Irmã Dulce Pontes was a Brazilian Franciscan nun who dedicated her life to serving the impoverished in Salvador, Bahia. Born Maria Rita de Souza Pontes in 1914, she joined the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Conception after being moved by the poverty she witnessed as a teenager. She founded the Charitable Works Foundation of Sister Dulce (OSID), which grew from a small improvised hostel in a convent chicken yard into a massive network of hospitals and schools. Recognized globally for her humanitarian efforts, she became the first female saint from Brazil.