Justino Orona and Atilano Cruz (+1928)

Biography

Justino felt in his soul the vocation to the priesthood and with many difficulties due to lack of financial means, he studied at the seminary in Guadalajara. After being ordained a priest, he was a parish priest in several towns in the state of Jalisco where he set an example by exercising his ministry in a very difficult environment due to the prevailing anticlericalism, especially from the government. In his parish of Cuquío he founded a religious congregation to care for orphaned girls. When the persecution became more tense, people advised him to flee but he responded: “I, among my own, am alive or dead.” Atilano Cruz Alvarado, the youngest priest of the 22 Mexican martyrs, was born into a family of indigenous descent and received a good Christian education. With many difficulties, he entered the Auxiliary Seminary of Teocaltiche and then that of Guadalajara. He obtained excellent grades and several awards. When he was ordained a priest, he was assigned as vicar in Cuquío, Jalisco, where he carried out his ministry with great zeal and enthusiasm. On June 28, 1928, the two priests were sleeping in the ranch of a family of their parishioners, and in the early morning they were woken up with loud knocks on the door by a platoon of soldiers. Father Justino opened the door shouting “Long live Christ the King!”, and at that moment he was riddled with bullets. Immediately afterward, Father Atilano died in the same way. Their bodies were dumped in the main square, from where they were piously collected by their parishioners and buried in the town pantheon. Now they are venerated in the parish temple. Pope John Paul II canonized them on May 21, 2000.