Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Jacintha do San José

JACINTHA DO SAN JOSÉ (zhah-sin'-tah), Brazilian nun, b. in Rio Janeiro, 15 Oct., 1716; d. 2 Oct., 1768. In early life she wished to enter a convent; but her father opposed her desire. At his death she and her sister Francisca retired to a hut and began the life of nuns under the patronage of Santa Teresa. Though the two sisters were at first unnoticed, some time afterward they suffered persecution till 1748, when they were protected by the governor, Gomes Freire de Andrada. In 1749 Jacintha built a convent, assisted by the generosity of the governor. As neither the bishop nor the home government had approved the establishment of the order, she went to Lisbon and thence to Rome, in 1759, and in both places the establishment of the convent was approved. In Lisbon she witnessed the earthquake of 1759, and for days assisted the wounded, until she herself fell sick from overwork. In 1756 she returned and founded a school for girls, which she annexed to the convent, and which for several years was the only institution of the kind in Brazil. Jacintha then began a hospital for destitute women; but her protector, Gomes Freire, dying in 1763, the work progressed slowly, and she followed him before the day appointed for its public consecration. Jacintha published “Devocionario,” and several poetical compositions which are highly esteemed.