Mestre Irineu

He left Maranhão in his teens, reached Acre in 1912, and came to ayahuasca around 1914 through Antônio Costa. In a forest diet he saw a woman in the moon who gave him a hymn and told him to found a doctrine; he knew her as the Queen of the Forest and later named her as Our Lady of the Conception.

The tradition's account has her telling him to give up whistling and solfeging and learn to sing, and teaching him Lua Branca — the first hymn. He then asked that his companions be given the same, after which Germano Guilherme, Antônio Gomes, Maria Damião and João Pereira each received three hymns of their own.

The first documented open work was held on May 26, 1930. He renamed the drink Daime in 1931, introduced the danced bailado in 1936, and moved the community to the land that became Alto Santo in May 1945. He received his last hymn in December 1970 and died on July 6, 1971.