File number: brqe0044

© South American Pictures/ Tony Morrison

Brazil: Ceará state . This huge statue of Padre Cicero Romão Batista at the village of Horto overlooks the city of Juazeiro do Norte in Ceará state. Born in 1844, by the 1880s Padre Cicero was a priest in Juazeiro where he gained a reputation as a miracle worker. The Catholic Church rejected the claims and suspended him from the priesthood. However the local people were totally convinced of his saintliness and made large and long pilgrimages to seek his help. He became a very powerful figure in the northeast before he died in 1934. Today the pilgrimages continue, and Horto is filled with shops selling Cicero memorabilia.