Miguel de la Mora (+1929)

Biography

He was helping his father with the work in the fields when he felt uneasy about entering the seminary. He enrolled in the seminary of Colima and was ordained a priest in 1906. His priestly ministry, in churches and localities of the diocese of Colima, was very intense, with great pastoral fruits. He was a priest dedicated to his faithful, being methodical, prudent and pious. When the persecution of Catholics began in the country, the bishop of Colima suspended services in the parishes of the diocese. Although his relatives insisted that he go with them, he responded: “No, how is Colima going to be left without priests?” His ordeal immediately began, as an army general lived in front of his house and constantly threatened him, telling him that if he did not open worship in the cathedral to form a church independent of the Catholic one, he would arrest him. Father Miguel refused, but fearing that he would be arrested, he decided to hide with his family. When he was on his way with a brother who came for him, a woman asked him if he was a “little father” because she needed him to marry her daughter. He said yes, and some who heard betrayed him. He was immediately arrested and shot in an animal pen, while he was praying the rosary. John Paul II beatified him on November 22, 1992 and canonized him on May 21, 2000.