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| Padre Eustáquio |
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August
30, we celebrate Father Eustaquio's day, religious name adopted by
Hubertus (Huub) van Lieshout, a Dutchman who lived many years in
Brazil as a missionary. He is venerated in Belo Horizonte, despite
having spent a short time in the capital of Minas Gerais, from April
1942 to August 1943, when he died of a kind of Spotted fever, transmitted by ticks,
according to what is known.
Missionaries
are true heroes. Generally, they are sent by their congregations to
places that are often inhospitable, for various reasons, to convert
pagan populations. After studying philosophy and theology, he
completed a short period of mission in Holland, being later
dispatched, with two others, in 1925, to the wild corners of Minas
Gerais. There he began his saga in Brazil, in a village called "Água
Suja", where the people were "mostly
of miners who lost everything as easily as they gained, and whose
troubled life - often miserable - came from irreligiosity,
dissolution and crime”,
according to the words of Fr. Venâncio Hulselmans, in his book
“Father
Eustaquio van Lieshout SS.CC.”
The
book also says that the village “surprised the priests in many
ways. They were amazed to see how those people, while possessing a
devotion that bordered on enthusiasm, in particular to Our Lady of
Abadia, had a conduct of life diametrically opposed to those
feelings. It had to be changed." The priest came to suffer
threats, but he was not intimidated, ending up taming the
uncivilized, with vigor and virtue. He helped the unassisted
population, with the use of leaves and roots that he himself
collected and prepared to remedy ills. The fame of a miracle worker
began to spread and, when his congregation decided to transfer him to
São Paulo, the local population tried to prevent him from leaving.
In
1935, he was finally transferred to Poá, in São Paulo. There he
continued to work healings and conversions, with his blessings of the
waters and in the confessional. His fame increased so much that they
started making a pilgrimage in the city, causing a lot of turmoil.
For this reason, the authorities decided to remove him. Father
Eustaquio even wrote a letter to the Archbishop of São Paulo,
saying: "This is the holy vocation I feel in me: to relieve
bodily pain in order to revive the shattered faith of our times."
But he couldn't convince him. He was confined for a time in Rio de
Janeiro, with the recommendation of Cardinal Sebastião Leme that his
blessings be processed discreetly and without publicity for any
extraordinary events.
It
sounds like a joke, but it's not. Rather than evaluating the case
cautiously, they simply set aside a person who was successfully
converting thousands of people. What did the top of the Catholic
Church finally want? Isn't that what Jesus told the apostles, that
they would do wonders in His name?
Also
in Rio, the crowd flocked to him, prompting Cardinal Leme to
practically expel him from the city. He was sheltered by friends on a
farm in the State of São Paulo and, finally, at the request of the
Archbishop of Belo Horizonte, Dom Antônio dos Santos Cabral, he was
transferred to Belo Horizonte in April 1942. By order of superiors,
his apostolate was reduced , with limited hours. Even so, the people
of Belo Horizonte received many blessings and many miracles are
reported.
Many
people from Belo Horizonte tell stories of the wonders that were
operated through Father Eustaquio, with healings and conversions. The
miracles continued and it seems that they are still being processed
through him. Wherever he went, he left his mark of holiness,
acclaimed by the people. He was beatified in 2006 and a process is
underway for his canonization.
There
are many cases told by the people about the "charismatic"
personality of Father Eustaquio, who touched hearts, even in the
smallest gestures. My father told us that he was once walking along a
street in Belo Horizonte, with one of his brothers, when they saw, in
the distance, Father Eustáquio, also on foot, going in another direction. – Look, isn't he Father Eustaquio? – asked each
other – We could go and ask for a blessing. Just then, the
priest turned and made the Sign of the Cross towards them.
With
my mother, who was also very devoted to him, there was a kind of
manifestation in two dreams, some years after the priest's death. She
had lost her first child, newborn, and dreamed of the priest
telling her that she would lose a child. She said she had already
lost one and asked if that was what he was talking about. He didn't
answer, neither yes nor no.
Another
interesting episode that happened to my parents, also in a dream.
Father Eustaquio told my mother that she would have seven children.
Without her having said anything about it, my father gave her a gift
– I don't know if the next day, or days later: a piece of crockery
with seven little painted children; and he asked if it wouldn't be a
good number. She was impressed because it was the same number in the
dream.
At
that time, Catholic families did not avoid having children, no matter
how many might be. Well, years later, after the production of the
“factory” was finished, my mother remembered her dreams and found
that they were right. She had seven children, counting the two who
died as little ones. Yes, she had another one who died newborn – a
little girl. Strange coincidences... Signs to help strengthen faith?
Father
Eustaquio's traditional greeting was "Health and Peace - Health to your bodies, Peace to your souls." [4]
~~~~~~~
Related
links :
Eustachius van Lieshout – Wikipedia
Catholic Saints Info – Blessed Eustaquio van Lieshout
Blessed Eustaquio van Lieshout
Vatican– Eustaquio Van Lieshout
In Nederlandse
Eustachius van Lieshout
In
Portuguese :
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wnXr8N6T74
[3] http://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/saints/ns_lit_doc_20060615_eustaquio_po.html
[4] https://www.padreeustaquio.com.br/vida-e-historia/
~~~~~~
Padre Eustáquio e Juscelino Kubitschek
