Case file · Sacred site
Mestre Irineu founds Santo Daime
Raimundo Irineu Serra, a Black rubber worker from Maranhão, began holding ayahuasca ceremonies in Rio Branco, Acre, in 1930, founding the religion known as Santo Daime.
1930 CE · -9.96, -67.82 · status: official
The account
He said the Queen of the Forest, identified with the Virgin Mary, gave him hymns in visions in the Bolivian border forests. Daime blends Catholicism, Afro-Brazilian and Indigenous elements and is now practised worldwide.
The sceptical view
Ritual ayahuasca use was formally permitted in Brazil after a 1980s review and confirmed in 2010.
Connections in the atlas
- Richard Spruce meets caapi on the Uaupés
- Barquinha founded in Rio Branco
- Mestre Gabriel founds the União do Vegetal
- Céu do Mapiá founded in the forest