Last month's segment of this series on the history of The Herald of Christian Science, Which will be celebrating its 100th anniversary in April of this year, described events leading up to the production of the Spanish edition of the Herald. Just as the Spanish language is spoken in very diverse countries, Portuguese has become part of cultures where explorers from Portugal traveled—in Africa, South America, and other places as well. The Portuguese edition of the Herald has been serving and healing readers in many of these countries now for nearly half a century.
Pamphlets On Christian Science that were translated into Portuguese were first produced by The Christian Science Publishing Society in the 1920s. But it wasn't until the late 1940s that there was sufficient need for a steady supply of articles about Christian Science in this language. At that time, the Spanish edition of the Herald was appearing quarterly, and in April 1947, a Portuguese translation of a single article was added to the Spanish magazine.
Toward the end of 1948, Roy Garrett Watson, then Treasurer of The Mother Church, visited Brazil, and came back to Boston very impressed with the level of church activity there and the need for more literature on Christian Science in Portuguese. This literature would not only be for members, but would be placed on sale in the Reading Rooms that were springing up as branch Churches of Christ, Scientist, in Brazil were formed.
