source

Spiritual healers (benzedeiras) here in Brazil are women, especially elderly women, that driven by religiosity, by popular belief and deep knowledge about the properties of medicinal herbs, act as healers, always having a healing solution for various diseases of both body and soul.

source

I remember when I was a kid, my visits to the healer I had in my community were frequent. My childhood was very poor. I lived throughout my childhood in the well-known favela, which poor communities are called here in Brazil. As a child I was always very sick, I took several vaccines, I took several medicines, I used to go to the doctor and one day I had a very strong fever that almost took my life (I was dying), it was a convulsion.

I was bedridden for hours and had no way to someone took me to the doctor, I went with difficulty with my mother to the house of the healer and impressive as the healer with his faith and deep knowledge of the medicinal properties of the herbs, healed me. She first made the sign of the cross and with a herb in her hands (which I can not remember the name, perhaps "arruda") was sprinkling my body with that herb at the same time as she was praying. After sprinkling the grass in my whole body, she laid her hands on my head and I returned home.

I was feeling over time my body reacting to all that ritual (so I could say) and I began to feel better. The fever is gone.

source

For many this may sound sensational and see this story in disbelief or something, but not only me, but thousands of other brazilians at one time or another in life, had contact with some healer who healed him (through God's intercession) some sickness he had, whether it be a disease of the body or of the soul.

source

All this makes me think, in a world where medicine, although quite advanced, with remedies that have immediate effect for some diseases and scientific research that are changing the way we see and treat some disease, nothing replaces the faith.

Portuguese Version Here