He evaded capture for over a year, ministering to the underground Church in Mexico. Even in death, Blessed Miguel Pro’s courage inspired millions.
We do not have many photos capturing the final moments of our Church’s martyrs. We know the stories of their deaths; we may even have access to eyewitness accounts, but for the most part, that is all we have to aid in our recollections.
This is not so for Blessed Miguel Agustín Pro, the Jesuit priest martyred during the Cristeros war in Mexico in 1927. The anti-Catholic Mexican President Plutarco Calles, who ordered Father Pro’s execution on trumped-up charges and without a trial, specifically ordered there to be a photographer on site as the brave priest faced a firing squad. His intent was to break the spirit of the Catholic revolutionaries and force their fear to overcome their faith. He wanted them to see a weak and frightened man, cowering before the guns, perhaps even weeping and begging for clemency.
Unfortunately for President Calles, he knew far too little about the man whose death he had ordered. Born to a large devout family, Father Pro had been a lively and rambunctious little boy. He frequently played practical jokes on his many siblings and friends, and delighted in entertaining his classmates. When he left for the seminary as a young man, his fellow seminarians recalled that he was the “most playful and most prayerful” of all the students. Despite poor health, which frequently sent him to hospital, and even under the surgeon’s knife, he spent hours praying in the chapel.
Forced to flee Mexico with the onset of the anti-Catholic persecution in 1914, Miguel went first to the U.S. with the rest of his classmates, and from there to Europe, eventually being ordained a priest in 1925. Upon his ordination, he returned to Mexico, hoping that his long absence would help him avoid detection by the government as he ministered in the Church, which had been forced underground by the draconian laws of the new regime.
With indefatigable energy and his lifelong flair for theatrics, Father Pro threw himself into serving the suffering Catholics in his country. He frequently utilized disguises to travel between cities and administer the sacraments, provide material aid and minister to his far-flung flock. In Mexico City, he donned the clothes of a wealthy and fashionable businessman, often raffling off donated items, the proceeds of which he would send to feed and clothe the poor. Once, he even disguised himself as a mechanic so that he could preach to a congregation of cab and bus drivers under the very noses of the Mexican authorities.
As he dashed throughout the country, flouting the unjust laws and risking his life, Father Pro’s humor never failed him. In one letter, he said he was almost worried that the hand of God, so palpably protecting his ministry, would prevent him from dying at all, which he joked would be a great disappointment since he was very excited to get to heaven and play the guitar with his guardian angel.
For more than a year, Father Pro evaded capture. He was occasionally detained, but could never be held for long as no proof against him could be found. But his unflagging efforts on behalf of the Church had not escaped the notice of the ruthless new president, Calles. Finally, in November 1927, a failed assassination attempt against Calles provided the cover needed for the president’s men to arrest Father Pro. Despite the would-be assassin’s confession, which stated that Father Pro was in no way connected to the plot, Calles ordered the priest’s immediate execution without a trial.
On Nov. 23, 1927, as he walked to face the firing squad, followed by Calles’ photographer, Father Pro blessed the soldiers as he passed them. Far from acting the frightened prisoner, Father Pro defiantly declined a blindfold so he could face his killers and publicly forgive them for their role in his death. Holding a crucifix in one hand and a rosary in the other, with his final breath, Father Pro flung his arms wide in imitation of Christ on the Cross, and shouted out: “Viva Cristo Rey!” — “Long Live Christ the King!” When the initial volley failed to kill him, a soldier approached the collapsed priest and fired one last shot at point blank, which killed Father Pro instantly.
The next day, the photos of Father Pro’s execution covered the front page of the nation’s newspapers. Their effect was immediate and directly contrary to Calles’ scheme. Instead of being frightened into submission by the brutal death of their beloved priest, Catholics around the country rallied around the images, drawing strength from their fallen shepherd, who they trusted now interceded for them from heaven. Defying authorities, a crowd of 40,000 strong lined the funeral procession through the streets of Mexico City, bringing Father Pro to his final resting place. Denied a Catholic funeral, his father instead said the prayers over his son’s body, as 20,000 more witnesses joined the crowd.
Father Miguel Pro’s short but charismatic life continued to reverberate through the Catholic underground in Mexico, and garnered international attention. His cause for sainthood was opened in 1952, and Pope St. John Paul II named him a martyr and beatified him in 1988. During the beatification, John Paul II said of Father Pro.
“Neither suffering nor serious illness, nor the exhausting ministerial activity, frequently carried out in difficult and dangerous circumstances, could stifle the radiating and contagious joy which he brought to his life for Christ and which nothing could take away. Indeed, the deepest root of self-sacrificing surrender for the lowly was his passionate love for Jesus Christ and his ardent desire to be conformed to him, even unto death.”
The laughing boy, who teased his sisters and pranked his friends, had become a holy and fearless priest, whose final moments revealed not only the depth of his bravery, but his fervent love for God and his fellow man.
Blessed Miguel Agustín Pro, pray for us!
