Eustáquio van Lieshout, SSCC (also Eustachius or Eustache; 3 November 1890 – 30 August 1943) was a Dutch Catholic missionary priest in Brazil from the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary.

He was beatified in 2006 by Cardinal José Saraiva Martins on behalf of Pope Benedict XVI.

Life

He was born Huub van Lieshout on 3 November 1890 in Aarle-Rixtel in the province of Brabant, the eighth of eleven children. His family was a very Catholic rural family.

Upon completion of his theological studies in 1919, he was ordained a priest in August 1919. His first assignment was as assistant novice master for his order. He was then assigned to the towns of Maassluis and Roelofarendsveen in South Holland, where he provided pastoral care for the many Belgian refugees. In recognition of his work, the King of Belgium knighted him in the Order of Leopold.

Career in Brazil

Van Lieshout, along with two other Picpus priests and three lay brothers, was sent to Brazil, in response to an appeal for help by a local bishop. He arrived in Rio de Janeiro on 12 May 1925 and had to wait until 15 July when he was appointed pastor for the town of Agua Suja in Romaria. The inhabitants in parish of Agua Suja, where he served as a pastor, were occupied in searching gold along the shores of the river Bagagem. These people being deeply Catholics didn't meet the Catholic behavior in their common life. Van Lieshout saw his apostolic aim to change them and, with the course of time, he managed to do this because people in his parish gradually acquired the taste to the virtuous life.

In 1935 he was sent by his religious superiors to Poá. After news spread of van Lieshout's transfer, the population of the town started a bloodless uprising to stop him from leaving. Nevertheless, he left in obedience to his superiors for his new parish, where he worked to oppose the widespread practice of Candomblé. His blessings and cures of the sick through the intercession of St. Joseph made the little village a noted center of pilgrimage.

At his death, on his body was found a penitential pointed iron chain, buried so deep in his flesh that it could not be removed without tearing the flesh. Miracles are attributed to him. At first he was buried at the church of Santo Domingo, Belo Horizonte. But then he was reinterred at the church of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, Belo Horizonte in 1949.

Beatification

Eustáquio van Lieshout was venerated on 12 April 2003 by Pope John Paul II (decree of heroic virtues).