Miguel Agustín Pro, Saint of the day for 23 November

Saint of the day for November 23
(13 January 1891 - 23 November 1927)

The story of Blessed Miguel Agustín Pro

"¡Viva Cristo Rey!" - Long live Christ the King! - were the last words spoken by Pro before being executed because he was a Catholic priest and at the service of his flock.

Born into a prosperous and devoted family in Guadalupe de Zacatecas, Mexico, Miguel joined the Jesuits in 1911, but three years later he fled to Granada, Spain, due to religious persecution in Mexico. He was ordained a priest in Belgium in 1925.

Father Pro immediately returned to Mexico, where he served a Church forced to go "underground". He celebrated the Eucharist clandestinely and ministered the other sacraments to small groups of Catholics.

He and his brother Roberto were arrested on a fabricated charge of attempting to assassinate the president of Mexico. Roberto was spared, but Miguel was sentenced to face a firing squad on November 23, 1927. His funeral became a public display of faith. Miguel Pro was beatified in 1988.

Reflection

When P. Miguel Pro was executed in 1927, no one could have predicted that 52 years later the bishop of Rome would visit Mexico, be welcomed by its president and celebrated masses outdoors in front of thousands of people. Pope John Paul II made further trips to Mexico in 1990, 1993, 1999 and 2002. Those who outlawed the Catholic Church in Mexico did not count on the deeply rooted faith of its people and the willingness of many of them, such as Miguel Pro, to die by martyrs.