Biography from AFamiliaJuramidam
Raimundo Gomes Da Silva, son of one of the main disciples of Mestre Irineu, already had ten hymns in his hinário when the fraternity moved to the “Alto da Santa Cruz”, today the Alto Santo, in the Irineu Serra’s district, in Rio Branco, Acre’s Capital. Sebastião Jaccoud, who venerated him as having been in this world the reincarnation of [Saint] John the Baptist, of this way describes him in his work “The Third Testament – A Fact for the History” (here transcribed from the site MestreIrineu.org):
Among the disciples, Raimundo Gomes was the one who stood out more in humility and loyalty to Mestre Irineu. He is the only on that received a hinário, “O Ramalho”, with the same number of hymns of the “O Cruzeiro”. Raimundo Gomes was a small man, of about 1,60m, but whose spiritual stature assured him enough forces to gather the most advanced studies on the Doctrine of Jesus Christ and about the meaning of the Mestre Irineu’s mission.
Raimundo was born in Castanhal, in Pará, and during many years he was a rubber tapper. He never attended school and he could not even sign his name. The hinário O Ramalho is one of the more deepened and enlightening works about the Christianity. The fact of being illiterate did not prevent Raimundo Gomes to be a fluent reader in the spirituality.
The rubber tapper Raimundo Gomes Da Silva, who knew the mysteries of the cabals, was a living example of humility and conviction of the mission that God destined for him to accomplish together with Raimundo Irineu Serra. Of detached life, the great lesson that he left us was of the humility towards the other and of God’s power. “We only should be what we are”, he used to say, quoting one of the hymns that he received.
Raimundo Gomes made his passage on July 27th of 1986, at the age of 69.
Having been the first hinário to mention the so called Arroxim’s lineage (in his hymns 02 and 41), “O Ramalho” was sung by many years in Wilson Carneiro de Souza’s residence, when he was a member of the Alto Santo, in the celebration of his birthday (18 of July), when Raimundo Gomes would attend with his group of musicians.
When Wilson Carneiro and Sebastião Mota disconnected from Alto Santo to create the Cefluris (Eclectic Center of the Fluent Universal Light) in the Colônia 5 Mil, his hinário was not sung by them anymore, with the exception of the hymn 41 that was used in the healing works, calling the hummingbird healer of the Astral.
However, his hinário continued exercising its historical influence in hinários such as the ones of Francisco Corrente and Alfredo Gregório, where we can find reminiscences of its melodies.