It was the newspaper picture that changed the world.<\/p>\n
Blessed Miguel Pro refused to be blindfolded as his captors stood him in front of the firing squad on Nov. 23, 1927. Instead, he held a rosary in one hand, a crucifix in the other, held his arms out like Jesus Christ on the cross and shouted \u201c\u00a1Viva Cristo Rey!<\/em>\u201d \u201cLong live Christ the King!\u201d<\/p>\n First, the cameraman shot the photo, then the firing squad shot the priest. Mexican authorities thought photographing a martyrdom would show that it was futile to resist the revolution. Instead, the photo became an icon of defiance and fidelity to Jesus Christ. Everyone knew why he held his arms out; everyone knew what he shouted before he died. I first saw the photo in my Mexican grandparents\u2019 house as a child because every Catholic in Mexico cherished it.<\/p>\n The picture is an icon that tells us what we need to know about Blessed Miguel Pro, just as the black-bonneted classic image of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton also says a thousand words.<\/p>\n Miguel Pro often called himself \u201ca poor miner.\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\n Miguel Agust\u00edn Pro was born in the mining town of Guadalupe in the state of Zacatecas, Mexico, in 1891. He was the third of 11 children, four of whom \u00a0died as infants or young children. The family had two religious Sisters among the seven who survived. Miguel entered the Jesuits in 1911.<\/p>\n Beautiful stories are told about his childhood.<\/p>\n There was the time when a woman who had long admired the boy\u2019s looks gave Miguel fruit that she didn\u2019t know had started to spoil and ferment. It made him very sick, such that he didn\u2019t recognize his parents for a long time, and doctors predicted that he would be permanently brain-damaged.<\/p>\n His mother begged, \u201cMadre mia, give me back my son!\u201d and Mary did. Miguel was restored to health with no apparent long-term effects.<\/p>\n Then, there was a time when little Miguel threw a fit in a store because he wanted a marble horse he saw on the shelf. Since he yelled and cried, his mother gave it to him, but when his father heard what happened, he was furious. He made the boy ask forgiveness of his mother in front of the family and then kept the marble horse on his own desk. Seeing the horse kept the lesson learned that day fresh in Miguel’s mind: \u201cFor this thing I made my mother weep, he said.<\/p>\n But the most telling moment was the time when Miguel said, \u201cMama mia, I would love to die a martyr\u2019s death!\u201d His mother answered: \u201cMay God hear you, child. But that is too great a happiness for me.\u201d<\/p>\n As a young man, Miguel was a practical joker and was known for how hard he played <\/em>y prayed. <\/em>He was still in his early 20s when an anti-Catholic government took over in Mexico, and enacted a new Constitution that would stand for the rest of the 20th century. Its anti-Catholic measures weren\u2019t always enforced, but they were on the books until 1998, including their prohibition of the Church from primary and secondary education, outlawing monastic orders and religious garb, forbidding religious processions and restricting Church property rights.<\/p>\n To ensure his studies as the new Constitution was taking effect, Miguel was sent to study in Belgium with French Jesuits, where he worked with miners before being sent back to Mexico in 1925.<\/p>\n The Mexico that Miguel came back to was very different from the one he left.<\/strong><\/p>\n Plutarco El\u00edas Calles began his presidency in December of 1924, and was determined to fiercely enforce the anti-Catholic provisions of the Constitution. British novelist Graham Greene modeled his book The Power and the Glory <\/em>on the martyrs\u2019 tales from that time, and he called the persecutions \u201cthe fiercest persecution of religion anywhere since the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.\u201d<\/p>\n In the harshest anti-Catholic states officials killed priests or forced them to marry or go into exile. Father Pro served the Church in secret, wearing civilian clothes or laborers\u2019 overalls as a disguise. He wrote of his ministry in letters which became widely circulated and alerted the authorities to his location. .<\/p>\n Father Pro was arrested with his brothers, Humberto and Roberto, ostensibly for being involved in an assassination, though historians have cleared them of involvement.<\/p>\n Calles had the priest executed and ordered the event be photographed to frighten the opposition\u2014making it perhaps the first photographed martyrdom ever. It was also among the last, because the photos had the opposite effect, inspiring and emboldening the Catholic majority in Mexico. Calles looked on as 60,000 pilgrims gathered for the funeral and burial of the priest.<\/p>\n He should have known better. Iconography has long celebrated martyrdom.<\/p>\n St. Elizabeth Ann Seton’s attire reflected her identity.<\/strong><\/p>\n Mother Seton is known for her black bonnet and black gown, and we can meet living history interpreters at the Seton Shrine who dress as her original Sisters did.<\/p>\n Rather than provide a habit for each woman in the early days of the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph\u2019s, Mother Seton simply told prospective Sisters to bring any black clothes they had.\u00a0 These early Sisters were called \u201cblack caps,\u201d an affectionate nickname she embraced. It is true that Elizabeth was a widow, but that\u2019s not the main reason she dressed in black. She meant the funereal color to be a continual momento mori, <\/em>and she would say that she was \u201calways dressed for the grave.\u201d<\/p>\n Mother Seton may have dressed like she was attending a funeral, but, like the playful Father Pro, she didn\u2019t act like she was. After entering religious life Elizabeth told her old friend Julia Scott, \u201cI think you will all come to see me next summer and take a laugh at our black gowns and demure looks which however hide a set of as lively merry hearts as ever met together.\u201d<\/p>\n The Sisters of Charity of New York recently donated a collection of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton\u2019s relics to the Shrine, including the saint\u2019s religious bonnet, rosary, and crucifix.<\/p>\n Blessed Miguel Pro is also remembered for the rosary and crucifix he brought with him to his death, and like Mother Seton\u2019s widow\u2019s garb, his jacket and tie themselves became a symbol of his dedication to his people. He served his flock in disguise because religious garb was denied him.<\/p>\n Jesus Christ is God\u2019s revelation of the invisible Father in the flesh. Religious habits, vestments, and icons, as well as crucifixes and rosaries, are signs of Christ\u2019s continued incarnation in the Church. We can see Christ\u2019s sacrifice in the images and mementos of Blessed Miguel Pro and Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton.<\/p>\n TOM HOOPES<\/strong>,\u00a0autor m\u00e1s reciente de El Rosario de San Juan Pablo II, es escritor residente en el Benedictine College de Kansas, donde imparte clases. Es anfitri\u00f3n de La extraordinaria Stor<\/a>y podcast sobre la vida de Cristo. Su libro Lo que dijo realmente el Papa Francisco<\/a> ya est\u00e1 disponible en Audible<\/a>. Antiguo reportero en la zona de Washington, D.C., fue secretario de prensa del Presidente del Comit\u00e9 de Medios y Arbitrios de la C\u00e1mara de Representantes de los Estados Unidos y pas\u00f3 10 a\u00f1os como editor del peri\u00f3dico National Catholic Register y de la revista Faith & Family. Su trabajo aparece con frecuencia en el Register, Aleteia y Catholic Digest. Vive en Atchison, Kansas, con su esposa, April, y tiene nueve hijos.<\/em><\/p>\n <p<\/p>\n