Father Eust\u00e1quio held a great devotion to the little girl Odetinha, who was recently proclaimed Venerable by the Holy See, and for this reason, for some years he maintained contact with the girl's parents, from which a beautiful friendship arose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was because of this experience that Alice Vidal de Oliveira, Odetinha's mother, gave a testimony to the Ecclesiastical Tribunal for the Cause of Beatification and Canonization of Father Eust\u00e1quio. This testimony was collected on October 29, 1963. Read the document in its entirety below. It was recovered by researchers working on cataloging the collection of the future Father Eust\u00e1quio Museum in Belo Horizonte:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201c"Regarding the period he was here in Rio, I can attest, as a witness with personal knowledge, to the following: he was at the Convent of his Congregation and at the Church of the Sacred Hearts entrusted to the same Congregation, I mean at the Church of Saint Margaret, although I don't even know if he went to this Church; the fact is that I went to look for him at the convent itself.". <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The reason that led me to this step was the following: I was suffering from a stomach ailment that I had been experiencing for about 3 years, and the doctors were of the opinion that I should have surgery. My husband, at the suggestion of a nun, Mother Francisca Xavier of the Conceptionist nuns of the Divine Heart (now deceased), who said that there was a priest from the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts in Rio who was performing miracles, persuaded me to go see the priest. For my part, I had little interest in seeking that cure, as I would even prefer to leave, since I had lost my three children and saw no further purpose in remaining here, as I would not be missed by my husband in such a serious illness. Despite everything, I agreed to my husband's suggestion and went with him to the convent where Father Eust\u00e1quio was.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Neither my husband nor I had ever met him before. When we arrived at the house, there was a crowd of people, many of them sick and needy, all seeking to see Father Eustace. I couldn't see him, much less speak to him. So we left for the Church of Saint Margaret, I mean, the chapel attached to the religious house, and we stayed there praying. At a certain point, Father Felix, Father Eustace's brother in habit, came to speak with us, telling us that Father Eustace would be coming to our house that very afternoon. Father Felix was a friend of our family and knew about my illness. I suppose that's why he must have persuaded Father Eustace to visit us at home. Indeed, Father Eustace appeared at our house around 7 o'clock in the afternoon. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n We were at home, my husband and I and three maids, but in less than an hour my house was full of other people who wanted to speak with the Father. Father Eust\u00e1quio stayed at home until 9 pm, having supper with us, and then went to his convent. Around 11 pm I received a phone call from Father Gil, Provincial of the Order, asking us to shelter Father Eust\u00e1quio in our house that night, because Cardinal Leme had asked him to remove Father Eust\u00e1quio from the Convent. So it was that Father Eust\u00e1quio returned to our house and stayed overnight. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The following day, at 5:45 a.m., the priest left to say Mass at the Monastery of Saint Benedict, accompanied by my husband. From there he returned to our house and stayed with us that day until 8 p.m.<\/em> when Dr. Lineu de Paula Machado came to fetch her to take her to his farm, S\u00e3o Jos\u00e9. During that second day he spent with us, he had a strict order forbidding anyone from meeting with him. In fact, upon arriving home he had said that if anyone sought him out, I should tell them that they would not receive him because he was forbidden, and that he could only hear confessions. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I then asked him if a very sick person came to my house, and if he wouldn't receive them, to which Father Eustace replied: "If I could heal the whole world and holy obedience forbade me, I wouldn't do it." So it was that, although many people sought him out at our house, he did not attend to them; to each person who arrived I said that Father Eustace could not attend to them; however, I informed Father Eustace of the names of the people who sought him out, but the Father simply said that he would pray for them, but could not attend to them. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Only one person was heard by the priest in confession. Those hours he spent in our house, he dedicated to praying his breviary and writing, always remaining in his room, where he even took his meals, which I brought him. He had stayed overnight, and the next day I observed that the bed was in the same state as I had left it, which led me to suppose that he had not slept in the bed. All this is what occurred in our house with respect to Father Eust\u00e1quio himself. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Regarding the people he attended to the previous day, it should be noted that, as I said before, our house was full within an hour of a<\/em> A large number of people were present. Father Eust\u00e1quio, having visited the room where our daughter died, accompanied by my husband, who must have spoken to him about my state of health, came down from the room and, upon encountering the people who were at home, was met with numerous requests from people seeking to speak to him privately and touch him. These people were restrained by two gentlemen to prevent any disturbance. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Then Father Eustace said to those present: \u201cI will give the blessing of our Mother and Holy Church especially for the sick.\u201d Opening his prayer book, he recited the formula of the blessing in Latin and, taking from his pocket an aspergillum with holy water, began sprinkling it one by one on the people who were kneeling in the room; as I was not kneeling, he ordered me to kneel, and I did, and I burst into tears. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n There were other people in the corridor, and he also sprinkled holy water on those who couldn't kneel. As for me, I must say that after being sprinkled with that blessing, I forgot any pain or discomfort, and to this day I feel nothing more.<\/em>."\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Alice Vidal de Oliveira (mother of Venerable Odetinha) \u2013 10\/29\/1963<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Padre Eust\u00e1quio mantinha uma grande devo\u00e7\u00e3o \u00e0 menina Odetinha, que recentemente foi proclamada Vener\u00e1vel pela Santa S\u00e9, e por isso, por alguns anos ele manteve contato com os pais da garotinha, surgindo a partir da\u00ed uma bela amizade. Foi por causa dessa viv\u00eancia que Alice Vidal de Oliveira, m\u00e3e de Odetinha, prestou um depoimento para o Tribunal Eclesi\u00e1stico da Causa de Beatifica\u00e7\u00e3o e Canoniza\u00e7\u00e3o do Padre Eust\u00e1quio. Este depoimento foi colhido no dia 29 de outubro de 1963. Leia o documento, na \u00edntegra, a seguir. Ele foi recuperado pelos pesquisadores que trabalham na cataloga\u00e7\u00e3o do acervo do futuro Museu Padre […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8094,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-noticias"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n