Diogo Antônio Feijó (1784-1843) was a Brazilian liberal priest and minister of justice. He did much to establish order during the first regency but was plagued with insurmountable difficulties as the first single regent.

Diogo Antônio Feijó was born in São Paulo on Aug. 17, 1784, the natural son of a priest and the daughter of a powerful landowning family. He was instructed by private tutors and admitted to minor religious orders in 1804. Four years later he was ordained, and he spent the next 10 years of his life as a planter, priest, and teacher in São Carlos, a small village north of São Paulo. In 1818 he renounced this life and entered the ascetic community of the Fathers of Protection at Itú, the Brazilian center of religious liberalism.

In 1820 Feijó was elected deputy to the Cortes of...