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José Batista Michiles

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Michiles, Jose Batista (1884–1974)

By The Brazilian White Center – UNASP

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The Brazilian White Center – UNASP is a team of teachers and students at the Brazilian Ellen G. White Research Center – UNASP at the Brazilian Adventist University, Campus Engenheiro, Coelho, SP. The team was supervised by Drs. Adolfo Semo Suárez, Renato Stencel, and Carlos Flávio Teixeira. Bruno Sales Gomes Ferreira provided technical support. The following names are of team members: Adriane Ferrari Silva, Álan Gracioto Alexandre, Allen Jair Urcia Santa Cruz, Camila Chede Amaral Lucena, Camilla Rodrigues Seixas, Daniel Fernandes Teodoro, Danillo Alfredo Rios Junior, Danilo Fauster de Souza, Débora Arana Mayer, Elvis Eli Martins Filho, Felipe Cardoso do Nascimento, Fernanda Nascimento Oliveira, Gabriel Pilon Galvani, Giovana de Castro Vaz, Guilherme Cardoso Ricardo Martins, Gustavo Costa Vieira Novaes, Ingrid Sthéfane Santos Andrade, Isabela Pimenta Gravina, Ivo Ribeiro de Carvalho, Jhoseyr Davison Voos dos Santos, João Lucas Moraes Pereira, Kalline Meira Rocha Santos, Larissa Menegazzo Nunes, Letícia Miola Figueiredo, Luan Alves Cota Mól, Lucas Almeida dos Santos, Lucas Arteaga Aquino, Lucas Dias de Melo, Matheus Brabo Peres, Mayla Magaieski Graepp, Milena Guimarães Silva, Natália Padilha Corrêa, Rafaela Lima Gouvêa, Rogel Maio Nogueira Tavares Filho, Ryan Matheus do Ouro Medeiros, Samara Souza Santos, Sergio Henrique Micael Santos, Suelen Alves de Almeida, Talita Paim Veloso de Castro, Thais Cristina Benedetti, Thaís Caroline de Almeida Lima, Vanessa Stehling Belgd, Victor Alves Pereira, Vinicios Fernandes Alencar, Vinícius Pereira Nascimento, Vitória Regina Boita da Silva, William Edward Timm, Julio Cesar Ribeiro, Ellen Deó Bortolotte, Maria Júlia dos Santos Galvani, Giovana Souto Pereira, Victor Hugo Vaz Storch, and Dinely Luana Pereira.

 

 

First Published: June 28, 2021

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José Batista Michiles, Adventist pioneer in Amazonas, was born June 19, 1884, in the city of Maués, Amazonas, Brazil, the son of Beatriz Oliveira Leite Michiles and José Feliciano Michiles. José Batista lost his father early and, while still at a young age, he had to assume all the family responsibilities. For that reason, he interrupted his studies in middle school in order to start working. However, he had developed a taste for reading, thus acquiring a great general knowledge and a good command of the Portuguese language.1

José began working as a merchant who traded manufactured products from the city for natural resources in the countryside, using a canoe for transport, a common activity in the Amazon region, which in Brazil is called regatão. Little by little, he became a successful merchant. However, at the end of the First World War, the falling latex prices disrupted the local economy, and José had to sell all his possessions. Along with two faithful employees, he worked in an inhabited area near Maués for around three years until acquiring a deed for it from the government. The farm became known as Fazenda Centenário (Centenary Farm), which would later develop a significant meaning in SDA history.2 He married Rosa Michiles, with whom he had six children: Érison, Darcy, Sonila, Rosilda, Josué and Eldina, of whom four became Seventh-day Adventist church employees.3

After starting to read a Bible he had received as a wedding gift, José Batista began to have an increasing interest in religion. At the time, the main religion in the region was Catholicism. The Gospel writer John’s description of Jesus’s baptism in the Jordan River greatly impressed him. When the time came for his son Érison to be baptized by the priest, he told his wife: “Rosa, we will not baptize this child, since the time will come when he will be baptized with the true baptism.” José did not imagine that many years later it would become a reality.4

In 1927 the Lower Amazonas Mission organized with John Lewis Brown as president. Soon after his arrival in April, he traveled for the first time throughout the Amazon region in order to know the territory, taking with him Adventist publications. Passing through Maués, he met a Jewish merchant named Samuel Levy and asked him if he knew someone who liked to read the Bible. Levy, a friend of Michiles, liked to discuss religion with him, so Pastor Brown left with him some evangelistic tracts and promised to come back later in order to meet his friend.5

The encounter happened during March/April 1928 when pastors Brown and Elmer H. Wilcox took a second missionary trip through the Amazon basin. Meeting Levy again, they found that the man had distributed the tracts to several farmers in the region, although he himself did not have much interest in them since they spoke about Christ. After reading the publications, José Michiles decided that he and his family would keep the Sabbath.6

In March 1929, José Batista Michiles and four others were baptized, becoming the first Adventists in the state of Amazonas.7 From those first conversions in Maués, the Adventist faith began to be spread widely in the Amazon region,8 since Michiles had a strong influence in the community and did extensive missionary work in his canoe.9 At first, a Sabbath School met at Fazenda Centenário and invited many farm employees to participate. Later, the first Seventh-day Adventist Church in the North Brazil Union began there in 1930, which also operated a school.10 In addition, it constructed a house for the teachers and church workers.11

Like the pioneers Leo and Jessie Halliwell,12 Michiles also contributed to the fight against malaria, a disease that devastated the world at the beginning of the twentieth century. Amazon was one of the regions most plagued by it.13 Michiles distributed medicine and food baskets to the sick and, in the worse cases, he housed victims in his farm sheds where they stayed until recovering.14

His grandfather had been the first deputy of the state of Amazonas in 1852 and had a promising political career, serving as a captain in the national guard and governor of Amazonas state. Like him, José Michiles, or Donga Michiles as he was known, had the same charisma, becoming the first mayor of Maués in 1947, a position he held for three terms (later in 1960 and then in 1970).15

José enjoyed reading Ellen G. White's books and influenced many people to become Adventists. He also participated in administrative meetings of the North Brazil Union Mission board for about 20 years.16 Michiles died April 23, 1974, at the age of 90, at São Paulo Adventist Hospital. His body was then returned to his hometown in Amazonas, where he was buried.17 He left a legacy of dedication and missionary work on behalf of the Adventist message in Maués, birth city of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the state of Amazon, Brazil.

Sources

Erney, Plessmann, Camargo. “Malária, maleira, paludismo.” Ciência e Cultura (Online), January/March, 2003.

Estado do Amazonas Assembleia Legislativa. In: Collection of the National Adventist Memory Center / Brazilian White Center: UNASP-EC, Engenheiro Coelho, SP. Shelf: 02. Stand: 14. Folder: “MICHILES, José Batista.” Accessed on November 26, 2018.

Ferraz, Sonila Michiles. Letters. In: Collection of the National Adventist Memory Center / Brazilian White Center: UNASP-EC, Engenheiro Coelho, SP. Shelf: 02. Stand: 14. Folder: “MICHILES, José Batista.” Accessed November 26, 2018.

Filho, Fausto, Valéria Brasi, and José Souza, “Manaus e a Rede Municipal de Educação: Humberto Michiles conversa com a Revista Pensamento Educacional,” Cadernos de Pesquisa: Pensamento Educacional, Curitiba, September/December 2014. Accessed April 8, 2020, https://utp.br/cadernos_de_pesquisa/.

“José Michiles.” My Heritage Network (Online), November 26, 2018.

Lessa, Rubens. Construtores de Esperança: na trilha dos pioneiros. Tatuí, SP: Brazil Publishing House, 2016.

Medeiros, Mackison. “A História Político-Administrativo de Maués-Am.” WebArtigos (Online), April 10, 2010.

Michiles, José Batista. In: Collection of the National Adventist Memory Center / Brazilian White Center: UNASP-EC, Engenheiro Coelho, SP. Shelf: 02. Stand: 14. Folder: “MICHILES, José Batista.” Accessed November 26, 2018.

Montgomery, O. “The Converting Power of the Printed Page.” ARH, July 20, 1933.

“Museu Centenário Contará História do Adventismo na Amazônia.” Fato Amazônico (Online), May 12, 2015.

Ramos, Ana Paula. Desafio nas águas. Tatuí, SP: Casa Publicadora Brasileira, 2009.

Streithorst, Olga Storch. Leo Halliwell na Amazônia. Santo André, SP: Brazil Publishing House, 1979.

Tradição Política. Excerpt. In: Collection of the National Adventist Memory Center / Brazilian White Center: UNASP-EC, Engenheiro Coelho, SP. Shelf: 02. Stand: 14. Folder: “MICHILES, José Batista.” Accessed April 8, 2020.

“Veio da Alemanha Para Trabalhar na Selva.” Revista Adventista, December 1990. Accessed April 29, 2019, http://acervo.revistaadventista.com.br/capas.cpb.

Wilcox. E. H. “Work in the Amazonas Territory - No. 2.” ARH, August 28, 1930.

Wilcox, E. H. “Work in the Amazonas Territory—No. 3.” ARH, September 4, 1930.

Wilcox, E. H. “Work in the Amazonas Territory-No. 4.” ARH, September 11, 1930.

Notes

  1. Letter from Sonila Michiles Ferraz (Collection of the National Adventist Memory Center / Brazilian White Center: UNASP-EC, Engenheiro Coelho, SP), 1; “José Michiles,” My Heritage Network. Accessed November 26, 2018, https://www.myheritage.com.br/names/jos%C3%A9_michiles#.↩

  2. Fausto Filho, Valéria Brasil, and José Souza, “Manaus e a Rede Municipal de Educação: Humberto Michiles conversa com a Revista Pensamento Educacional,” Cadernos de Pesquisa: Pensamento Educacional, Curitiba, September/December 2014, 297-307.↩

  3. Letter from Sonila Michiles Ferraz (Collection of the National Adventist Memory Center/Brazilian White Center: UNASP-EC, Engenheiro Coelho, SP), 1; Ana Paula Ramos, Desafio nas águas (Tatuí, SP: Casa Publicadora Brasileira, 2009), 42.↩

  4. Ana Paula Ramos, Desafio nas águas (Tatuí, SP: Casa Publicadora Brasileira, 2009), 39.↩

  5. Rubens Lessa, Construtores de Esperança: na trilha dos pioneiros adventistas da Amazônia (Tatuí, SP: Casa Publicadora Brasileira, 2016), 31; O. S. Streithorst, Leo Halliwell na Amazônia (Santo André, SP: Brazil Publishing House, 1979), 57-61; Ana Paula Ramos, Desafio nas águas (Tatuí, SP: Casa Publicadora Brasileira, 2009), 39; E. H. Wilcox, “Work in the Amazonas Territory--No. 2,” ARH, August 28, 1930, 22.↩

  6. Ibid.↩

  7. “Michiles, José Batista” (Collection of the National Adventist Memory Center / Brazilian White Center: UNASP-EC, Engenheiro Coelho, SP), 959; O. S. Streithorst, Leo Halliwell na Amazônia (Santo André, SP: Brazil Publishing House, 1979), 60; E. H. Wilcox, “Work in the Amazonas Territory—No. 3,” ARH, September 4, 1930, 25.↩

  8. “Veio da Alemanha Para Trabalhar na Selva,” Revista Adventista, December 1990, 7.↩

  9. “Michiles, José Batista” (Collection of the National Adventist Memory Center / Brazilian White Center: UNASP-EC, Engenheiro Coelho, SP), 958; O. Montgomery, “The Converting Power of the Printed Page,” ARH, July 20, 1933, 24.↩

  10. O. S. Streithorst, Leo Halliwell na Amazônia (Santo André, SP: Brazil Publishing House, 1979), 60; E. H. Wilcox, “Work in the Amazonas Territory--No. 4,” ARH, September 11, 1930, 18.↩

  11. Letter from Sonila Michiles Ferraz (Collection of the National Adventist Memory Center / Brazilian White Center: UNASP-EC, Engenheiro Coelho, SP), 2.↩

  12. O. S. Streithorst, Leo Halliwell na Amazônia (Santo André, SP: Brazil Publishing House, 1979), 66-68.↩

  13. Camargo, Erney Plessmann, “Malária, maleira, paludismo,” Ciência e Cultura, January/March, 2003, accessed September 18, 2018, http://cienciaecultura.bvs.br/scielo.php?pid=S0009-67252003000100021&script=sci_arttext&tlng=en.↩

  14. Letter from Sonila Michiles Ferraz (Collection of the National Adventist Memory Center / Brazilian White Center: UNASP-EC, Engenheiro Coelho, SP), 2.↩

  15. Letter from Sonila Michiles Ferraz (Collection of the National Adventist Memory Center / Brazilian White Center: UNASP-EC, Engenheiro Coelho, SP), 1; Excerpt from the newspaper Tradição Política (Collection of the National Adventist Memory Center / Brazilian White Center: UNASP-EC, Engenheiro Coelho, SP); “Museu Centenário Contará História do Adventismo na Amazônia,” Fato Amazônico, May 12, 2015, accessed April 8, 2020, https://www.fatoamazonico.com/em-maues-museu-centenario-contara-historia-pioneira-do-adventismo-na-amazonia/; Mackison Medeiros, “A História Político-Administrativo de Maués-Am,” WebArtigos, April 10, 2010, accessed April 8, 2020, https://www.webartigos.com/artigos/a-historia-politico-administrativo-de-maues-am/35974.↩

  16. Letter from Sonila Michiles Ferraz (Collection of the National Adventist Memory Center / Brazilian White Center: UNASP-EC, Engenheiro Coelho, SP), 1-3.↩

  17. Letter from Sonila Michiles Ferraz (Collection of the National Adventist Memory Center / Brazilian White Center: UNASP-EC, Engenheiro Coelho, SP), 1; Estado do Amazonas Assembleia Legislativa (Collection of the National Adventist Memory Center / Brazilian White Center: UNASP-EC, Engenheiro Coelho, SP).↩

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UNASP, The Brazilian White Center –. "Michiles, Jose Batista (1884–1974)." Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists. June 28, 2021. Accessed October 15, 2024. https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=9GKS.

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UNASP, The Brazilian White Center –. "Michiles, Jose Batista (1884–1974)." Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists. June 28, 2021. Date of access October 15, 2024, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=9GKS.

Copy to clipboard Download Word File

UNASP, The Brazilian White Center – (2021, June 28). Michiles, Jose Batista (1884–1974). Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists. Retrieved October 15, 2024, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=9GKS.

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