Esperanto and Spiritism: why Brazil's Spiritists use it

Many Brazilian Spiritists learn Esperanto because their movement has promoted it for more than a century. The Brazilian Spiritist Federation (Federação Espírita Brasileira, FEB) opened a free Esperanto course in 1912, set up an Esperanto department in the late 1930s and publishes the basic books of Spiritism in Esperanto. Spiritists see the language as a tool for brotherhood between peoples and a way to take their teachings beyond Portuguese.

This partnership is a Brazilian phenomenon. Esperanto itself has no religion: since 1905 the movement has defined it as a neutral language that anyone may use for any purpose.

#What is Spiritism?

Spiritism (Espiritismo, also called Kardecism) is a religious and philosophical doctrine founded by the French teacher Hippolyte Léon Denizard Rivail (1804–1869), who wrote as Allan Kardec. It dates from the publication of The Spirits' Book (Le Livre des Esprits) on 18 April 1857. Spiritists believe that the spirits of the dead can communicate through mediums, that people reincarnate, and that charity is the path to moral progress.

The doctrine reached Brazil in the mid-19th century and became a major religion there. The 2010 census counted about 3.8 million Spiritists, roughly 2% of the population. The 2022 census, which counted people aged 10 and over, put the share at 1.8%, against 2.2% on the same basis in 2010. Many Brazilians who call themselves Catholic also attend Spiritist sessions from time to time, so the movement's reach is wider than the census suggests.

#How did Spiritism and Esperanto meet?

Not through Kardec. He died in 1869, eighteen years before L. L. Zamenhof published Esperanto in Warsaw in 1887 (see the history of Esperanto). Later Spiritists linked the two through Kardec's writings, which foresee humanity growing towards unity in religion and language. A spirit message printed in Kardec's journal Revue spirite in November 1862 spoke of a future common language for all.

The first bridges were built in the 1900s:

• In 1908 the Spiritist writer Camilo Chaigneau published an article, "Spiritism and Esperanto", proposing Esperanto for a central journal of Spiritists and Esperantists.
• Francisco Valdomiro Lorenz (1872–1957), a Czech-born polyglot, learned Esperanto as a teenager, wrote the first Esperanto textbook for Czechs (1890), corresponded with Zamenhof and emigrated to Brazil in 1891. He became a pioneer of both movements there.
• Ismael Gomes Braga (1891–1969) turned the friendship into a programme inside the FEB (see below).

#What does the Brazilian Spiritist Federation do for Esperanto?

The FEB was founded in Rio de Janeiro in 1884 and has been based in Brasília since 1984. It represents Brazil in the International Spiritist Council and runs a large publishing house, which has printed more than 10 million copies of Kardec's books. Its Esperanto work has a long record:

Today all of Kardec's main works are available in Esperanto from the FEB: The Spirits' Book, The Mediums' Book, The Gospel According to Spiritism, Heaven and Hell and Genesis. The federation also publishes Esperanto textbooks and still runs Esperanto courses.

Braga's method was to work on "parallel lines": teach Esperanto to Spiritists, and offer Spiritism to Esperantists through good translations. According to the researcher David Pardue, the FEB summed up its programme in three E's – Evangelho, Espiritismo, Esperanto ("Gospel, Spiritism, Esperanto"), and its logo stresses a lowercase "e".

#Who was Ismael Gomes Braga?

Braga was the key organiser of Spiritist Esperanto in Brazil. Born in 1891 in Ubá, Minas Gerais, he was an accountant and self-taught linguist who learned Esperanto as a teenager. Admirers called him the "Brazilian Zamenhof" – see Zamenhof for the original.

In 1937 he persuaded the FEB's president, Guillon Ribeiro, to create the Esperanto department, and he directed it until he died in Rio de Janeiro in 1969. He also wrote some of the standard Brazilian reference works for the language:

• Dicionário Português-Esperanto (1954)
• Dicionário Esperanto-Português (1956)
• Grande Dicionário Esperanto-Português (1964)

#Did Chico Xavier write books in Esperanto?

Not directly. Francisco Cândido "Chico" Xavier (2 April 1910 – 30 June 2002), Brazil's best-known medium, produced more than 400 books that Spiritists regard as dictated by spirits ("psychographed"), all in Portuguese. By 2010 they had sold over 50 million copies, and he gave the royalties to charity. More than a dozen have been translated into Esperanto, among them Antaŭ du mil jaroj (1951) and Nia Hejmo (Nosso Lar, 1959).

His name is tied to Esperanto through two texts that Spiritists attribute to spirits:

• "Missão do Esperanto" ("The Mission of Esperanto"), received in January 1940 and attributed to Xavier's spirit guide Emmanuel. It describes Esperanto as a lesson in brotherhood that does not replace other languages. Braga translated it into Esperanto.
• O Esperanto como revelação ("Esperanto as a Revelation", 1976), ten messages attributed to the spirit of Lorenz, received after his death. A bilingual edition carries the Esperanto translation Esperanto kiel revelacio by Benedicto Silva.

#Were any Spiritist books received directly in Esperanto?

Yes. The first collection of mediumistic poems written in Esperanto was Voĉoj de poetoj el la spirita mondo ("Voices of Poets from the Spirit World"), published by the FEB in Rio de Janeiro in 1944. The medium was Lorenz, not Chico Xavier. The poems are attributed to deceased writers, including Zamenhof, the Czech poet Stanislav Schulhof and the Brazilian poet Cruz e Sousa.

A second collection, Mediuma poemaro, received by Porto Carreiro Neto, appeared in 1972. Porto Carreiro Neto (1895–1964) was a chemistry professor, a member of the Academy of Esperanto and the translator of several of Xavier's books.

#Which Spiritist Esperanto organisations exist today?

• Spiritisma Esperanto-Asocio (SEA, "Spiritist Esperanto Association") was founded in Brazil on 7 September 2008 as BAES and renamed in 2023. It promotes Esperanto among Spiritists and Spiritism through Esperanto, holds a yearly meeting and publishes the magazine Konsolanto ("The Consoler").
• The International Spiritist Council (Conselho Espírita Internacional), founded on 28 November 1992 and based in Brasília, unites national Spiritist bodies from more than 30 countries. In 2000, according to Pardue, it adopted Esperanto as one of its working languages and created an Esperanto section.
• Spirita Eldona Societo F. V. Lorenz (Sociedade Editora Espírita F. V. Lorenz), a publisher in Rio de Janeiro named after Lorenz, issues Spiritist books in Esperanto.

These groups work alongside, not inside, the general Esperanto movement described in Esperanto organisations.

#How much does Spiritism contribute to Esperanto in Brazil?

A great deal, but nobody has measured it precisely. Brazil had the third-largest number of individual members of the Universal Esperanto Association in 2023 – 279, after France and Germany (see Esperanto by country). Pardue, writing in the journal Esperantologio / Esperanto Studies in 2001, found that much of the Brazilian movement's support comes from Spiritist groups.

The contribution is visible in courses held at Spiritist centres, Braga's dictionaries, a steady flow of translations and readers who buy Esperanto books. How many Brazilian Esperanto speakers are Spiritists is still unknown: Pardue listed it as an open research question, and no reliable survey is known.

#Is Esperanto a Spiritist language?

No. The Declaration of Boulogne, adopted at the first World Esperanto Congress in August 1905, defines the movement as the effort to spread a neutral language. Any other idea or hope that an individual speaker attaches to it is, in the declaration's words, that person's "purely private" affair. Anyone who knows and uses Esperanto counts as an Esperantist, whatever the purpose.

The Universal Esperanto Association declared itself absolutely neutral on religion, politics and nationality when it was founded in 1908. Religious Esperanto groups cooperate with it without being full members. Spiritism is also only one of several faiths with Esperanto ties: there are Catholic (IKUE, 1910) and Protestant (KELI, 1911) Esperanto associations, Japan's Oomoto religion has promoted the language since the early 1920s, and the Bahá'í Faith encourages an international auxiliary language.

The closeness still causes friction on both sides:

• Outside view. Portuguese Wikipedia notes that some Brazilians who do not speak Esperanto assume it is a "Spiritist language".
• Inside the movement. One member of the Spirito mailing list told Pardue that Esperantists are always welcome in Spiritist circles, but the reverse is not always true: some Esperantists ridicule Spiritist beliefs, so some Spiritists prefer not to be identified as such.
• The Spiritist position. Spiritist writers generally accept that the language itself is neutral. What they value is its "inner idea" (interna ideo) of brotherhood, which they see as close to their own ideals.

#Common questions

#Why do Spiritists learn Esperanto?

Their leaders, and spirit messages they consider authentic, present Esperanto as a tool for brotherhood and for spreading Spiritism worldwide. The Brazilian Spiritist Federation has encouraged it since 1912 with free courses and books.

#Did Allan Kardec speak Esperanto?

No. Kardec died in 1869, and Esperanto was published in 1887. Spiritists later read passages in his books about a future common language as pointing towards Esperanto.

#Is Esperanto a religion?

No. Esperanto is a language. The 1905 Declaration of Boulogne makes the movement neutral, and people of every faith and of none use it.

#Did Chico Xavier speak Esperanto?

His books were written in Portuguese; more than a dozen have since been translated into Esperanto. Two texts he received, in 1940 and 1976, praise the language. The first book of mediumistic poems in Esperanto (1944) came from another medium, Francisco Valdomiro Lorenz.

#Which Spiritist books can I read in Esperanto?

All five of Kardec's main works, many of Chico Xavier's books, and original poetry such as Voĉoj de poetoj el la spirita mondo (1944). Most are published by the Brazilian Spiritist Federation. To read them, start with our free Esperanto course.

#Sources

• David Pardue, "Uma só língua, uma só bandeira, um só pastor: Spiritism and Esperanto in Brazil", Esperantologio / Esperanto Studies 2 (2001), pp. 11–27
• Wikipedia, Kardecist spiritism, Brazilian Spiritist Federation, Esperanto – Spiritism, Esperanto – Baháʼí Faith and Religion in Brazil
• SBT News, "Censo 2022: número de católicos atinge menor patamar da história; evangélicos crescem", 6 June 2025 (IBGE 2022 census: Spiritists 2.2% → 1.8% of people aged 10 and over)
• Wikipédia (pt), Federação Espírita Brasileira, Ismael Gomes Braga, Chico Xavier, Francisco Valdomiro Lorenz, Religião no Brasil and Esperanto – Espiritismo
• Vikipedio, Ismael Gomes Braga, Brazila Spiritisma Federacio, Francisco Valdomiro Lorenz, Chico Xavier and Allan Kardec
• Vikipedio, Spiritisma Esperanto-Asocio and Internacia Spiritisma Konsilantaro; Spiritisma Esperanto-Asocio, konsolanto.org
• Zêus Wantuil, Grandes espíritas do Brasil (Rio de Janeiro: FEB, 1969) – on Voĉoj de poetoj el la spirita mondo as the first collection of mediumistic poems in Esperanto
• Vikipedio, Deklaracio pri Esperanto, Esperantismo and Universala Esperanto-Asocio; Wikipedia, Declaration of Boulogne