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Biography

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Blessed Eustáquio van Lieshout was born Hubertus van Lieshout on 3 November 1890 in the village of Aarle-Rixtel in North Brabant in the Netherlands. He was one of eleven children of Everard van Lieshout and Hendrina van den Einden and was raised in a Catholic family in a strongly Catholic region of the southern Netherlands. Attracted to religious life and missionary work, he entered the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, a community also known as the Picpus Fathers. He took the religious name Eustachius, which in Portuguese-speaking Brazil became Eustáquio. After completing his studies and novitiate within the congregation, he was ordained a priest in 1919. He served for a time in the Netherlands before his superiors assigned him to the congregation's mission in Brazil.

In 1925 he began his work in Brazil, which remained his home until his death. His first parish was Água Suja, later known as Romaria, in the interior of Minas Gerais. He was later assigned to Poá in the state of São Paulo and then to Iguape, also in São Paulo. In these places he became known for pastoral dedication, long hours of ministry, care for the poor and the sick, and a simple personal life. During his lifetime a widespread popular reputation grew that healings and other favors were obtained through his blessing and prayers. Crowds often sought him out in such numbers that ordinary parish routine was disrupted, and his religious superiors transferred him more than once so that he could continue priestly work without being overwhelmed by visitors. He was never a bishop; his entire ministry was that of a religious missionary priest in parish settings.

In the early 1940s he was sent to Belo Horizonte, the capital of Minas Gerais. He continued pastoral duties there until he fell ill and died in that city on 30 August 1943. His funeral attracted large numbers of people who already regarded him as a holy priest. Devotion to him persisted after his death in the Brazilian regions where he had served. The cause for his beatification was advanced by his congregation and by the local Church. He was beatified on 15 June 2006 in Belo Horizonte in a ceremony held in the name of Pope Benedict XVI. The Catholic Church observes his feast on 30 August, the anniversary of his death. He has not been canonized.

Van Lieshout's spirituality was that of a priest of the Sacred Hearts congregation, with emphasis on the Eucharist, devotion to the Hearts of Jesus and Mary, and missionary availability. Contemporary descriptions present him as austere in his own habits and approachable to ordinary people. Historical knowledge of his life rests on congregational archives, Brazilian diocesan and parish records, and the documentation prepared for his beatification. Some secondary accounts differ on minor points such as the exact sequence of parish assignments and the medical nature of his final illness; the principal outline of his birth in the Netherlands, missionary work in Brazil from the mid-1920s, death in Belo Horizonte in 1943, and beatification in 2006 is well established.

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