Sebastião Mota de Melo (Padrinho)

Sebastião Mota de Melo, born in Seringal Lígia in 1920, had at an early age, demonstrated propensity to visit the heavenly (astral) realms and to have visions of the magic beings of the forest. His career as a spiritual leader began as a guardian of the Jurua Valley with his development of spiritual mediumship as described by Alan Kardec.  He later relocated with his family to Rio Branco in 1957, where he lived the life of a colonist and took care of sick people in his circle of relatives, friends, and godsons. He was a simple man, of solid untiring spirit and diligent conviction.

In 1974 he was directed to register his community practices as a religious and philanthropic entity, called CEFLURIS – The Eclectic Center of the Fluent Universal Light of Raymond Irineu Serra as a religious society responsible for the spiritual work developed with the sacramental drink called Santo Daime. In 1980 the community that lived in the outskirts of Rio Branco relocated to a virgin area in the interior of the forest called Seringal River of Gold.

In 1982 this community became known as the Heavenly Village of Mapiá, where Sebastiao was an untiring worker, as much in the spiritual as material. He liked to build canoes and to walk through the forest that he knew and loved. In his later years, he affectionately received visitors as “godchildren” who arrived from all the parts of the world. He made some trips to the south of the Brazil to come to know other churches and communities that had formed around his teachings. Sebastião Mota de Melo died on January 20,1990 in Rio De Janeiro.

Home | Ceu do Mapia