The life of this Dutch priest who became a saint in Brazil is not as well known as it deserves to be.
Newsroom (09/01/2025, Gaudium Press) The life of Blessed Eustaquio van Lieshout is not as well known as it deserves to be. Let’s look at some of his most notable achievements.
He was born in the Netherlands on November 3, 1890, entered the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, and was ordained a priest in 1919. He was assigned to a mission in a remote village in Brazil, Agua Suja, in the so-called Mining Triangle, a place of great spiritual and material need.
He remained in Agua Suja for 10 years. There he began the construction of the shrine of Our Lady of the Abbey, which later became a great center of pilgrimage.
Both in Agua Suja and in the places where he later served as a missionary, he took special care of the poor and the sick. When he went to visit the sick, he sometimes became their doctor and nurse.
He cared for a child as his mother did not
One day, he entered a hut and found a child who was covered in sores. Not even the mother had the courage to care for him. Father Eustaquio cared for him as if he were his own son, bathing him daily, washing his clothes, removing the worms that were eating away at his flesh with tweezers, and applying an ointment that he had prepared himself. Within a month, he was cured.
The above event is a typical example of Fr. Eustaquio’s behavior during the 24 years he was a priest of Jesus Christ on this earth.
While in Agua Suja, the Dutch priest had already performed some miraculous healings. But it was in Poá, where he was transferred in 1935, that his gift for miracles shone most brightly, and from where his reputation for holiness spread throughout Brazil.
The prestige of Fr. Eustaquio’s material and spiritual cures attracted crowds of 10,000 people a day to Poá. But this influx of people disturbed the civil and religious authorities, who obtained Fr. Eustaquio’s transfer from the superiors of the Sacred Hearts community. He did not understand how a charism given by God for the benefit of the people could cause harm, but he obeyed without question.
He went to São Paulo, but had to live in hiding, under the surveillance of his superiors, without even being able to receive visits from friends. He was transferred several times, following the same pattern, until he was taken in by a young superior of his community in Patrocinio.
While there, he was called by the Archbishop of Belo Horizonte to take over the parish of the Sacred Hearts, which he ran for just over a year until his death in August 1943. There, too, he carried out his ministry as an enlightened counselour and made abundant use of his charism of miracles.
Along with healing, his main mission was the conversion of his faithful. And in this field, spiritual “miracles” were abundant. After his sermons, men flocked to the confessionals in large numbers. Very often, other priests had to come and help him in the ministry of confession after his preaching.
His exemplary interior life was the source of his virtue and his conversions.
While caring for a typhus patient, Fr. Eustaquio contracted the disease himself. Ten days later, he departed for eternity.
His funeral was a grand celebration in Belo Horizonte, which recognized his holiness.
With information from Arautos.org
Compiled by Teresa Joseph
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