Upon one of her visits into the interior she was found at Nazareth by Innocencio Barbosa, a farmer who resided in the district of Ilheitas.  He lived about thirty miles from Nazareth.  He took Felicidade home with him in order that she might teach the gospel to his family.  Meanwhile, his friend, Hermenigildo, who lived in a distant neighborhood, bought a Bible in Limoeiro and told his friend Innocencio of what he had done.  Innocencio told him of the presence of Felicidade and suggested that his friend might take her home with him that she might explain the gospel to his family also.  Felicidade accordingly went into this other home and soon the entire family, including a son-in-law and some relatives, were led to Jesus, and a church of about fifty members was organized in Hermenigildo’s house.

Thus the faithful witnessing of this humble, consecrated woman was so honored of the Holy Spirit that scores were led into the light of the gospel of Jesus.  Out of her efforts grew churches which the violence of the oppressor could not destroy, because the work she did became immortal when it passed over into the hands of the Lord of Hosts, against whose church not even the gates of Hell can prevail.

CHAPTER XII.

Persecution.

Some of the severest persecutions the saints have ever endured in Pernambuco broke upon this new congregation in the Ilheitas district.  The houses of the believers were broken into and everything destroyed, some of the buildings were burned.  The believers asked for police protection, but the police sent to protect them being under the domination of the priest, who was the political boss of that district, persecuted the believers even more than their neighbors had done.  They drove the believers about, beating them with their swords, forcing them to drink whisky and in many ingenious ways heaped indignities upon them.  After the success of the great persecution in Bom Jardim, of which we will speak later, the priest organized a large force of men to destroy everything belonging to the Protestants in the Ilheitas district and to drive them away.  They burned all of the church furniture, as well as the household furniture belonging to Hermenigildo, who was forced to flee for his life.  They cut the cord to the hammock in which was lying his young baby.  The fall broke the neck of the child.  The mother was driven unclothed between two lines of soldiers and severely beaten.  The other believers were so harrassed that most of them were compelled to leave the neighborhood.  Hermenigildo stayed away five months, when a change in police chiefs in Pernambuco made it possible for him to return.  The church was reorganized the following year.  A new building was constructed on Hermenigildo’s farm and today, with a membership of 103, it is in a most prosperous condition.