Cristero's Corner

Blessed Miguel Agustín Pro, S.J.A Jesuit priest who said Mass in secret. He was executed without trial in Mexico City on November 23, 1927. Before the firing squad he knelt to pray. His last words are reported as “¡Viva Cristo Rey!” St. John Paul II beatified him on September 25, 1988.

Saint José Luis Sánchez del RíoA boy Cristero from Sahuayo, Michoacán. Captured in February 1928, he refused to renounce his faith and was killed on February 10, 1928, at fourteen. Pope Francis canonized him on October 16, 2016.

Blessed Anacleto González FloresA lawyer, husband and father from Jalisco who taught the catechism. He was arrested, tortured and shot in Guadalajara on April 1, 1927. He was beatified in Guadalajara on November 20, 2005.

The CristerosFarmers and ranchers of west-central Mexico, mostly in Jalisco, Michoacán, Guanajuato and Zacatecas, took up arms from 1926 until the agreements of June 1929.

Victoriano Ramírez, “El Catorce”A Cristero general of Los Altos de Jalisco, still sung in corridos. He died at Tepatitlán on March 17, 1929, killed by his own side. Accounts of how he died differ, and the tale of the fourteen soldiers behind his nickname is legend.

Abp. Leopoldo Ruiz y Flores · Bp. Pascual Díaz y BarretoOn June 21, 1929 these two prelates reached the “arreglos” with President Emilio Portes Gil. Public worship returned, but the anticlerical laws stayed on the books, and many Cristeros felt left out of the deal.