In the sprawling slums, or favelas, of Rio de Janeiro, where the streets move to the sound of samba, psalms and sirens, everyone knows the name of Flordelis. Her songs seep through the alleyways and her face gazes serenely from boarded-up shopfronts, offering an invitation to embrace “The Miracle”.
A child of these desperate slums, Flordelis dos Santos de Souza, dark-haired and petite, rose over three remarkable decades to become a multi-format superstar, heading an empire that spanned music, politics and religion. She faced down drug gangs, took in dozens of orphaned and abandoned children and carved out a place among Brazil’s business and political elite.
As her fame grew, millions came to think of Flordelis as a living saint. “But that’s not how I see her now,” says Allan Duarte, head of the Rio murder squad.
Known to everyone by her first name, Flordelis, 60, was inescapable in Brazil – appearing on television, conducting services in her own chain of packed-out churches, and making speeches as a member of congress in the country’s parliament.
Late on the night of June 15, 2019, she was away from all that, however, strolling by moonlight along the famous golden sand of Copacabana beach with her 42-year-old husband, Anderson do Carmo.
Like everything else in her life, Flordelis’ marriage had attracted a lot of attention. Anderson wasn’t just significantly younger
