Vítor Coelho

Vítor Coelho de Almeida (Sacramento, Minas Gerais, 22 September 1899 – Aparecida, 21 July 1987), better known as Padre Vítor Coelho, was a Brazilian Redemptorist priest and catechist. He was most famous for his preaching methods and his devotion to the patron saint of Brazil, Our Lady of Aparecida.

His beatification process has been opened in 1998.

Biography Vítor Coelho de Almeida was born in Sacramento, Minas Gerais, son of Leão Coelho de Almeida, a teacher, and Maria Sebastiana Alves Moreira. After losing his mother when at seven years old, he began to live with his grandmother of his mother's side, and later with his uncle Vítor, a catholic canon, at Rio de Janeiro, while his father worked as an elementary school teacher.

During the military dictatorship in Brazil, the radio network was censored by the government for 24 hours for supposed "subversive content". The content in question was a reading of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by Coelho, who was the network's director at the time. his remains were moved in July 2023 to the interior of the chapel dedicated to Saint Joseph at the Basilica of Our Lady of Aparecida, in occasion of the 12th romaria realized in the priests' homenage.

Beatification

In 1998, eleven years after his death, his beatification process began.

In 2022, Pope Francis declared Father Vítor venerable.