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Guido Vidal França Schäffer, often called “The Surfer Angel,” was born in the State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on May 22, 1974. His father was a physician, and his mother was a member of a Catholic Charismatic community.
Guido grew up in the Copacabana neighborhood of the city of Rio de Janeiro renowned for its world-famous beaches. In that environment, Guido learned to love the beach and surfing.
As a young man, he studied medicine and obtained his Doctor of Medicine degree, like his father. Guido became a general practitioner so that he could treat the whole patient, instead of a specialist who focused only on one part of the body. Even during his medical education days, Guido showed great sensitivity and compassion for those who needed special love and care. He showed that in his devotion to his care for persons with AIDS.
Guido was also noted for his love of his Catholic faith. He especially loved the Bible, prayer, and the sacraments. As a result of this love, he started various prayer groups and was known to share this faith with others.
Most likely influenced by his mother’s love of the Holy Spirit, Guido was very sensitive to clues of God’s speaking to him from those around him. One day, for example, he was attending a retreat. The speaker, a priest, talked about a passage from the Book of Tobit in the Old Testament. The passage said, “Never turn your face from the poor, and God will never turn his from you” (Tobit 4: 7). Guido immediately reflected on all the times he had ignored the poor. So, he asked God for forgiveness and prayed, “Jesus, help me take care of the poor.”
One week after saying this prayer, Guido encountered some sisters of the Missionaries of Charity, an order founded by St. Teresa of Calcutta. He interpreted this meeting as God’s answer to his prayers, so he volunteered his medical services to the sisters and started serving the homeless in the streets.
Then one day, as he was reading a book about St. Francis of Assisi, Guido decided God wanted him to become a priest. He began his philosophy studies as an external student, doing volunteer medical work and lay preaching in addition to taking classes. In 2008, he entered St. Joseph Seminary in Rio de Janeiro to finish his priesthood studies.
On May 1, 2009, Guido was on vacation from the seminary, so he went to the beach with one of his best friends, Eduardo Martins, who was going to get married the next day. Guido and Eduardo were going to join their male friends that evening for a bachelor’s party in honor of Eduardo’s impending wedding.
The waves were high that morning, but Guido was used to high waves, and he loved surfing them. Before entering the water, he and Eduardo prayed together. Unfortunately, Guido hit one of the waves incorrectly, and the wave pulled him underneath the water. Eduardo pulled Guido to shore and tried to revive him, but without success.
Immediately, people began called Guido, “The Surfer Angel.” At his funeral Mass, one-thousand-seven-hundred people were present. Celebrating the Mass were three bishops and seventy priests. The archbishop of Rio de Janeiro, in the funeral Mass, said, “This church shows me how this young man was a good shepherd, and as I know his desire to become a priest, I will put the stole in his hands.” With those words, the archbishop placed a stole in Guido’s hands before burial.
As Guido’s body was taken to the church of Our Lady of Peace in Ipanema, his surfing buddies followed the procession in a fire truck. Many of them were holding their surfboards in the air. They recalled how Guido liked to joke that Jesus was the first surfer, because he was the first one to walk on water.
Immediately, people began making pilgrimages to his gravesite, and many reported that they had been cured of illnesses.
Today, Guido Schäffer is known Servant of God, the first step on the journey to sainthood.
