BRAZIL, 2004, special cancel for the 30th anniversary of the institute named for Fr. Reus

John Baptist Reus was born to John and Ana Margarida Reus, on 10 July 1868 in Pottenstein, Bavaria, the eighth child of a 11 children. His parents, gave him excellent religious education. After completing a year of required military service, he resigned his commission 1890 and entered the seminary of Bamberg, with an eye to eventually joining the Jesuits. He was ordained priest in 1893 entered the Order shortly thereafter.

In 1900 he was sent to Brazil, landing at the port of Rio Grande in Rio Grande do Sul, where he worked for the next eleven years. In 1912, he came to teach at the Colégio Anchieta in Porto Alegre, and the next year was appointed parish priest of St. Leopold, the center of German colonization, where would spend the rest of his life. From 1914 until his death, he was a spiritual director and professor of liturgy at the major seminary in São Leopoldo and Christ the King College, as well as chaplain of the College of St. Joseph of the Franciscan Sisters of São Leopoldo. He founded the Catholic Workers League to help the poor, and was ardent apostle of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Blessed Sacrament.

His autobiography and diary, written in obedience to superiors, record extraordinary mystical graces, visions and ecstasies. He died on July, 21, 1947 and was buried in the Jesuit cemetery in São Leopoldo. People soon began to tell stories about the aid received after praying for his intercession; at least 200,000 acknowledgments have been published. His tomb has become the object of constant pilgrimages. His cause for beatification continues in Rome. More

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