Sts. Christopher Magallanes and Companions

Sts. Christopher Magallanes and his Companions were twenty-five martyrs of Mexico, most of them diocesan priests, who gave their lives for the faith during the fierce anti-Catholic persecution of the 1910s, 1920s, and 1930s, when the practice of religion was outlawed and clergy were hunted down. Amid this bloody conflict, remembered as the Cristero era, they continued to minister to their people in secret, at the risk and finally at the cost of their lives.

Christopher Magallanes was a parish priest who, when the seminaries were closed, opened a clandestine seminary to train future priests for his people; falsely accused of supporting an armed uprising, he was seized and, after giving absolution and encouragement to his fellow prisoners, was shot without trial in 1927, forgiving his executioners and offering his life for the peace of Mexico. His companions, priests and a few laymen, died in similar circumstances, insisting to the end that they were dying innocent, for Christ and their faith. They were canonized by Pope St. John Paul II in 2000, and their memory is kept on 21 May.