Gerald Francis Muller - Father Miguel Pro : a modern Mexican martyr

FATHER MIGUEL PRO

GERALD F. MULLER, C.S.C.

A Modern Mexican Martyr

IGNATIUS PRESS SAN FRANCISCO

Nihil Obstat :
John P. Lynch, C.S.C.,
Censor Deputatus

Imprimatur :
+ Leo A. Pursley, D.D.
Bishop of Fort Wayne-South Bend

First Edition With life and laughter: the life of Father Miguel Agustin Pro
Copyright 1969, Dujarie Press

Second Edition copyright 1996, Daughters of St. Paul

New edition reprinted by permission by Pauline Books
and Media, Boston, Massachusetts

Photographs of Padre Pro:
Causa de Canonizacion del Padre Pro, S.J.
Puebla 144, Colonia Roma, CP 06700, Ciudad de Mexico
Metro Isurgentes, Tel: (0155) 55119035 ext 21,
FB: Padre Pro SJ, www.padrepro.com

Photographic research by Ruben Quezada

Cover photograph:
Execution of Father Miguel Pro by firing squad
and
photograph of Father Miguel Pro (insert)
Parroquia de la Sagrada Familia
Mexico City

Cover design by Enrique J. Aguilar

2018 republished by Ignatius Press, San Francisco
All rights reserved
ISBN 978-1-62164-166-7 (PB)
ISBN 978-1-64229-059-2 (EB)
Library of Congress Control Number 2018931264
Printed in the United States of America

The author wishes to thank the following for their generous contribution of time, talent, and charity to make this project possible: Mr. and Mrs. Emilio Rivero del Val; Brother James Weston, C.S.C.; Brother Myron Bachen-heimer, C.S.C.; Raymundo Bonilla; and Gary Werther.

In keeping with the decrees of the Roman pontiffs and in particular those of Pope Urban VIII concerning the beatification of the blesseds and the canonization of the saints, I do not give to facts and expressions, particularly such expressions as saint, sanctity, miracles, etc., any other sense than that authorized by the Church to whose judgment I humbly submit.

One misty, chilly November morning in 1927, a slender, young priest was led before a firing squad in Mexico City and was shot. The man was Miguel Agustin Pro, S.J. Today he is world-famous because of his life of charity and suffering, as well as for practical jokes. Father Pro had committed no crime. As a member of the Society of Jesus, he had worked hard and patiently to bring bread to the poor and the Eucharist to the faithful. Like all priests, he was hated and hunted by the secret police of the capital and by the army throughout the republic of Mexico. For this reason, after he was finally captured, he was killed without a trial. That was many years ago, but he is not dead. He is with Christ the King, for whom he lived and died. If the miracles and favors that are attributed to his intercession are any indication of his present condition, then he must still be very, very busy. Thousands of these have been reported, and the number continues to increase.

His tomb in the Jesuit crypt in Dolores Cemetery attracted a constant stream of visitors who passed through the blue doors of the entrance. Above it was seen his bas-relief portrait etched in concrete. Endless favors are wrought through his intercession. When she was still alive, the martyrs sister Ana Maria often came to visit the tomb. Blessed with a marvelous memory and the tenacity to survive many sufferings, she remembered her late brother most vividly. This writer is deeply indebted to her for many of the incidents that will be described in the pages that follow.

Who was Miguel Agustin Pro? What did he do in life to make him beloved by so many such long years after his death? In all but a few respects, Miguel Agustin was quite an ordinary person. Too many biographers have stressed his love of fun, his humor, his capacity for practical jokes. Yet his sister Ana Maria, who was younger than he and learned much about his youth from her mother, insisted that Miguel Agustin was a very serious person. The humor he displayed and the jokes he liked to play were purely spontaneous and only occasional. It is in his letters that his serious attitude and the quiet depths of his personality can be seen most vividly. It is interesting to note that not one photograph taken of him from his childhood until the day he fell before the firing squad can be found that shows him smiling.

Miguel Agustin Pro was born on January 13, 1891, in the village of Guadalupe, four miles southeast of Zacatecas in central Mexico. The third child of Miguel and Josfa Pro, he was taken three days after birth to the Franciscan monastery for baptism. Father Luis de las Piedras, a Franciscan priest who had recently returned from a pilgrimage to the holy places of Palestine, used water from the Jordan River for the ceremony that made little Miguel Agustin a member of the people of God. The same water that John the Baptist had once used for the baptism of Christ was used to make Miguel Agustin a member of the Mystical Body of Christ. It was a good beginning, and a harbinger of greater similarities between Leader and disciple that would culminate in a bloody, sacrificial death and the glory that follows such an offering.

The boys father made a comfortable living for his wife and little daughters, Maria Concepcin and Maria de la Luz, as a mining engineer in one of the richest silver mining areas of the country around Zacatecas. A tall, benevolent, dignified man, Seor Miguel Pro was a valuable worker for the government. Besides his work for the governments Agency of Mining, he owned two of his own mines. At times, private mining companies called on him for help. He had the rare skill of finding veins of mineral after they had been lost. Workers sometimes found themselves digging out worthless dirt instead of the soil glinting with gold or silver ore that could be refined into shining, precious metals. Because of his gift for finding lost mineral veins, Seor Pro also worked garnet mines and even owned one. He was at home in the shafts that went straight down in search of material as well as those which burrowed down into the earth, leveled off, and then crawled back up to the surface. Knowledge of techniques to use in both types of mines was invaluable for him.

Miguel Agustins mother, Josfa Juarez de Pro, was a small woman with profound understanding of her children and people. She had a great love for them, which led her to give of herself for their comfort and welfare. From his earliest years, Miguel Agustin had a deep attachment to her, and one of her tears did more to correct his faults or punish an escapade of naughtiness than a scolding or a slap from his father.

Seora Pro was a gifted cook of fine pastries and special holiday dishes. She had the help of servants in the kitchen and house, which left her free to look after her growing family, her large comfortable home, and endless charities for the poor. There were plenty of poor people in the mines, and Seora Pro went to their families with food, medicine, and kind words. She did this long before federal agencies came to fill the yawning void left by too many who did not know or care about the needs of the poor.

From infancy, Miguel Agustin grew up a very happy child, but he proved that he could be very serious, too. He had boundless energy and also traits of a bad character. At times he was impossible in his demands, and then his mother had to use all her wisdom, patience, and tact to make him realize his mistakes, repent, and begin correcting them. He always got along well with younger children, and his own home had plenty of playmates. Miguel Agustin Pro had no fewer than four brothers and six sisters. Besides Concepcin, who was called Concha by her family, and Maria de la Luz, there were Josfina, who died while still young; Ana Maria; Edmundo; the twins, Amelia and Amalia, who lived only a few days after birth; Alfredo, who died as a child; Humberto; and Roberto. With so many brothers and sisters, Miguel Agustin was never without companionship, and most of his activities were enjoyed at home surrounded by his loved ones. Miguel Agustin was only a year old when his family moved to Mexico City. Here he learned to crawl, once terrifying his mother by inching his way along a ledge high above the street. Rescued from this adventure, he learned to hold himself erect and to take his first steps. Before long, he was saying his first halting words. After that he began experimenting with the songlike Spanish phrases he would learn to use with relish for the rest of his life.