Francisca de Paula de Jesus (São João del-Rei, Minas Gerais, 1810 – Baependi, Minas Gerais, 14 June 1895), also known as Nhá Chica ("Aunt Francie" in Portuguese), was a formerly enslaved Afro-Brazilian Catholic laywoman known for her humble life and her dedication to God.

The girl now chose to live alone rather than with her half-brother and refused all marriage proposals put forward to her.

[1][7] Her brother died in 1862 and she was designated as his sole heir thus used her newfound inheritance to increase her social work and begin construction of a Marian chapel.

She lived in a humble two-room hovel and constructed a small altar adorned with roses, and she was well known for giving acts of comfort and spiritual healing to those that visited her.

The confirmation of her life of heroic virtue on 14 January 2011 allowed for Pope Benedict XVI to name her as Venerable.

The miracle that secured her beatification was the 1995 cure of the Brazilian woman Ana Lucia Meirelles who had been healed from pulmonary hypertension.