Abp. Lustosa Declared Venerable

Abp. Antonio de Almeida Lustosa Declared Venerable

(ANS – Vatican City – June 22, 2023) – On Tuesday, June 20, during the ordinary session of the cardinals and bishops who are members of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, a positive opinion was unanimously given on the heroic exercise of virtues, the reputation for holiness, and the signs of the Servant of Antonio de Almeida Lustosa, SDB (1886-1974), archbishop of Fortaleza, Brazil.

At this session, not only was the doubt about the Servant of God’s heroic exercise of virtue submitted to the members for examination, but also the entire course of the cause and the ecclesial importance of the cause itself.

The cardinal prefect, Marcello Semeraro, submitted the conclusions for the approval of the Supreme Pontiff with the request to confirm the opinion expressed by the members of the dicastery in view of the promulgation of the decree of venerability of the Servant of God Antonio de Almeida Lustosa.

On June 22, the Holy Father received Cardinal Semeraro in audience and authorized the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints to promulgate the decree concerning the heroic virtues of the Servant of God Antônio de Almeida Lustosa, SDB, archbishop of Fortaleza.

Antônio de Almeida Lustosa was born in São João del Rei in the State of Minas Gerais, Brazil, on February 11, 1886, anniversary of the first apparition of the Immaculate Conception in Lourdes. That natal circumstance profoundly marked him, inducing a filial devotion to our Lady, so much that when he was a priest, he was described as the poet of the Virgin Mary.

He received a good Christian and human upbringing from his parents. At the age of 16 he entered the Salesian school at Cachoeira do Campo, Minas Gerais, and three years later he was in Lorraine as a novice and assistant to his companions. After his first religious profession, which took place in 1906, he also became a teacher of philosophy, studying theology in the meantime. His perpetual profession took place three years later, and on January 28,1912, he received priestly ordination.

After various assignments within the Salesians, in 1916 he became director and master of novices at the Colegio São Manoel in Lavrinhas. After being director at Bagé Mary Help of Christians secondary school and assistant pastor in the attached parish, on February 11, 1925, he was consecrated bishop of Uberaba, a day he chose to remember the presence of our Lady in his life. In 1928 he was transferred to Corumbá in the State of Mato Grosso, and in 1931 he was promoted to archbishop of Belém do Pará, where he remained for 10 years.

On November 5, 1941, he became archbishop of Fortaleza, capital of the State of Ceará. In addition to a large number of initiatives and activities of a social and charitable nature, he erected more than 30 new parishes, 45 schools for the needy, 14 health centers on the outskirts of Fortaleza, the School of Social Services, the São José and Cura d'Ars hospitals, to recall just some of the most important works attributed to his episcopate.

His pastoral activity can be particularly noted for catechetics, education, pastoral visits, the increase in vocations, the value he saw in Catholic Action, improvement of the living conditions of the poorest, his defense of the rights of workers, renewal of the clergy, the establishment of new religious congregations in Ceará, not to mention his rich and fruitful activity as a poet and writer. He founded two religious congregations, the Institute of Cooperators of the Clergy and the Congregation of the Josefinas.

Eleven years after his resignation from the archdiocese, following which he retired to the Salesian house in Carpina, and forced to be in a wheelchair by a fall that fractured his femur, he died on August 14, 1974, demonstrating, even during illness and suffering, an exemplary attitude of complete and unconditional acceptance of the will of God. His burial became, to all intents and purposes, a truly popular consecration of a life (such was the life of Archbishop Lustosa) entirely devoted to God and the good of his neighbor.

“Archbishop Lustosa," Fr. Pierluigi Cameroni, postulator general of the Causes of Saints of the Salesian Family, commented, “was a great ascetic. He was endowed with an adamantine will that belied the fire that burned within him. He lived poorly: ‘I have nothing,’ he had written in his will. He was a humble man of prayer, dedicated to penance. He knew how to approach everyone, especially the neediest, and was totally dedicated to the cause of the Kingdom of God: ‘I would continue here simply to work for the Our Father: hallowed be your name! Let your Kingdom come; the program of a bishop is always the same: to fulfill his duty!’”