According to accounts, Francisca Joias was born in Portugal and brought up as a Portuguese. At the age of seventeen (as she was then known as Angelica), she began to have strange visions, in which she spoke of Jesus Christ. These visions greatly impressed her father, who encouraged Joias to take up the Catholic religion, though he never wished it. When Joias reached adulthood, however, her father died. She then continued to live in Portugal all her life, until she was eighty-one years old.
One of the most well-known stories about Francisca is her claim that she could channel the Virgin Mary in order to communicate with Jesus. Aside from this, there are many other accounts of her mediumistic abilities. It is often said that Francisca was so tall that she could easily see across the fields while she was planting potatoes in the fields. Also, many stories have been written about her ability to read minds. In some instances, her mediumistic skills allowed her to predict the future and the actions of others including the Pope.
It is also claimed that at the age of eighty-one, Joanna started having visions of the Virgin Mary. While some have described these visions as being more like dreams or telepathic communications than traditional visions, most have described them as images of angels or divine messages. It is highly unlikely that Francisca’s mediumistic abilities were connected to her religious faith or nationality because she never presented any evidence of being a Catholic. Regardless of what side of the personality spectrum she fell on, it is certain that Francisca was a very gifted person, who had an extraordinarily high degree of intelligence, as well as a highly developed physique.