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12/31/2017 0 Comments Viva Cristo Rey! Mexican Cristeros killed for their Catholic Faith. During the anti-Catholic persecution of the Church in the 1920s and '30s, countless faithful and were martyred, and 4,000 priests were martyred in or exiled from Mexico. VIVA CRISTO REY!
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12/30/2017 0 Comments Viva Cristo Rey!  Mexican Cristero killed for his Catholic Faith.
During the anti-Catholic persecution of the Church in the 1920s and '30s, countless faithful and were martyred, and 4,000 priests were martyred in or exiled from Mexico. VIVA CRISTO REY! 12/29/2017 0 Comments Viva Cristo Rey!  During the Cristero War, on July 25, 1931, at 6: 10 p.m., soldiers entered the Parish of the Assumption Catholic Church, in Veracruz, and opened fire on the priests. Father Ángel Darío Acosta Zurita had just come out of the baptistry when he was hit by the bullets. Having only the time to cry out "Jesus!" he was martyred exactly three months after his priestly ordination. He was 22. VIVA CRISTO REY! 12/27/2017 0 Comments Viva Cristo Rey! Luis Magaña Servin was active in the Catholic Association of Mexican Youth (ACJM) and the nocturnal adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, even during the persecution of Catholics led by the Mexican government of Plutarco Elías Calles. Arrested for his Catholic activities during the Cristero War, moments before his execution, at 3 in the afternoon of February 9, 1928, he shouted: "Long live Christ the King and Santa Maria de Guadalupe!" VIVA CRISTO REY!!  12/26/2017 0 Comments Viva Cristo Rey!  Salvador Huerta Gutiérrez was arrested on April 2, 1927, after he went to the cemetery to pay respects to the the remains of Anacleto González, a well-known Catholic leader martyred during the period of Catholic persecution in Mexico.
When he returned to his mechanical workshop, police officers were waiting for him. They arrested him and then tortured him by hanging him by his thumbs. His torturers wanted to know the whereabouts of two priests: Eduardo and José Refugio. Lifeless, they threw him in a dungeon. In the early hours of April 3, he was led, along with his brother Ezequiel, to the Mezquitan pantheon. Before the firing squad, he asked for a lighted candle, illuminated his bare chest and said: "Long live Christ the King and the Virgin of Guadalupe. Shoot! I die for God, who I love very much!" --- From Vatican.va VIVA CRISTO REY! 12/25/2017 0 Comments Viva Cristo Rey!  José Luciano Ezequiel Huerta Gutiérrez, married with 10 children, was arrested on the morning of April 2, 1927, after paying his respects to the lifeless body of Anacleto González Flores.
Questioned about the whereabouts of his two priest brothers, about his two oldest sons and the Cristeros, Ezequiel refused to talk, so he was tortured until he was unconscious. When he regained consciousness, he expressed his pain by singing with all his might: "My Christ lives, my King lives," for which he received more beatings until he could not utter a single sound. The following morning, he was led at dawn with his brother Salvador Huerta Gutiérrez to the cemetery of Mezquitán, where they were both killed. Ezequiel's wife heard the shots from her home and although she did not know that her husband was one of the victims, she gathered their children around her and said: "My children, let us recite the Rosary for these poor people who have just been shot." --- From Vatican.va VIVA CRISTO REY! 12/24/2017 0 Comments Viva Cristo Rey!
During the persecution of the Catholic Church during the Cristero War, the Vargas González family gave refuge to a number of priests and seminarians.
On the morning of 1 April 1927 the secret police completely surrounded the family home and shouted: "Open the door in the name of the law!" and then stormed in and arrested everyone, including two brothers, Jorge and Ramón Vargas González. The two brothers knew they were going to be executed. But before being killed they were interrogated and tortured, remaining silent throughout. Taken out to be shot, the two brothers, along with Luis Padilla Gómez and Anacleto González Flores, recited the Act of Contrition. Before the bullets were fired, Ramón made the sign of the cross and Jorge held a crucifix against his chest. --- From Vatican.va VIVA CRISTO REY! 12/22/2017 0 Comments Viva Cristo Rey!  Mexican Catholic priest Pedro de Jesus Maldonado Lucero was arrested, on February 10, 1937 (Ash Wednesday), by government henchmen who had discovered his hiding place on a ranch.
They dragged him barefoot to the town hall, where they beat him and shot him, fracturing his skull and causing his left eye to explode. The Cristero priest had brought with him a pyx containing the Eucharist, and his attackers took the Hosts, put them in his mouth and ordered him to eat them, not realizing they were fulfilling the priest's last wish, for as a seminarian, he once said to the rector, "I have thought of always having my heart in heaven and in the Tabernacle." --- From Wikipedia VIVA CRISTO REY! 12/21/2017 0 Comments Viva Cristo Rey! Federal forces entered to snuff out a small group of Cristeros, went to a house and found Father Jesús Mendez Montoya, who tried to save a ciborium with consecrated hosts. Discovered by the soldiers, he asked them for a moment to consume the Blessed Sacrament, and it was granted.
Then, with gentleness, he went to one of his sisters and said: "It is God's will. Let his will be done." The soldiers took him a few meters outside the atrium of the church and sacrificed him with three shots, on February 5, 1928. --- From Vatican.va VIVA CRISTO REY! 12/20/2017 0 Comments Viva Cristo Rey! Mexican Cristero lynched, killed for his Catholic Faith.
During the anti-Catholic persecution of the Church in the 1920s and 30s, countless faithful were martyred and 4,000 priests were martyred in or exiled from Mexico offering the outlawed holy sacrifice of the Mass. VIVA CRISTO REY! 12/18/2017 1 Comment Viva Cristo Rey! Catholic priest, Padre Inocencio Flores Martir Cristero, cura of Zapotlan, martyr for the Church in Mexico during the Cristero War, when the Catholic religion and its practice was outlawed by the Mexican government. VIVA CRISTO REY! 12/17/2017 0 Comments Viva Cristo Rey! Humberto Pro Juarez, along with three other Mexican Cristeros, were executed, on November 23, 1927, for their adherance to their Catholic faith, outlawed by the Mexican government. Notice the bodies of Luis Segura Vilchis to his right, and Humberto's brother Padre Miguel Augustin Pro Juarez, a Catholic priest, to his left, whose last words were, Viva Cristo Rey! Last photo is funeral procession of brothers. The penultimate photo shows the four bodies of (left to right) Humberto Pro Juarez, Luis Segura Vilchis, Juan Tirado Arias, and Padre Miguel Augustin Pro Juarez. The last photo is of the funeral for the Pro Juarez brothers, Humberto and Miguel. VIVA CRISTO REY!      12/16/2017 0 Comments Viva Cristo Rey! Luis Segura Vilchis, a prominent member of the Catholic Association of Mexican Youth, facing a Mexican firing squad, with the body of Father Miguel Agustin Pro Juarez, next to him. VIVA CRISTO REY!      12/15/2017 0 Comments Viva Cristo Rey!   Mexican priest, Padre José Ramón Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez, also known as Blessed Miguel Pro (born 1891) was executed, on November 23, 1927, for being Catholic. As he stood before his executioners, with a rosary in one hand and a crucifix in the other, Pro raised his arms in imitation of Christ and shouted the defiant cry of the Mexican Cristeros, Viva Cristo Rey! (Long live Christ the King!) After the firing squad failed to kill him, a soldier walked up to the priest and shot him at point-blank range. VIVA CRISTO REY!         12/14/2017 0 Comments Viva Cristo Rey! Anacleto González Flores was captured on the morning of April 1, 1927 in the home of the Vargas González family, along with the two Vargas brothers. He was taken to the Colorado jail, where his torture included being hung by his thumbs until his fingers were dislocated and having the bottom of his feet slashed. He refused, however, to supply his captors with any information.
He was condemned to death and was shot together with the Vargas González brothers and Luis Padilla Gómez on that same day, 1 April 1927. Born on 13 July 1888 in Tepatitlán, Jalisco, Mexico, he had been greatly involved in social and religious activities and was an enthusiastic member of the Catholic Association of Young Mexicans (ACJM). He taught classes in catechism, was dedicated to works of charity and wrote articles and books with a Christian spirit. By 1926, the situation in Mexico had worsened and Anacleto, who up until this time had advocated passive, non-violent resistance, joined the cause of the National League for the Defence of Religious Freedom upon learning of the murder of four members of the ACJM. In January 1927 guerrilla warfare spread throughout Jalisco and from his many hiding places Anacleto wrote and sent bulletins and studied major strategies until his arrest and execution in April. --- From Vatican.va VIVA CRISTO REY! 12/14/2017 0 Comments Viva Cristo Rey!    Juan Tirado Arias was the fourth Catholic Cristero executed, among the bodies of Luis Segura Vilchis and the Pro Juarez brothers, Humberto and Jesuit Padre Miguel, ordered under the Mexican presidency of Plutarco Elías Calles, on November 23, 1927, during La Cristiada, the Cristero War, during the anti-Catholic persecution of the Church in the 1920s and '30s.
VIVA CRISTO REY! 12/12/2017 0 Comments Viva Cristo Rey! Humberto Pro Juarez, along with three other Mexican Cristeros, were executed, on November 23, 1927.
Notice the bodies of Luis Segura Vilchis to his right, and Humberto's brother Padre Miguel Augustin Pro Juarez to his left, whose last words were, Viva Cristo Rey! 12/11/2017 0 Comments Viva Cristo Rey! On Friday, February 24, 1928, Padre Toribio Romo González (born 1900) spent his day organizing the parish registry. Two days before, he had sent his brother away for safety. Padre Toribio finished his work at 4 a.m., on February 25, and decided to sleep a little.
An hour later, the government troops arrived and broke into the bedroom where Padre Toribio was sleeping. One soldier shouted: "Here is the priest! kill him!" "Here I am, but do not kill me," he said. One soldier fired, and Padre Toribio rose from his bed and took a few steps until a second bullet caused him to fall into the arms of his sister, who cried in a loud voice: "Courage, Padre Toribio...merciful Christ, receive him! Long live Christ the King!" --- From Wikipedia Viva Cristo Rey! 12/10/2017 0 Comments Viva Cristo Rey! Saint Padre José María Robles Hurtado (born 1888) was arrested on June 25, 1927, for saying a prayer in the home of the Agraz family, who were hiding him at the time. He was found guilty and sentenced to be hanged from an oak tree.
The next day, before dawn, he was led to the tree. In a final display of compassion for his executioners, he offered them a small votive candle that he had in his pocket to help light the path to the tree where he was to be hanged. Upon arriving there, he forgave the men for what they were about to do. He took the noose into his own hands, saying "Don't dirty your hands" to the man who brought it, kissed it, and placed it around his own neck. The Constitution of 1917, which prohibited any public processions or other devotional practices, was the law. Years before his arrest and execution, Padre Hurtado proposed the creation of a huge cross to be placed in the geographic center of Mexico, which he said would be symbolic of how Mexico recognized Christ as its king, and organized a public ceremony for the laying of the cornerstone of the cross, in direct violation of the existing constitution. In anticipation of the laying of the cornerstone, signs were placed throughout Mexico proclaiming Christ the "King of Mexico", and declaring the nation’s devotion to the Sacred Heart. In 1923, an estimated 40,000 Roman Catholics made their way to the site of the cross to take part in the groundbreaking ceremonies at the hill, which was at the time called "La Loma" and is today called the mountain of Christ the King. --- From Wikipedia Viva Cristo Rey! was the cry of the Cristados. 12/9/2017 0 Comments Viva Cristo Rey! Father Mateo Correa Magallanes, the Martyr of Confessional Secrecy, in Mexico
Viva Cristo Rey! In 1927, during the Mexican government’s continuing persecution of the Church, Father Mateo Correa Magallanes was arrested by soldiers as he was bringing Viaticum to an invalid woman. On 5 February 1927, Father Correa was asked by General Eulogio Ortiz, to hear the confessions of some imprisoned members of the Cristeros, an uprising of Catholic men who decided to fight back against the persecution of the Church led by Mexico's president Plutarco Elias Calles. Father Correa agreed to administer the Sacrament of Confession to these prisoners, but afterward General Ortiz demanded to know what the condemned prisoners had confessed. Father Correa refused. General Ortiz then pointed a gun at Father Correa's head and threatened him with immediate death. Father Correa continued to refuse, and at dawn on February 6, 1927, he was taken to the cemetery on the outskirts of Durango and shot through the head. -- From Wikipedia 12/9/2017 0 Comments Viva Cristo Rey! Saint Padre David Uribe Velasco (born 1889) was executed -- shot in the back of the head -- on April 12, 1927, for offering the Sacraments, which had been outlawed in Mexico during the Catholic persecution against priests and the faithful.
Viva Cristo Rey! 12/7/2017 0 Comments Viva Cristo Rey! Mexican Cristeros lynched, killed for their Catholic Faith.
During the anti-Catholic persecution of the Church in the 1920s and 30s, countless faithful were martyred, and 4,000 priests were martyred in or exiled from Mexico for offering the outlawed holy sacrifice of the Mass. Viva Cristo Rey! 12/5/2017 0 Comments Viva Cristo Rey! VIVA CRISTO REY! One of the 4,000 priests, who were martyred in or exiled from Mexico during the anti-Catholic persecution of the Church in the 1920s and 30s, was the priest Padre Francesco Vera. He was shot by a firing squad, just as Blessed Padre Pro was, immediately after offering the outlawed holy sacrifice of the Mass. --- From "He Died in His Armor, Padre Francesco Vera" 12/4/2017 0 Comments Viva Cristo Rey! The killing of Jose Luis Sanchez del Rio, 14-year-old Mexican Cristero martyr
At 11 p.m., the hour of martyrdom arrived. Believing that torture would change the mind of the boy, the government soldiers flayed the skin from the soles of his feet, thinking that José would weaken and cry out for mercy. But they were wrong. As the sharp pain seared through his body, José thought of Christ on the Cross and offered him everything, all the while shouting ‘Viva Cristo Rey!’ Then the soldiers, hurling insults at him and giving him blows forced him to walk barefoot with his injured feet through the cobblestone streets toward the cemetery. Along the way, some of the soldiers cut his body with a machete until he was bleeding from several wounds. At times they stopped him and said, “If you shout, ‘Death to Christ the King’ we will spare your life.” Jose would only shout, “I will never give in. Viva Cristo Rey! Viva la Virgen de Guadalupe!” When they reached the cemetery, the soldiers stood the boy before a newly dug hole, his grave. The executioners riddled his battered body with bayonet stabs. At each stab, the boy cried out louder, “Viva Cristo Rey!” Then the commander of the guard addressed the youth, cruelly asking if he wanted to send a message to his father. To this José replied without yielding, “That we will see each other in Heaven. Viva Cristo Rey! ¡Viva Santa María de Guadalupe!” These were his last words. The captain drew his pistol and shot him in the head. José fell into the pit. It was half past eleven on Friday, February 10, 1928. He was 14-years-old. --- From "José Sánchez del Rio, Martyr for Christ the King" |
AuthorTHERESA MARIE MOREAU is an award-winning reporter who covers Catholicism and Communism. Archives
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