Biography from AFamiliaJuramidam
Leôncio Gomes da Silva was a very humble person in life. He lived near the residence of Mestre Irineu Serra. He worked as a merchant and owned a car that was used for Mestre Irineu himself when he needed to travel afar.
According to Mrs. Adália Gomes, was Mr. Leôncio Gomes da Silva who took care of everything related to the finances of Mestre Irineu Serra. It was in his shop that Mestre bought the goods for his residence (the products that he didn’t have in his piece of land). He [Leôncio] was surrounded by the friendship of all the brothers and sisters of the doctrine of the time. It is not known, until the present day, of a brother who says Leôncio Gomes da Silva had some disagreement with someone.
He could handle all situations; whether to resolve a grudge between people, whether to advise a couple having problems and, finally, there was no problem in the fraternity that Mestre wouldn’t assign him to solve, because these qualities, this gift, says Mrs. Adália, he inherited from his father, Mr. Antonio Gomes da Silva. Given these characteristics was that Mestre himself found in his person the right-hand man to preside over the works at the headquarters in his absence. So, a few years before Mestre made his passage into the spiritual world, in a meeting at his residence, he made it clear to the brothers and sisters of the time that the works at the headquarters would be chaired by Mr. Leôncio Gomes da Silva.
It happened that every time that Mestre didn’t go to the works at the Centre, was Mr. Leôncio Gomes da Silva who presided over them. Dona Adália said it was the way to be of Mr. Leôncio that made Mestre entrust such an important role of chairing the spiritual works at the Centre, for he was a calm and polite person. Whoever came to his home in a bad mood would leave smiling and singing.
Personal account collected by Mr. Guido Carioca from Mrs. Adália Grangeiro de Castro, on February 4, 2011, and made available to the fraternity by Nazaré Grangeiro.
Leôncio Gomes da Silva was one of the sons of Antonio Gomes, arriving still young with the family in the mission of Irineu Serra, around 1938. He belonged to the Healing Commission at the time and he did not receive any hymns. In the hinário of the deceased Tetéu, he is the “President” that the hymns tell, due to the great friendship between the two followers. So much so that Tetéu would be the successor of Leôncio, directing the center for only a short period. After Tetéu, the presidency stood with Mrs. Peregrina and Leôncio’s brother, Raimundo Gomes, who died in 1981, being this way Mrs. Peregrina the chairman alone until this day.