The delivery of a copy of the Positio super martyrio to the Superior General of the Missionary Augustinian Recollects represents a new step forward in the cause for beatification of the Brazilian nun, murdered in the Amazon while defending indigenous peoples and working for peace.
The path to the altars of the Servant of God Sister Cleusa Carolina Rody Coelho, MAR, has taken a new step. The Prior General of the Order of Augustinian Recollects, Friar Miguel Ángel Hernández, accompanied by the Postulator General for the causes of saints, Friar Gabriel Robles, delivered a copy of the Positio super martyrio to the Superior General of the Missionary Augustinian Recollects, Sister Olga Lucía Pérez Rodríguez, during a fraternal visit to the congregation’s General House in Leganés (Madrid).
The gesture holds deep symbolic value for the entire Augustinian Recollect Family. The Positio is the official document that contains the historical, theological, documentary, and legal study of the life and death of Sister Cleusa and will serve as the basis for the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints to study whether she can be officially recognized as a martyr of the Church.
A life devoted to the Gospel
Born in Brazil in 1933, Sister Cleusa was noted for her brilliant academic background, her deep spirituality, and a missionary vocation that led her to dedicate her life to education, evangelization, and service to the poorest. She was fluent in five languages and always understood that knowledge only made sense when put at the service of others.
Her mission reached its fullest expression in the Prelature of Lábrea, in the Brazilian Amazon. There, she accompanied the sick, impoverished families, and indigenous communities, especially the Apurinã people, whose dignity and rights she courageously defended against those who sought to expel them from their lands.
A testimony carried to the ultimate consequences
On April 28, 1985, after mediating to prevent a confrontation that could have led to a bloodbath among the indigenous people, Sister Cleusa was murdered while returning along the Paciá River.
Before being captured by her attacker, she asked her companion to jump into the water to save his life: “My son, jump into the water, for you have children to raise!” Those were the last known words of the nun. Five days later, her body was found, showing clear signs of a violent death.
For those who knew her, her death was the culmination of a life lived with evangelical radicalism. The indigenous peoples remembered her simply as “our mother”, while her sisters in the congregation and numerous missionaries kept alive the testimony of a woman who never stopped believing that, as she herself often repeated, “it is worth taking the risk.”
The Church will now study the cause
The cause for canonization began in 1991 and, after years of historical and documentary research, on March 2, 2026, the Positio super martyrio, a volume of 930 pages, was officially presented to the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints.
The next step will be the study of the case by a commission of theologians. If the Church concludes that Sister Cleusa gave her life out of hatred for the faith (in odium fidei), she may be beatified without the need for prior recognition of a miracle.
With the delivery of this copy of the Positio to the Superior General of the Missionary Augustinian Recollects, the Augustinian Recollect Family looks forward with hope to a new stage on the path toward the ecclesial recognition of a woman who made the Gospel a life devoted to the end.
