Santo Daime Hymns

Sacred music and dance form a basic part of the Santo Daime religion The earliest hymns are those of the founder, Mestre Irineu. Today, hundreds of Daimistas from Brazil and other countries have contributed music to this growing genre. The hymns are said to be "received" from a spritiual source rather than written. During a ritual, one or several hymnbooks may be sung in their entirety.

Santo Daime hymnbooks, called hinários in Portuguese, are the life works of their owners, and chronicle that person's spiritual journey.

Mestre Irineu, O Cruzeiro & A Santa Missa & Cruzeirinho

After an interval of 11 years, Mestre Irineu received the first of 13 hymns, 12 of which are now known as the Hinos Novos or more commonly as the Cruzeirinho (or little Cruzeiro), consisting of hymns 117 through 128 near then end of his seminal hinário, O Cruzeiro. After the time of Mestre Ireneu it became a more common pratice to finish or close an hinario as a complete work, after which a new hinario might be received.

Padrinho Sebastião (Sebastião Mota de Melo), O Justiceiro & Nova Jerusalem (The New Jerusalem)

Nova Jerusalem is the second and final hinario of Padrinho Sebastião, consisiting of 26 powerful hymns. Madrinha Rita, Lua Branca (White Moon)

Rita Gregório de Melo is the widow of Padrinho Sebastião, matriarch of the CEFLURIS line, mother of 11 children, and lives in Céu do Mapiá. She is thought to have been born 25 June 1925 in Rio Grande do Norte. Madrinha Júlia, O Convite

Júlia Gregório da Silva was born in Açu, Rio Grande do Norte, in 1933. She was the younger sister of Madrinha Rita, and the mother of six children. Madrinha Cristina, A Mensagem (The Message)

Cristina Raulino da Silva was born in Rio Branco, Acre, in 1938. She married Manuel Gregório (Padrinho Nel), the brother of Madrinha Rita. Padrinho Alfredo, O Cruzerinho & Nova Era (The New Age)

Nova Era is the second (yet to be completed) hinario of Padrinho Alfred.

Alfredo Gregório de Melo, one of the sons of Padrinho Sebastião and Madrinha Rita, today heads the CEFLURIS line which Padrinho Sebastião founded, based in Céu do Mapiá, Amazonas. He was born 7 January 1950 in the seringal (rubber extraction area) Adélia along the Juruá river in the state of Amazonas. João Pedro

João Pedro was a contemporary of Mestre Irineu. All we know is that his strong, healing hinário only became known to Santo Daime after his death. Maria Damião, O Mensageiro (The Messenger)

Maria Marques Vieira was born in Belém do Pará, in 1917. She was very young when she moved with her family to Rio Branco, Acre, where she met Raimundo Irineu Serra, in the early 1930s. She was sallow, with white skin and blond. Maria Damião, as she was known, got married, had seven children (one was adopted), and lost her husband early. She had many difficulties in her material life, as in her works with Santo Daime. Maria Damião worked hard to support her family; and, on 2 April 1949, she died of pneumonia at just 32 years old. Antônio Gomes, O Amor Divino (The Divine Love)

Antônio Gomes da Silva was born in Ceará, 30 April 1885. He married Maria de Nazaré in Ceará, and had five children. He lived in Belém do Pará for a while, and then moved to Rio Branco, Acre, in 1921. He worked as a seringueiro, or rubber tapper, and later as a farmer. He lost his first wife, married again, and had another four children. He met Master Raimundo Irineu Serra in 1938, and he received benefits for his unstable health. Antônio Gomes then became a member of the Santo Daime doctrine, as did his whole family. His son Leôncio became the new leader of Alto Santo, after Mestre Irineu's death, in 1971. His granddaughter, Peregrina Gomes, was the third wife of Mestre Irineu. Antônio Gomes da Silva died 14 August 1946. Germano Guilherme, Vós Sois Baliza

Germano Guilherme dos Santos was born in Piauí at the beginning of the 20th century. He moved with his family to Rio Branco, Acre, where he lived on the outskirts of the city working as a farmer. Germano was one of the first disciples of Mestre Irineu, becoming a member of Santo Daime in the 1930s. He was a black man with notably white teeth. Germano had special feelings for Mestre Irineu, and called him maninho, or "my little brother". He suffered a disease on his leg that bothered him a lot. Because of this, he couldn't eat some kinds of food. But when he was at maninho's house, Germano ate everything he wanted and didn't feel anything. He was married to Cecília Gomes, the daughter of Antônio Gomes and Maria de Nazaré, but had no children. His hinário is sung at CICLU - Alto Santo along with the O Cruzeiro hinário of Mestre Irineu. Germano Guilherme dos Santos died in 1964. João Pereira, Seis de Janeiro (January 6th; which is King's day, or Epiphany)

João Pereira was born in Porongaba, Ceará, in the end of the 19th century. Nobody knows the date he moved to Rio Branco, Acre. In the early 1930s, he joined Mestre Irineu, and became one of his first disciples. João Pereira was almost bald, and his complexion was swarthy or similar to that of caboclos, the mixed blood people of the Amazonian region. He worked as a farmer and wagon driver. He lived near Rio Branco and was married with Maria Franco (Maria Marques Feitosa), the mother of the second wife of Mestre Irineu, Raimunda. João Pereira died in 1954. Francisco Fernandes Filho (Tetéu/Teteo)

After Mestre Irineu passed on, his last wife's uncle Leôncio Gomes assumed command of the works, and in turn after Leôncio Gomes' passing, Francisco Fernandes Filho (Tetéu or Teteo) took over; however, he apparently very soon quarreled with Mestre Irineu's widow, Dona Peregrina Gomes Serra, and was chased out of Mestre Irineu's house (Alto Santo), according to Edward MacRae. Tetéu then founded a new center, less than a kilometer away and declared himself to be the real CICLU, creating an ongoing dispute. Maria Brilhante

Maria Brilhante was married with Padrinho Eduardo Salles Freitas, and they had four children, three of whom survive. Madrinha Maria Brilhante received a hinário which is officially sung on the festival of St. Anthony every 13-14 June.

Hinários more recently known include:

Baixinha

Baixinha, meaning tiny in Portuguese, is perhaps the best known practitioner of UmbanDaime. She is a small woman of scarcely one and a half meters, who has spent more than forty years in Umbanda, twenty-one in Candomblé, and eighteen years in Santo Daime. She is based in Lumiar, a mountain village two hours from Rio de Janeiro. Glauco Villas Boas O Chaveirinho

Hinário received by prominent cartoonist Glauco Villas Boas (1957, Jandaia do Sul - PR), commander of the Céu de Maria church in São Paulo, and consisting of 41 hymns. Alex Polari

Nova Anunciação is the hinario of Alex Polari, who spent years as a political prisoner during the rule of the military junta in Brazil, enduring torture, brutality, and deprivation, and whose quest for spiritual initiation eventually led him deep into the heart of the rainforest, to Mapiá, where he became a teacher and leader of the Santo Daime community. He is the author of "Forest of Visions: Ayahuasca, Amazonian Spirituality, and the Santo Daime Tradition" which has been translated into English.

Paulo Roberto

Luz na Escuridão (A Light In The Darkness) is the hinário received by Paulo Roberto (Paulo Roberto Silva e Souza), padrinho of the Céu do Mar church in Rio de Janeiro, and who is a psychologist by training.

Portions or collections of Hinarios often sung in rituals include: Oração

Oração means prayer, and is normally sung around 6:30pm, in church or at home, with or without instruments. The oração of CEFLURIS consists of a selection of 12 hymns from Padrinho Sebastião's O Justiceiro hinário (or hymnbook), plus one from his son Padrinho Alfredo's O Cruzeirinho hinário, and a new one from Sebastião's daughter Madrinha Nonata. Cura I and Cura II

The Cura is a selection of 32 healing hymns divided into two parts, taken mainly from the hinários of Padrinho Sebastião, Madrinha Rita, and Padrinho Alfredo, but also including a few from Mestre Irineu, Alex Polari, Vera Froes and Madrinha Tetê (Teresa Gregório), often used on occasions when healing is required, in particular physical healing. Finados

The Finados consists of the hinarios of Antonio Gomes, Maria Damião, Germano Guilherme, and João Pereira, followers of Mestre Irineu.

External links

* [http://www.santodaime.org/arquivos/audio/hinosemana/index.htm Official Site: Hino da Semana Archives]
* [http://www.mestreirineu.org/ Mestre Irineu - Santo Daime. Site do centro de iluminação cristã luz universal]
* [http://www.daime.org/ Daime.org Hymns]
* [http://www.box.net/shared/sacuj9if20 Sheet Music for Principal Hymnals ("partitura")]
* [http://hosted.filefront.com/malcolmkyle/ Audio for Principal Hymnals (rapid one click download)]
* [http://www.santodaimeportal.de SantoDaime Hymnen]
* [http://afamiliajuramidam.org/english/ Lines of the Santo Daime, Personal Accounts of Mestre Irineu]