Blessed Father Eustáquio van Lieshout

November 3, 1890 - August 30, 1943

Feast Day: August 30

Also known as: Eustáquio (Eustachius or Eustache) van Lieshout 

Eustáquio van Lieshout was born Huub van Lieshout on November 3, 1890 in Aarle-Rixtel in the province of Brabant, as the son of Wilhelmus van Lieshout, farmer and Elisabeth Meulenhof, in a very religious Brabant farming family with eleven children. It was named after Hubertus, patron of the hunters. Huub knew from an early age that he wanted to become a missionary, just like his great example Father Damiaan, who had died a year before his birth on the leper island of Molokai. The farmer's son was allowed by his parents to go to the Latin School in Gemert and then went to Grave, to the Fathers of the Sacred Hearts. There he took his monastic vows in 1915. He became a friar and was given the monastic name Eustáquio. In August 1919 he was ordained to the priesthood in Ginneken.

After his ordination Eustáquio was mentor to congregational candidates in Vierlingsbeek, chaplain for Belgian glassblowers in Maassluis and chaplain in Roelofarendsveen. In the 1920s, the congregation sought a new mission area in Latin America. Therefore Eustáquio was sent to Spain with two confreres to learn Spanish, but Eustáquio ended up in Brazil in 1925; where Portuguese is spoken. In July 1925, his first station became Agua Suja (Minas Gerais), a remote rural parish. Through his blessing and prayer, Eustáquio healed the sick and helped people in many ways.

In February 1935 he became a pastor in Poá, near the large industrial city of São Paulo. Every day thousands of people wanted to meet him, Miracle Worker of Poá; things got so out of hand that in 1941 he went into hiding in the interior for a while. He was transferred to Belo Horizonte, where he became the building pastor of a poor working class parish. In 1943 he was infected with typhus by an insect bite. He died on August 30, 1943 in Belo Horizonte (Brazil). The funeral was a triumphal procession and people still come to pray at his grave every day.

Worship and naming

On April 12, 2003, Pope John Paul II inducted Father Eustáquio van Lieshout into the ranks of Venerable Servants of God, and on June 15, 2006, he was beatified in the city of Belo Horizonte in Brazil. In 2009, a bronze statue of the Blessed Father was unveiled in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. In 2010, relatives of Father Eustáquio decided to donate some relics to the Catholic Church in Brazil.

On April 29, 2012, a statue of Eustáquio was placed and unveiled in St. John's Cathedral in Den Bosch. In January 2015, the amalgamated parish of Blessed Father Eustáquio van Lieshout was formed in the municipality of Laarbeek from the four parishes of Aarle-Rixtel, Beek en Donk, Lieshout and Mariahout. On September 5, 2021, Aarle-Rixtel honored Eustáquio' work with a statue by the Brazilian artist Edu Santos, placed in front of the Church of Our Lady of the Presentation on the Dorpsstraat.