FIGUEIREDO, JACKSON DE

Brazilian writer and Catholic lay leader; b. Aracajú, Sergipe, Oct. 9, 1891; d. Barra la Tijuca, Rio de Janeiro, Nov. 4, 1928. Though born a Catholic, he early absorbed the materialistic ideas prevalent among the intelligentsia. He matriculated at the law school of Bahia in 1909 and soon, through the Nova Cruzada movement, became a student leader in anticlerical and antisocial activities. Shortly thereafter, influenced by the works of Pascal and supported by Farias de Brito, he returned to the Church. In 1915 at Rio de Janeiro he met Leonel franca, SJ, and Alceu Amoroso Lima, and under their tutelage came to understand that life has meaning only as a labor that can be offered to God. Since he perceived that only anarchy could follow a divorce between letters and the Church, he dedicated himself fully to the reestablishment of the Christian spirit. He founded the periodical A Ordem (1921), the principal vehicle for the diffusion of his ideas, and the Centro Dom Vital (1922), a religious-cultural institution. Unfortunately, he never succeeded in fully controlling his violent character, and this intemperance affected some of his work. His Pascal e a Inquietação Moderna is a carefully considered and revised work; Cartas (1932) are also noteworthy; they constitute, perhaps, his most positive, rich, and lasting contribution.

Bibliography: a. amoroso lima, Estudos, 1st series (2d ed. Rio de Janeiro 1929), 3d and 4th series (1930–31). h. nogueira, J. de F.: O. doutrinário católico (Rio de Janeiro 1927). j. s. fontes, J. de. F.: Sentido de sua obra (Aracajú 1952). t. de silveira, J. de F. (Rio de Janeiro 1945).

[a. stulzer]