Cunha, Iraci Castelo (1924–2004)

Iraci Castelo Cunha, educator and evangelist, was born December 31, 1924,¹ in the city of Fortaleza, state of Ceará.² She was the oldest daughter of Ricardo Henrique da Cunha and Maria Castelo Cunha, both of whom were born in Fortaleza in 1896.³ Her parents had five children, but the three youngest ones died in their childhood due to the hunger caused by a big drought in the region.⁴  Iraci was the second cousin of Marechal Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco, president of Brazil between 1964-1967.⁵

Coming from a poor family, Iraci had a tough childhood. Her first home was a simple house made of straw. Due to her family’s precarious financial situation, she could not go to school. By the age of six, her mother taught her to read, awakening in her a deep interest in books.⁶ When she was eight, her father was brutally killed in front of their house.⁷ When she was nine, she went to a public school in Fortaleza. Since she only knew how to read, she was enrolled in the first grade so she could also learn how to write.⁸

When she turned eleven, she received a scholarship to study at Colégio 7 de Setembro where her mother worked as a janitor. She finished primary school and took the preparatory course to enter elementary school. She entered at the Ateneu São José school, in Fortaleza,⁹ which gave her financial aid so she could study the fifth and sixth grades of elementary school. However, due to the lack of resources, she had to stop her studies for about four years.¹⁰ In 1940, when she was 15, she began to give private lessons which allowed her to take the course called Madureza, which corresponded to an academic program that guaranteed a secondary school certificate.

Due to insufficient food, Iraci suffered from anemia since her childhood. Long term anemia weakened her body and resulted in the proliferation of worms. When she was 16, a local physician prescribed to her a purgative to counteract the parasites. However, this treatment poisoned her and made her unconscious and also caused her to lose her sight. Medical treatment only made her worse, until one day the family doctor said there was nothing else that could be done. Crying, her relatives and neighbors surrounded the hammock where she laid unconscious. Then, abruptly, she recovered her consciousness, jumped up, and immediately recovered her energy. When the doctor heard what had happened, he attributed the healing to a miracle.¹¹

Iraci continued her studies and, after concluding Madureza, she began high school at the Colégio Estadual do Ceará in 1944. There she took the classic course, which was most suitable for those who intended to go to college, and she finished it in 1948.¹² Next she entered the Ceará Catholic Philosophy University where she graduated in 1952.¹³

The demand for Iraci to teach private classes grew until she had nearly 200 students. This allowed her to open in her own house the Colégio Tiradentes. Around 1953, Iraci rented a larger house so she could accommodate all her students. The new space was located near the North Coast Mission and the Fortaleza Central Adventist Church. While passing in front of this church one day, she saw an announcement of a series of evangelistic meetings that would take place with Pastor Gustavo Storch as the speaker. The lecturer used a projector, which sparked her interest, even though she considered the Adventist Church heretical. She attended the meetings for three nights and was convicted she had found a religion that was in accordance with the Bible. Iraci had been a Presbyterian since her childhood and had always shown great interest in studying the Bible. However, she found many disagreements between the teachings of these two denominations. She even considered founding her own church. But after talking to Pastor Storch, she decided to be baptized as soon as possible. That happened a few days later, in 1954.¹⁴

After her baptism Iraci decided to study theology. With that purpose, she wrote to Brazil College, requesting a scholarship to work and study, but it was not granted to her. However, she did not give up. In 1955 she sold her school and went to Brazil College.¹⁵ In the second month of classes, Brazil College needed a teacher for the high school Pedagogy course. Without a teacher, the course would have to be closed. The director at that time, Pastor Sigfried J. Schwantes, offered the job to Iraci, who accepted it promptly, thus starting her trajectory of service in the Adventist Church.¹⁶ While she studied theology, Iraci also taught psychology (1955-1959)¹⁷ and history (1959).¹⁸ Thus she managed to pay for her studies and she graduated in 1959.¹⁹

In 1960 she became leader of the Voice of Prophecy branch in the city of Belém, state of Pará. While she was in this position, she answered the letters sent by students of the Bible correspondence course and she prepared diplomas for those who completed the course. The following year, when the Grao Para Adventist Academy was established, she also started working there as teacher.²⁰ In 1961 Iraci met and married Carlos, who shortly after opposed her faith. For this reason, with only one month and nine days of marriage, she divorced Carlos and went back to São Paulo²¹ where she became a teacher at Brazil College. However, she suspected she was pregnant and returned to her home town, Fortaleza. On May 16, 1962, Ebenézer Cunha Castelo Branco was born.²² She also taught mathematics and Portuguese in the Grao Para Adventist Academy in 1962.²³

In 1963 Iraci accepted an invitation to return to Brazil College. She worked there for the next 27 years, teaching philosophy, history, social sciences, education, moral and civic education, and psychology.²⁴ Beginning in 1967 she also taught Philosophy of Christian Education for theology majors (1967-1973).²⁵ For the nursing major inaugurated in 1969, she taught social sciences.²⁶ And in the Education Department, founded in 1973,²⁷ she taught Study of Brazilian Problems and Sociology of Education (1976-1991).²⁸

Shortly after she started teaching in the Education Department, Iraci was prevented from teaching classes because she did not have a master’s degree. So she enrolled in a master’s degree program at the Post-Graduation School of Social Sciences of the São Paulo Foundation School of Sociology and Politics. She defended her thesis in 1975, entitled “Contribuições da Educação Adventista no Brasil” (Contributions of Adventist Education in Brazil).²⁹ Seven years later, in 1982, she got a doctoral degree from the same institution. Her dissertation was entitled “Studo Sobre a Ocupação do Menor como Meio de Produção: Considerações sociológicas, uma análise retroativa” (Study on the Occupation of the Minor as a Mean of Production: Sociological considerations, a Retroactive Analysis).³⁰ “She was the first Adventist northeastern woman to obtain this title in Brazil.”³¹

Iraci taught at Brazil College until she retired in 1991.³² While she worked in this college, in addition to teaching, she used her vacations to hold evangelistic meetings in her home state, Ceará.³³ When she retired, she decided to dedicate herself wholly to the preaching of the gospel in this state. She shared her idea with students and friends and several of them were ready to help. Thus emerged the “Gideon 300” group that had as its main goal introducing Adventism in cities that had no Adventist presence.³⁴ Her dream was that every city of Ceará would have an Adventist congregation.³⁵

Early in 2004, Iraci became seriously ill. The physicians warned her about the gravity of her condition and, following surgery, she was hospitalized for 15 days. On February 8, 2004, she passed away in Belém Adventist Hospital, in the state of Pará.³⁶ She was nearly 80 years old.

Sources

A Professora que Dispensava Diplomas... Dra. Iraci Castelo Cunha (1925-2004).

Collection of the National Center of Adventist History/Ellen G. White Research Center: UNASP-EC.

Cidral, Ari Celso. “Iraci Castelo Cunha e Sua Vida.” Monograph, Instituto Adventista de Ensino, 1988.

Cunha, Iraci Castelo. Um Sonho Que Se Torna Realidade. Umirim, CE: Editora Gráfica LCR, 1998.

Rubens, Lessa S. “Campo Promove Seis Congressos Missionários - Conferências,” Revista Adventista, year 84, June 1988.

Rubens, Lessa S. “Diáconos Servem o Pão do Céu,” Revista Adventista, year 80, September 1985.

Rubens, Lessa S. “Notícias 90 – Templos no Ceará.” Revista Adventista, year 86, July 1990.

Santos, Luís Henrique, ed. Muito Além do Ensino - UNASP: 100 anos de história (1915-2015). Tatuí, SP: Casa Publicadora Brasileira, 2015.

Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook. Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association. Various years.

Notes

1. At that time parents waited to register a child’s birth. For this reason, in her documents her birth date is listed as December 30, 1925. See: Ari Celso Cidral, “Iraci Castelo Cunha e Sua Vida” (Monograph, Instituto Adventista de Ensino, 1988), 3.↩

2. Iraci Castelo Cunha, Um Sonho Que Se Torna Realidade (Umirim, CE: Editora Gráfica LCR, 1998), 11.↩

3. Cidral, “Iraci Castelo Cunha e Sua Vida,” 3.↩

4. Cunha, Um Sonho Que Se Torna Realidade, 11-14.↩

5. A Professora que Dispensava Diplomas... Dra. Iraci Castelo Cunha (1925-2004). (Collection of the National Center of Adventist History/Ellen G. White Research Center: UNASP-EC), 1.↩

6. Cunha, Um Sonho Que Se Torna Realidade, 11-12.↩

7. Ibid., 17; Cidral, “Iraci Castelo Cunha e Sua Vida,” 5.↩

8. Ibid., 6.↩

9. Cidral, “Iraci Castelo Cunha e Sua Vida,” 6-7; Iraci Castelo Cunha, Um Sonho Que Se Torna Realidade, 30.↩

10. Ibid., 7; Cunha, Um Sonho Que Se Torna Realidade, 32-34.↩

11. Ibid., 35-36.↩

12. Cidral, “Iraci Castelo Cunha e Sua Vida,” 8, 28; Cunha, Um Sonho Que Se Torna Realidade, 35-39.↩

13. Cidral, “Iraci Castelo Cunha e Sua Vida,” 30.↩

14. Ibid., 9; Cunha, Um Sonho Que Se Torna Realidade, 43-46.↩

15. Cidral, “Iraci Castelo Cunha e Sua Vida,” 10; Cunha, Um Sonho Que Se Torna Realidade, 47.↩

16. Cidral, “Iraci Castelo Cunha e Sua Vida,” 10, 18; Cunha, Um Sonho Que Se Torna Realidade, 48-50.↩

17. “Brazil College,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1956), 201; and “Brazil College,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1960), 223.↩

18. “Brazil College,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Washington, DC: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1960), 223.↩

19. A Professora que Dispensava Diplomas... Dra. Iraci Castelo Cunha (1925-2004). (Collection of the National Center of Adventist History/Ellen G. White Research Center: UNASP-EC), 1.↩

20. Cidral, “Iraci Castelo Cunha e Sua Vida,” 18.↩

21. Ibid., 14-16; Cunha, Um Sonho Que Se Torna Realidade, 52-54.↩

22. Cunha, Um Sonho Que Se Torna Realidade,” 54-55; Cidral, “Iraci Castelo Cunha e Sua Vida,” 16-17.↩

23. “Pará Academy,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1963), 302.↩

24. “Brazil College,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1964), 275; and “Brazil College,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1992), 366-367.↩

25. “Brazil College,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1968), 288; and “Brazil College,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1973/1974), 286.↩

26. “Brazil College,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1970), 306; “Brazil College,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1972), 287; and “Brazil College,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1973/1974), 287.↩

27. Luís Henrique Santos, ed., Muito Além do Ensino - UNASP: 100 anos de história (1915-2015) (Tatuí, SP: Casa Publicadora Brasileira, 2015), 102.↩

28. “Brazil College,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1977), 322; and “Brazil College,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1992), 367.↩

29. Cidral, “Iraci Castelo Cunha e Sua Vida,” 11, 19, 32 and 33.↩

30. Ibid., 34-35.↩

31. A Professora que Dispensava Diplomas... Dra. Iraci Castelo Cunha (1925-2004). (Collection of the National Center of Adventist History/Ellen G. White Research Center: UNASP-EC), 1.↩

32. “Brazil College,” Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1992), 366-367.↩

33. Lessa, Rubens S., “Notícias 90 – Templos no Ceará,” Revista Adventista, year 86, July 1990, 18; “Campo Promove Seis Congressos Missionários - Conferências,” Revista Adventista, year 84, June 1988, 26; and “Diáconos Servem o Pão do Céu,” Revista Adventista, year 80, September 1985, 32.↩

34. Cunha, Um Sonho Que Se Torna Realidade, 59; and “O Sonho se Torna Realidade: A história de uma mulher que tomou a decisão de evangelizar sua terra,” Revista Adventista, year 95, January 1999, 5.↩

35. A Professora que Dispensava Diplomas... Dra. Iraci Castelo Cunha (1925-2004). (Collection of the National Center of Adventist History/Ellen G. White Research Center: UNASP-EC), 1.↩

36. Ibid., 2.↩