Tetéu (Francisco Fernando Filho)

On one such occasion a brother lingered four days and four nights until his passing, and not even for a minute Tetéu did leave his side. Consequently, it was four days an four nights that Tetéu spent awake. Therefore, it is assumed that the origin of the nickname “Tetéu”, which he brought from childhood, was given by the particularity of sleeping little, based on a typical northeastern bird that never sleeps, only naps, and that is called tetéu.

The words of Mestre Conselheiro Luiz Mendes on Tetéo
E-mail sent by the sister Débora Carvalho Pereira Gabrich – CICLUMIG.

I met Francisco Fernando Filho, also known as Tetéu, and for some years I enjoyed his company, always side by side, and we got along very well, so much in the material and spiritual sense. He was born on the day of St. Lucia (12/13/1917). He was a charismatic man and wherever he was he conveyed peace, joy and optimism. He laughed and made the others laugh while telling his stories of the northeast, of his childhood and youth as a native from Ceará, from the city São Luís de Ceira (“a caboclo of the foothills”).

He arrived in the Acre by the 1960’s, already experienced with women and having some children. He settled in a colony very close to Mestre Raimundo Irineu Serra, living from agriculture, a reason why in 1963 he took Daime for the first time from the hands of Mestre himself, liking it and embracing it with all he had, entering definitively in the doctrine of the Santo Daime. It was just then that our encounter happened inside the session, because I was joining the same battalion, which helped us to be good friends and brothers.

Tetéu was a serious man with tenderness, courageous, determined, who liked to drink Daime and wasn’t afraid in doing it. Everything that he needed he sought in the Daime, to the point of in certain occasions find himself alone, as he mention in one of his hymns, “I am smiling and inviting and with me nobody wants to go.”

Tetéu, by way of being, was a humanitarian person. He liked to do charity. In the darkest hours of that time we could count, for sure, with his presence and support, because he insisted on being there on your side. If he was strong spiritually, he was also physically. He slept little. It was just a brother or a sister gets sick that he promptly offered his vigil, which was very good. He would not abandon the sick for any moment.

On one such occasion a brother lingered four days and four nights until his passing, and not even for a minute Tetéu did leave his side. Consequently, it was four days an four nights that Tetéu spent awake. Therefore, it is assumed that the origin of the nickname “Tetéu”, which he brought from childhood, was given by the particularity of sleeping little, based on a typical northeastern bird that never sleeps, only naps, and that is called tetéu.

He was one of the trusted men of Padrinho Irineu, standing out in the doctrine with hierarchical powers. From guardian, he became the general commander of the male ranks, and soon after nominated chief adviser of the chairmanship of the so missed brother Leôncio Gomes da Silva. Moreover, the friendship between them was very beautiful — what one said and did, the other corroborated, to the point of the President, who never received a hymn, affirm that the hinário of Tetéu was also his.

After the passing of Mr. Leôncio to the spiritual plane, Tetéu, who already was a commander, was simultaneously claimed President on his place. On June 21, 1985, he passed away leaving many memories and nostalgia and a beautiful hinário that consists of 132 hymns (and seven more hymns that he handed as a gift to others).

I am proud to have been able to meet him, and his virtues and strength are an example to all who follow this path of Light and Love.

Luiz Mendes do Nascimento.

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