farming family, and was a great-granddaughter of the famous bandeirante explorer Fernão Dias Pais, known as the "Emerald Hunter".

[2] At age 13, Galvão was sent to the Jesuit-run seminary Colégio de Belém[2][7] in Cachoeira, Bahia by his father, which wished to provide Humanities and cultural training to his son.

At Colégio de Belém, which he attended from 1752 to 1756, Galvão made great progress in social studies and Christian practice.

[2] On 11 July 1762, Galvão was ordained a priest and transferred to St. Francis Friary in the city of São Paulo, where he continued his studies in theology and philosophy.

[2][7] There, he met the nun Helena Maria of the Holy Spirit, a recluse who claimed to have had visions in which Jesus was asking her to found a new Recollect house.

[2] Galvão collaborated in the foundation of the new Recollect house, named Our Lady of the Conception of Divine Providence, which was established on 2 February 1774[2][7] in the same city.

[2] Galvão accepted the decision, but the recluses refused to leave the premises, and due to popular pressure and the efforts of the Bishop of São Paulo, the hermitage was soon re-opened.

[2][7] However, the Recollects and the Bishop of São Paulo appealed to the Minister Provincial, writing that "none of the inhabitants of this city will be able to bear the absence of this Religious for a single moment".

[3][2] Galvão was laid to rest in the Recollection Church, and his tomb continues to be a destination for pilgrimages of the faithful, who obtain graces through his intercession.

[5] The open-air ceremony, which lasted over two hours in the Campo de Marte Military Airport, near downtown São Paulo, drew 800,000 people, according to official estimates.

[3] According to the Catholic Church, the cases of Sandra Grossi de Almeida and Daniella Cristina da Silva are miracles effected through the prayers of Galvão.

[5] After taking one of the paper pills, Almeida, who had a uterine malformation that should have made it impossible for her to carry a child for more than four months, gave birth to baby boy Enzo.

[5] Galvão's pills are also certified by the church with the healing, in 1990, of Daniella Cristina da Silva, a four-year-old girl suffering from what doctors considered incurable hepatitis.