Cristiane Cardoso

Who is Cristiane Cardoso?

Cristiane Cardoso, born Cristiane Rangel Bezerra, October 31, 1973 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She is the daughter of pastor Edir Macedo. Cristiane was the eldest of two daughters and one adopted son, in an evangelical Christian home. Her father became a pastor and founded the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, inspired through the struggles of faith for the sake of his youngest daughter, Viviane, who was born with a severely cleft palette. From 1977 onwards, the Bezerra family was immersed in a life of ministry and service in the church.

In 1986, Cristiane’s family moved to New York where her father established the first of his US churches in the lower east side of Manhattan. She and Viviane attended a public junior high school and were introduced to the high-stress, emotional pressure-cooker of the American school system. She was encouraged to keep a diary and through that, her love for writing blossomed.

Even though her family moved back to Brazil in 1989, she and her sister, and younger brother, Moyses, were able to attend English-speaking schools so as not to disrupt their studies. This time they lived in the city of São Paulo where Cristiane was called to serve in the church as an assistant, and found herself attracted to a young pastor-in-training, Renato Cardoso, two years her senior. Cristaine was engaged to Renato, her first and only boyfriend at 17 years of age, and they married in July 1991, right after her high school graduation.