Church and Convent of Our Lady of Light, Religious museum in Bom Retiro District, São Paulo, Brazil.

The Church and Convent of Our Lady of Light is a colonial complex built of rammed earth (taipa de pilão) on Avenida Tiradentes. Its church has two facades, one facing the avenue and an older one toward the city center, with thick walls and solid wood windows and stairs. The complex includes the cloistered convent, the Capela do Mosteiro, the Museu de Arte Sacra, the Casa do Capelão and a religious articles shop.

The convent grew out of a 16th-century chapel on the old royal road through the campos de Guaré, first recorded in a 1579 letter by Padre Anchieta. In 1772 Helena Maria do Sacramento reported visions ordering a convent; Frei Galvão verified them and obtained government authorization in 1774. The nuns moved in around 1788, the new church opened in 1802, and construction continued for decades more. Canonical recognition as a monastery came only in 1902.

The nuns of the Order of the Immaculate Conception, whose patron is Saint Beatrice, live in permanent enclosure inside the convent. In the chapel, pilgrims leave written prayers at the tomb of Frei Galvão, and the monastery distributes his pills, small paper packets kept as devotional objects.

The site is centrally located with easy access to public transportation and bus stops nearby. Visits are available Tuesday through Sunday; plan time to walk through both the church and museum sections.

The monastery's collection of lampadários, hanging oil lamps, is second in size only to that of the Vatican Museums. The left wing, the oldest part of the building, was restored in 1970 to house the Museum of Sacred Art, created by state decree the year before.