Euripedes Barsanulfo

Euripedes Barsanulfo was born on May 1st, 1880, in a Brazilian city called Sacramento. He returned to the Spiritual World, in the same city, 38 years later, on November 1st, 1918.

At a very young age, Euripedes demonstrated to possess a profound intelligence and deep sense of responsibility. This knowledge was naturally acquired on previous lives.

He was very diligent and inclined towards education. Because of that, when he was still very young, his schoolteacher invited him to being his class assistant, and thus Euripedes started helping his own classmates.

He became a respectable political representative for his community, being appointed for the position of secretary of a well known Saint Vincent de Paul Fraternity. In addition, he participated, very actively, during the foundation of a local newspaper called "Gazeta de Sacramento," as well as a high school named: “Liceu Sacramentano." Soon he realized he was a natural born leader, due to his very reliable orientation regarding the true values of life.

Through one of his uncles he heard about the existence of the Spiritist Phenomena, and also about the Spiritist Codification, compiled by Allan Kardec. After studying profoundly this new philosophy, he directed his activities towards it, scrutinizing everything, until all his questions and doubts were answered.

He completely identified himself with this new ideal and philosophy and became a spiritist. Because of his impeccable character he felt it was necessary for him to resign from the position of secretary he used to occupy as a volunteer in the Church. Therefore, he looked for the priest of the local church and explained to him the reason for his decision.

Such decision was obviously followed by a series of unfortunate events. He was criticized by the people of the city, and by his own family members. Few days after that, he started to see the consequences of his resolution, which was misunderstood by many; however, he did not let himself be carried out by any discouragement.
He continued teaching and also included a new subject called “The Study of Spiritism” among those present in the regular school curriculum. Again, he had to face the reactions of his opponents that ended up offering him money to remove the new subject. Upon Euripedes refusal, some of his students started to leave the school, one by one…
Suffering the siege of the local people, Euripedes became seriously ill and had to rest for a long time in a city nearby. It was exactly during this period that several mediumistic faculties begin to unfold, particularly the mediumship of healing. This was the turning point of his life that wind up leading him to dedicate to a life of real missionary. One of the first cures he achieved was that of his mother, who after her recovery became a valuable collaborator of his works.

The output of several phenomena worked as a magnet, attracting to Sacramento hundreds of people, from other towns, filling up the hotels and pensions, and even family homes. Euripedes always attended everyone; nobody would ever leave leaved without some sort of help, at least that of feeling their faith and hope renewed, and quite often, according to their merits, the group of venerable Spiritual Mentors that worked through Barsanulfo would heal them.

He assisted everyone independently of their economical class, belief or race, and wherever someone needed his presence, he would go there, whether he had or not the financial means to do so.

He humbly followed his path, without dismay, undergoing all kinds of hurdles, but he always marched ahead sustained by his true faith and idealism.

Soon he felt the need to disseminate Spiritism, increasing therefore, the number of its followers. He founded a Spiritist group called “Grupo Espirita Esperanca,” which can be translated onto Spiritist Group of Hope, back on 1905. Some friends and his siblings, who started to develop educational and evangelical works, as well as several works of assistance to reach out the community, seconded him on this enterprise.

On a certain occasion he fell into a mediumistic trance while he was teaching his students, and after “coming back,” he described a meeting which had occurred in Versailles, France, right after the I World War, providing the participant names and the exact time of the meeting, where they signed the famous Treaty of Versailles.

On April 1st, 1907, he founded the Allan Kardec High School, which became a true landmark in the educational field. That educational institute became known all over Brazil, providing education to an average of 100 to 200 students. Unfortunately, after six months of opening they had to temporarily close its doors, due to the severe epidemics of Spanish Flu (Influenza), which devastated the country back then.

His works became so famous, that on the next year, when they reopened the Allan Kardec High School for registrations, all the openings were filled on the same day. Such occurrence caused the closing of another high school of that same region, directed by nuns of the Saint Francis Order due to the lack of students.

The Spiritist Movement on that region became very popular due to Euripedes works and trustworthy guidance. The catholic clergy was excessively disturbed by it, initiating and developing a campaign to debunk the new idea. Euripedes strongly defended it through a series of articles he wrote on the local newspaper called "Alavanca" (Lever). Their main discussion was about the Spiritist belief that: "God is not Jesus and Jesus is not God".

Using unquestionable arguments, Euripedes completely defeated his opponents, who did not know that they were really facing a giant of trueness and determination. The catholic clergy decided to invite Feliciano Yague, a reverend from another state famous by his preaching and knowledge, convinced that with his lines of argumentation and convictions, he would achieve to give the final blow to the Spiritist Movement on that region.

The priest challenged Euripedes for a public debate, which he accepted.
On the day of the public debate, the priest initiated his observations, insulting Spiritism and the spiritists, designating it as the doctrine of the devil, and calling all its adepts of crazy people that would face the fire of eternal punishment. In this manner he displayed a clear lack of religious zeal, giving an obvious testimony of despise, showing his complete intolerance and sectarianism before the new philosophy.

The crowd, which had great confidence and respect towards the Spiritism’s defender, was already anticipating the oppressor’s defeat, due to his own feebleness and emptiness of his arguments.

The sublime missionary awaited serenely his opportunity to talk. He then started saying a beautiful, humble, and sincere prayer, supplicating peace and tranquility. In this manner Euripedes completely changed the tone of the ambient that was surrounding them, transforming it in a more favorable and auspicious one in order to propitiate the assistance of the Spiritual World; and right away he initiated the defense of his principles.

Gently and with such reasoning, he was able to demonstrate the misconceptions regarding Spiritism’s evangelical teachings proclaimed by the Reverend, thus leading the crowd to manifest their contentment.
Upon finishing the famous debate, and recognizing the moral state of the reverend, Euripedes approached him, and fraternally and sincerely hugged him, attitude that he demonstrated throughout the entire duration of the debate.
Euripedes Barsanulfo followed with total dedication Jesus teachings, until the last moments of his life. He died during the dreadful epidemic of influenza, which devastated the world back in 1918, taking lives, spreading tears and afflictions, and doubling the work of this great missionary, who had foreseen this fact, even before its arrival in the American continent.

He passed away on November 1st, 1918, at around 6 p.m. surrounded by relatives, friends and disciples, who in tears bid farewell to him.
The whole city of Sacramento, on a true pilgrimage, accompanied his corpse all the way to the burial site, with the firm belief that he had risen towards a more elevated and sublime life in the Spiritual World.