In April 1925, Father Eustáquio, Father Gil, and Father Matias departed from Amsterdam, Netherlands, aboard the ship Flandria without a specific destination. They knew they were going to South America, probably Argentina, according to the Romaria-MG registry book.

Father Gil recounted their visit to Brazil to the Tribunal for the Cause of Beatification and Canonization of Father Eustáquio in September 1962. The following is an excerpt from the text:

“The choice was neither Father Eustáquio’s nor his companions‘; when we went to Spain to learn Castilian Spanish, we had ’visas” in our passports for several countries; in the end, we were sent to the only country in Latin America where Castilian Spanish is not spoken. I don’t know the reasons that led our superiors to send us here.”

In May 1925, the missionaries arrived in Rio de Janeiro, and in the same month, it was decided that the Sacred Hearts Fathers from the Dutch Province would take charge of the Sanctuary of Our Lady of the Abbey in Água Suja, in the Triângulo Mineiro region, where they arrived two months after landing in Rio de Janeiro.