800,000!

That’s how many folks turned out to see the grave of a dead guy on Dead Day. Not just any dead guy, but perhaps THE dead guy in all of northeastern Brasil.

Padre Cicero was his name. Champion of the poor while living, the focus of miraculous activity while dead. Interesting resumé. Interesting story — Billy the Kid, Bonnie and Clyde type of stuff, and Padre Cicero slap dab in the middle. Good guys, bad guys and the priest in the middle as the score keeper. Maybe I’ll tell it one day.

Meantime, back to the tomb. Padre Cicero has been bones for a really long time. Yet, his fame has continued to grow. He can help you have a baby, give you a better job, take care of your in-laws, cure you of cancer, regrow your limbs. Shucks, he can even raise you from the dead. All he needs is a red cape and be weakened by kryptonite and you’d know who he was.

So, what’s the big deal?

The folks who go to see this dead guy are fanatical! They walk for miles on their knees, crawl on their bellies like a snake, hop on one leg, walk backwards, all just to please him so he’ll grant their wishes. Every year at the end of the celebration on Dead Day (November 2), everybody takes off their hats (they’re all wearing one) and waves bye-bye to the priest (he’s dead, remember), then leaves town.

The guy is dead. He was then, he still is now. But he has millions of devotees.

Same story, but the hero raises from the dead. Only the living Lord doesn’t receive the same devotion as Padre Cicero here in the land of the sun.

We want to change that!