Francisco de Paula Cândido Xavier, popularly known as Chico Xavier was a popular "medium" in Brazil's Spiritism movement and wrote 412 books through a process known as psychography.
The profits of his books were all donated into charity work.
He influenced the establishment of Kardecist Spiritism as one of the religions professed in Brazil.
In 1981 and 1982, Chico Xavier was nominated for the Nobel peace prize and on October 3, 2012, was named as "The Greatest Brazilian of all time" by one of the biggest brazilian television channel (SBT), based on a viewer-supported survey.