From 1769 to 1770 Galvão served as confessor to the Recollection of St. Teresa () in the city of São Paulo, which was a hermitage of women Recollects (recluses living in common but not under religious vows), dedicated to Teresa of Ávila. There, he met the nun Helena Maria of the Holy Spirit, a recluse who claimed to have had visions in which Jesus was asking her to found a new Recollect house. Galvão, her confessor, studied these messages and consulted with others who recognized them as valid and supernatural.