XVII Congress of the Brazilian Studies Association

Spirits and Saints: Padre Eustáquio, Spiritism, and the Transformation of the Catholic Church in São Paulo, 1930-1945

• In Event: Novos Caminhos para a Historiografia da Igreja Católica no Brasil

Abstract

In the early months of 1941, thousands of Brazilians began to arrive in the small city of Poá, just outside of São Paulo, to witness the miracles purportedly being performed by the local parish priest, Padre Eustáquio van Lieshout. Padre Eustáquio used holy water—specifically, holy water that came from a grotto he had built as an exact replica of the miraculous grotto in Lourdes, France, and into which he had deposited actual water from Lourdes—to heal believers of all that ailed them. It was not long before observers were calling Padre Eustáquio a living saint; a priest who had brought the divine healing powers of Lourdes to Brazil, and who himself was endowed with divine powers of healing. However, debates began to arise over the nature and origin of those divine powers. Rumors were circulating that Padre Eustáquio was, in fact, a Spiritist medium. The use of fluidized (spiritually magnetized) water was central to Spiritist healing practices, and Spiritist leaders, as well as many of the pilgrims who visited Padre Eustáquio, declared that the priest must be using Spiritist powers.

This paper examines the debate surrounding Padre Eustáquio’s miracles: were they Catholic miracles, or Spiritist miracles? Who had the authority to decide? Who had the rights and privileges to access these miracles? The way that different members of the Catholic Church answered these questions revealed fundamental disagreements that existed within the Church itself—disagreements over the materiality of faith, the importance of hierarchy and obedience, and the place of miracles in the future of the modern, Restorationist Catholic Church. This paper argues that the debate over miracles and Spiritism would have a transformative effect on the future of the Brazilian Catholic Church.

Author

• Erika Helgen, Yale University