Francisco de Menezes Dias da Cruz, born in the city of Rio de Janeiro, son of the same name (head of the Liberal Party in Rio and professor at the Faculty of Medicine) and of D. Rosa de Lima Dias da Cruz, was born on 27 February 1853. He was a mathematics teacher at the Colégio Pinheiro, where he had finished his degree in Humanities. At the same time, he was studying at the Faculty of Medicine, during which he married Mrs. Adelaide Pinheiro Dias da Cruz. When he graduated in Medicine, he lost his father, who had been wounded by a bayonet in the Church of Sacramento. He was librarian at the Town Hall for ten years and was dismissed when the Republic was proclaimed, under the false pretext that he was a monarchist. He chaired the Hahnemanian Course and the Hahnemanian Institute of Brazil.

Dr. Dias da Cruz carried out an enormous medical activity and never shirked his charitable duties, thus giving expression to his humanitarian feelings. A man of great culture, he left behind a rich library. A scholar from childhood, he was concerned with homeopathic science and later, faced with irrefutable evidence, he became one of the most charitable and evangelical spiritists. It is interesting to relate, however superficially, how his conversion came about. When he heard that the spirit of his father was carrying out an extensive charitable programme through prescriptive mediums, he decided to go to the Brazilian Spiritist Federation to observe and verify the reality of the information he had received.

Once the meeting had begun with the usual prayer, we moved on to doctrinal study. Up to this time, nothing had occurred to enable him to accept the séance of manifestations attributed to his father's spirit. He was already on the point of believing that it was a mystification when, at the table where the work was conducted, a medium showed that he had fallen into a trance. It was, after all, the longed-for manifestation that had come unexpectedly. Through the medium, the spirit of the first Dr. Dias da Cruz asked for his son, who was there in the audience. Surprised, he approached incredulously. At a certain point, however, his father said to him: ‘Do you remember what happened to us in the square? At this, Dr. Dias da Cruz (the son) felt that the time had come to surrender to the inescapable evidence. Nobody knew him in that assembly and the fact mentioned by the spirit was absolutely unknown to his whole family, as only the two of them had known about it.

Then he realised that there was only one way out for his upright and proverbial character: to accept the truthfulness of the spiritual manifestation of his genitor. And he did so unashamedly, with the natural simplicity of pure souls. He began to study Spiritism, immersed himself in the interpretation of the doctrinal texts, and thereafter became a brave new servant of Christ in the ranks of Kardec's followers. In 1885, he gave his first lecture at the Brazilian Spiritist Federation, and from then on participated in several important commissions in defence of Spiritism (1890, 1892 and 1893).

In 1890, replacing Dr. Bezerra de Menezes, Dr. Francisco de Menezes Dias da Cruz, who until then had been vice-president, was elected president of the Brazilian Spiritist Federation, a position he held with devotion until the first days of 1895, when he was temporarily replaced by Júlio César Leal and definitively by Dr. Adolfo Bezerra de Menezes, the "Brazilian Kardec", his professional colleague and friend.

Under his presidency, the work of material and spiritual help of Assistance to the Needy began, which until today is the core of the Christian services provided by the Brazilian Spiritist Federation. Many were the delicate companions who helped him in this great work, maintained and developed with the greatest affection by the House of Ismael.

Bernardino Cardoso, gave him a monthly sum of money. This was a large sum at the time (over $300), which he distributed to the poor in his clinic, on condition that his name was not revealed.

In 1896, at the proposal of Bezerra de Menezes, and in recognition of his disinterested services to the Brazilian Spiritist Federation, Dias da Cruz was acclaimed its honorary president. He directed Reformador during his presidency and wrote numerous doctrinal and polemical articles under the modest title of "A Spiritist". He is also the author of the book "Professor Lombroso and Spiritism". He was the first to try, in 1891, to acquire a building of his own for the FEB and to set up a printing press for "Reformador" and spiritist works in general.

Dias da Cruz was, therefore, vice-president and president of the Federation for many years. He died in the city of Rio de Janeiro on 30 September 1937, at the advanced age of 84. It was a glorious old age, achieved after a fruitful expenditure of energy on behalf of others. In 1900, Dr. Dias da Cruz reorganised and revitalised the "Instituto Hahnemaniano do Brasil" (Hahnemanian Institute of Brazil), which had been created in 1878 by the most famous homeopathic physician of the Empire, Dr. Saturnino Soares de Meireles, its first president. Dias da Cruz rented a house for his office in the centre of the city, at 59 Rua da Quitanda, and re-established the Instituto Hahnemaniano do Brasil there. The members of the Institute met there for several years, and from that time dates a new cycle of great activities and achievements.

Following the death of Dr. Joaquim Murtinho, Dr. Teodoro Gomes assumed the presidency of the Institute for one year. He was replaced by Dr Licínio Cardoso, under the vice-presidency of Dr Dias da Cruz. This was the golden age of Homoeopathy in Brazil, and one historian points out that Dr. Dias da Cruz is responsible for much of the glories that the Institute achieved during Dr. Licínio Cardoso's presidency. The "Anuario de Medicina Homeopática" (Yearbook of Homeopathic Medicine), whose publication had been discontinued in 1884, reappeared in January 1901 due to the efforts of "the purest of Brazilian homeopaths", Dr. Dias da Cruz, who brought the journal of the Institute out of the grave and gave it a place of honour among medical periodicals. He was its director from 1901 to 1902 and from 1906 to 1910.

The controversy (1900-1901) between Dr. Dias da Cruz and Dr. Nuno de Andrade, Director General of Public Health, an allopathic doctor and staunch enemy of Homeopathy, who was eventually removed from his post, became famous. When the Hahnemanian Faculty (later called the School of Medicine and Surgery, now located in Rua Frei Caneca) was founded in 1912, Dias da Cruz collaborated in the organisation of the teaching programmes of the new establishment, where he taught the subject of Pharmacology and, later, the first subject of Materia Medica, becoming a true teacher of a whole new generation. Dias da Cruz was the official speaker at the Institute for many years. His eloquence and knowledge impressed everyone. When the Hahnemanian Hospital was inaugurated in 1916, he gave a brilliant speech on behalf of the Institute before a large and illustrious audience, including Licínio Cardoso, Carlos Maximiliano, Minister of Justice, Baron de Brasílio Machado, President of the Higher Council of Education, Dr Paulo de Frontin, Director of the Polytechnic School, and representatives of the President of the Republic and of the Ministries in general.

In 1926, Dr Licínio Cardoso resigned as President of the Institute and Dr Francisco de Menezes Dias da Cruz was elected to replace him. He served as President until 29 January 1930. On that day, when the Institute met in extraordinary session, Dr. Dias da Cruz was acclaimed President in perpetuity, having resigned, for health reasons, from the office of President to which he had just been re-elected. "His acclamation", wrote one historian, "was a right earned by his moral courage, his intellectual capacity and, above all, by the firmness of his homeopathic convictions".

The 1st Brazilian Congress of Homeopathy was held from 25 to 30 September 1926, under the presidency of Dr. Dias da Cruz. He was one of the most convinced and authoritative propagandists, possessed of an excellent medical culture, a teacher recognised for his competence, with a vast clinic in which abounded very remarkable cures, and for another century he was "one of the great milestones in the progress of Homeopathy in Brazil". "We are not mistaken in affirming", wrote Dr. José Emígdio Rodrigues Galhardo, "that among Brazilian homeopaths, Dr. Dias da Cruz is the one who possesses the greatest and most perfect knowledge of the Hahnemannian doctrine”.

His contemporaries say that doing his duty was almost sacred to Dr. Dias da Cruz. As a teacher, he never failed to attend his classes punctually. As a clinician at the Hahnemanian Hospital, he never waited for his patients. In short, this is the brilliant personality of the man who dignified Spiritism and Homeopathy in Brazil.