João Maria (monk)

He wandered in Europe, then came to South America where he travelled in Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and finally Brazil.

[3] João Maria left the city of São Paulo and disappeared for a while before showing up in Rio Grande do Sul.

[3] Thousands of people came to him at Cerro Campestre, in Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul, drawn by word of the miraculous power of his waters.

[4] He reappeared in Buenos Aires in 1853 and walked through Bolivia and all of south and central America until 1861, arriving in New Mexico in the United States in 1862, where he lived in the mountains.

It was said he could cure a person simply by praying for their health and prescribing a tea from a common herb called "monk's broom".

He may have died in 1908 in hospital in Ponta Grossa, Paraná, or may be buried in Lagoa Vermelha, Rio Grande do Sul, but his devotees think he is still living in the Morro Taió, a hill in Santa Catarina.

[5] He was the religious leader of the rebels during the "Contestado War" of 1912–16, in which small farmers and settlers in Paraná and Santa Catarina who had been expelled from their lands fought against the large capitalist landowners and companies.

A socio-religious movement led by André Ferreira França began in Soledade, Rio Grande do Sul, in 1935.

The group was persecuted and André França decided to withdraw, but was shot in a clash with the city's military brigade.

[8] There is a large literature about the monks called João Maria, but the devout population have little interest in their historicity and are much more concerned with the sacred characteristics attributed to them.

[1] In 2015 Paraná Turismo was considering definition of a tourist circuit to visit the olhos d'água in places where the monk was present.