Nhá Chica
Francisca de Paula de Jesus (São João del-Rei, Minas Gerais, 1810 – Baependi, Minas Gerais, 14 June 1895), also known as Nhá Chica, was a formerly enslaved Afro-Brazilian Catholic laywoman known for her humble life and her dedication to God.
Nhá Chica bore no surname and was an illegitimate child born to an enslaved mother; she herself was enslaved until being freed in 1820 which allowed her to dedicate herself to the plight of the region's poor and the construction of a Marian chapel near which she resided for the remainder of her life.
Her beatification was celebrated in Brazil in mid-2013 and made her the first Afro-Brazilian woman to be beatified.
In the Martyrology
- June 14 Blessed Francisca de Paula de Jesus Chica, layperson