View source for Miguel Pro

{{short description|Mexican Jesuit Priest, Martyr and Blessed}}
{{family name hatnote|Pro|Juárez|lang=Spanish}}
{{Infobox saint
|honorific_prefix=[[Beatification|Blessed]]
|name= Miguel Pro
|honorific_suffix=[[Society of Jesus|SJ]]
|image=Miguel Agustin Pro (1891-1927).jpg
|imagesize=
|caption= 
|titles=[[Martyr]]
|birth_date={{Birth date|1891|1|13|mf=y}}
|birth_place=[[Guadalupe, Zacatecas|Guadalupe]], [[Zacatecas]], Mexico
|death_date={{death date and age|1927|11|23|1891|1|13|mf=y}}
|death_place=[[Mexico City]], Mexico
|feast_day=23 November
|beatified_date=25 September, 1988
|beatified_place=[[Saint Peter's Square]], [[Rome]]
|beatified_by=[[Pope John Paul II]]
|canonized_date=
|canonized_place=
|canonized_by=
|major_shrine=
|attributes=
|patronage= 
|issues=
|suppressed_date=
|venerated_in=[[Roman Catholic Church]]<br> [[Lutheran Church]]<ref>[http://calendar.zoznam.sk/church_nameday-enlut.php 2010 Calendar] Calendar.SK</ref>
}}
{{Modern persecutions of the Catholic Church}}
'''José Ramón Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez''', also known as '''Blessed Miguel Pro''', [[Society of Jesus|SJ]] (January 13, 1891 – November 23, 1927) was a [[Mexico|Mexican]] [[Jesuit]] priest executed under the presidency of [[Plutarco Elías Calles]] on the false charges of bombing and attempted assassination of former Mexican President [[Álvaro Obregón]].<ref name="M.Pro">{{cite book |last1=López-Menéndez |first1=Marisol |title=Miguel Pro: Martyrdom, Politics, and Society in Twentieth-Century Mexico |date=2016 |publisher=Lexington Books |isbn=978-1-4985-0426-3 }}{{pn|date=January 2024}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Dragon |first=Antonio |url=http://archive.org/details/miguelaugustinpr00drag |title=Miguel Augustin Pro of the Society of Jesus: martyr of Christ the King, executed in Mexico, November 23, 1972 |last2=Drummond |first2=Lawrence |date=1930 |publisher=Montreal: The Messenger press |others=Boston College}}</ref><ref>{{cite thesis |id={{ProQuest|924485046}} |last1=Lopez-Menendez |first1=Marisol |date=2012 |title=The Holy Jester: Martyrdom, Social Cohesion and Meaning in Mexico The story of Miguel Agustin Pro SJ, 1927–1988 }}{{pn|date=January 2024}}</ref>

Pro's arrest, without a trial or evidential support, gained prominence during the [[Cristero War]]. Known for his religious piety and innocence, he was [[beatification|beatified]] in Rome on September 25, 1988, by [[Pope John Paul II]] as a Catholic [[martyr]], killed ''in odium fidei'' ("in hatred of the faith").<ref>{{cite news |last1=Suro |first1=Roberto |title=An Assailed Missionary To America Is Beatified |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/09/26/us/an-assailed-missionary-to-america-is-beatified.html |work=The New York Times |date=26 September 1988 }}</ref>

==Historical background==
At the time of Pro's death, Mexico was ruled by fiercely [[anti-clerical]] and [[anti-Catholic]] President [[Plutarco Elías Calles]] who had begun what writer [[Graham Greene]] called the "fiercest persecution of religion anywhere since the reign of Elizabeth."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Greene |first1=Graham |title=The Collected Edition: The lawless roads |date=1970 |publisher=William Heinemann and the Bodley Head |isbn=978-0-370-30111-2 |page=9 }}</ref>

==Childhood==
Miguel Pro, whose full name was José Ramón Miguel Agustín,<ref>[http://catholicism.org/padre-pro.html Br. Dominic, M.I.C.M., Tert. "Padre Pro, A Modern Martyr]</ref> was born into a mining family on January 13, 1891, in [[Guadalupe, Zacatecas]]. He was the third of eleven children, four of whom had died as infants or young children. From a young age, he was called "Cocol" as a nickname. Two of his sisters joined a convent. He entered the Jesuit [[novitiate]] at [[El Llano, Aguascalientes|El Llano]] on August 15, 1911.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dragon |first=Antonio |url=http://archive.org/details/miguelaugustinpr00drag |title=Miguel Augustin Pro of the Society of Jesus: martyr of Christ the King, executed in Mexico, November 23, 1972 |last2=Drummond |first2=Lawrence |date=1930 |publisher=Montreal: The Messenger press |others=Boston College}}</ref>

==Jesuit life in Mexico, persecution, exile abroad, and ordination==
[[File:Miguel Pro (1891-1927).jpg|130px|left|thumb|Blessed Miguel Agustín Pro, Mexican Jesuit, executed by a firing squad in Mexico (1927) for exercising his priestly ministry]]
{{Jesuit}}
One of his companions, Pulido, said that he "had never seen such an exquisite wit, never coarse, always sparkling."<ref name="Gentes">[http://www.angelusonline.org/print.php?sid=3045 Gentges, Mary E. ''Father Pro of Mexico'' (Angelus Online 20070] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928040614/http://www.angelusonline.org/print.php?sid=3045 |date=2007-09-28 }}</ref> He was noted for his charity and ability to speak about spiritual subjects without boring his audience. Pulido remarked that there were two Pros: the playful Pro and the prayerful Pro. He was known for the long periods he spent in the chapel.<ref name="Gentes"/>

Long-time President of Mexico [[Porfirio Díaz]] was ousted in 1911 after staging a rigged reelection, and a struggle for power – the [[Mexican Revolution]] – began.

Pro studied in Mexico until 1914 when a massive wave of governmental anti-Catholicism forced the novitiate to dissolve and the Jesuits to flee to [[Los Gatos, California]], in the United States. He then went to study in [[Granada]], Spain (1915–19), and from 1919 to 1922 taught in Nicaragua.<ref>''Miguel Pro Juárez'' Encyclopædia Britannica 2007</ref>

Back in Mexico, a new constitution for the country had been signed (1917). Five articles of the [[1917 Constitution of Mexico]] were particularly aimed at suppression of the [[Catholic Church]]. Article 3 mandated secular education in schools, prohibiting the Church from participating in primary and secondary education. Article 5 outlawed [[monasticism|monastic]] religious orders. Article 24 forbade public worship outside of church buildings, while Article 27 restricted religious organizations' rights to own property. Finally, Article 130 revoked basic civil rights of clergy members: priests and religious workers were prevented from wearing their habits, were denied the right to vote, and were forbidden from commenting on public affairs to the press. Most of the anti-clerical provisions of the constitution were removed in 1998.{{citation needed|date=November 2020}}

For his [[Theology|theological]] studies Pro was sent to [[Enghien]], [[Belgium]], where the French Jesuits (also in exile) had their faculty of Theology. His health continued to deteriorate. There he was ordained a priest on August 31, 1925. He wrote on that occasion: "How can I explain to you the sweet grace of the [[Holy Spirit]], which invades my poor miner's soul with such heavenly joys? I could not hold back the tears on the day of my ordination, above all at the moment when I pronounced, together with the [[bishop]], the words of the consecration. After the ceremony the new priests gave their first blessing to their parents. I went to my room, laid out all the photographs of my family on the table, and then blessed them from the bottom of my heart."

His first assignment as a priest was to work with the miners of [[Charleroi]], Belgium. Despite the [[socialism|socialist]], [[communism|communist]], and [[anarchism|anarchist]] tendencies of the workers, he was able to win them over and preach the Gospel to them.

Three months after ordination, he was forced to undergo several operations for ulcers. He remained cheerful and courageous, explaining that the source of his strength was his prayer.

==Return to Mexico==
In summer 1926 – his studies in Europe completed – Pro returned to Mexico. On the way he visited [[Lourdes]] where he celebrated Mass and visited the grotto of [[Lourdes apparitions|Our Lady of Lourdes]].

Pro arrived at [[Veracruz]] on July 8, 1926. [[Plutarco Elías Calles]] was now president of Mexico. Unlike his predecessors, Calles vigorously enforced the anti-Catholic provisions of the 1917 constitution, implementing the so-called [[Calles Law]], which provided specific penalties for priests who criticized the government (five years' imprisonment) or wore clerical garb in certain situations outside their churches (500 pesos). This law went into effect on July 31, 1926.

By this time, some states, such as Tabasco under the notorious anti-Catholic [[Tomás Garrido Canabal]], had closed all the churches and cleared the entire state of openly serving priests, killing many of them, forcing a few to marry, the remaining few serving covertly at risk of their lives. On his return Pro served a Church which was forced to go "underground". He celebrated the [[Eucharist in the Catholic Church|Eucharist]] clandestinely and ministered the other [[Sacraments of the Catholic Church|sacraments]] to small groups of Catholics.<ref>{{Cite news|date=2015-11-23 |title=Blessed Miguel Agustín Pro |url=https://www.franciscanmedia.org/blessed-miguel-agusaint-iacute-n-pro/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180208193547/https://www.franciscanmedia.org/blessed-miguel-agusaint-iacute-n-pro/ |archive-date=2018-02-08 |access-date= |work=Franciscan Media |language=en}}</ref>

Details of Pro's ministry in the underground church come from his many letters, signed with the nickname ''Cocol''. In October 1926, a warrant for his arrest was issued. He was arrested and released from prison the next day, but kept under surveillance.

==Arrest and execution==
[[File:Pro kneeling.gif|thumb|190px|left|Miguel Pro's last request was to be allowed to kneel and pray.]]

A failed attempt to assassinate [[Álvaro Obregón]], which only wounded him, in November 1927, provided the state with a pretext for arresting Pro again, this time with his brothers Humberto and Roberto. A young engineer who confessed his part in the attempted assassination testified that the Pro brothers were not involved.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20111117093058/http://puffin.creighton.edu/jesuit/pro/pro_bio.html Buck, Ray and Ball, Ann ''Blessed Miguel Pro, SJ -- Biographical Data'' (Creighton University 2006)]</ref> Miguel and his brothers were taken to the Detective Inspector's Office in [[Mexico City]].

On November 23, 1927, Pro was executed without trial.<ref>Bethell, Leslie, [https://books.google.com/books?id=9CmEcJgHqzsC ''The Cambridge History of Latin America''], p. 593, Cambridge University Press, 1986</ref> President Calles gave orders to have Pro executed for the assassination attempt. Calles had the execution meticulously photographed, and the newspapers throughout the country carried photos on the front page the following day. Presumably, Calles thought that the sight of the pictures would frighten the [[Cristero War|Cristero]] rebels who were fighting against his troops, particularly in the state of [[Jalisco]]. However, they had the opposite effect.<ref name="M.Pro"/> 
[[File:Miguel Pro's execution (1927).jpg|200px|thumb|right|On 23 November 1927, Miguel Agustín Pro, Mexican Jesuit, is executed by a firing squad (in Mexico City).]]
[[File:Miguel ProPointBlank.gif|thumb|right|195px|When the firing squad shots failed to kill him, a soldier administered a [[coup de grâce]].]]

Pro and his brothers were visited by Generals Roberto Cruz and Palomera Lopez around 11 p.m. on November 22, 1927. The next day, as Pro walked from his cell to the courtyard and the firing squad, he blessed the soldiers, knelt, and briefly prayed quietly. Declining a blindfold, he faced his executioners with a [[crucifix]] in one hand and a [[rosary]] in the other and held his arms out in imitation of the crucified Christ and shouted out, "May God have mercy on you! May God bless you! Lord, Thou knowest that I am innocent! With all my heart I forgive my enemies!" Before the firing squad was ordered to shoot, Pro raised his arms in imitation of Christ and shouted the defiant cry of the Cristeros, "¡Viva Cristo Rey!" – "Long live [[Christ the King]]!".<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=s8xwDQAAQBAJ&dq=%22accused+of+sedition+Standing+before+the+firing+squad%22&pg=PT543 Last and Near-Last Words of the Famous, Infamous and Those In-Between] By Joseph W. Lewis Jr. M.D.</ref> When the initial shots of the firing squad failed to kill him, a soldier shot him at [[point-blank range]].

Calles is reported to have looked down upon a throng of 40,000 which lined Pro's funeral procession. Another 20,000 waited at the cemetery where he was buried without a priest present, his father saying the final words. The Cristeros became more animated and fought with renewed enthusiasm, many of them carrying the newspaper photo of Pro before the firing squad.

==Beatification==
Pro's spiritual writings were approved by theologians on 1 June 1947, and his cause was formally opened on 11 January 1952, granting him the title of [[Servant of God]].<ref name="index">{{cite book |title=Index ac status causarum beatificationis servorum dei et canonizationis beatorum |date=January 1953 |publisher=Typis polyglottis vaticanis |page=174 |language=Latin}}</ref>

At Pro's [[beatification]] in [[Saint Peter's Square]] on September 25, 1988, Pope [[John Paul II]] said:

{{blockquote|sign=|source=|Neither suffering nor serious illness, nor the exhausting ministerial activity, frequently carried out in difficult and dangerous circumstances, could stifle the radiating and contagious joy which he brought to his life for Christ and which nothing could take away. Indeed, the deepest root of self-sacrificing surrender for the lowly was his passionate love for Jesus Christ and his ardent desire to be conformed to him, even unto death.<ref>[http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/SaintOfDay/default.asp?id=1208 ''Blessed Miguel Pro'' American Catholic]</ref><ref>[https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/it/homilies/1988/documents/hf_jp-ii_hom_19880925_sei-beati.html SOLENNE BEATIFICAZIONE DI SEI SERVI DI DIO: MIGUEL PRO, GIUSEPPE BENEDETTO DUSMET, FRANCESCO FAÀ DI BRUNO, JUNÍPERO SERRA, FRÉDÉRIC JANSSOONE E MARÍA JOSEFA NAVAL GIRBÉS] Article in Italian</ref>}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
{{wikiquote}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20111117093058/http://puffin.creighton.edu/jesuit/pro/pro_bio.html Catholic web site dedicated to Miguel Pro including numerous photographs]
*{{in lang|es}} {{YouTube|kWOjsvLBwnk|Video reenactment}} of Miguel Pro
*[http://catholicism.org/padre-pro.html Padre Pro, A Modern Martyr] By Br. Dominic, M.I.C.M., Tert., at Catholicism.org
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20131019170828/http://martirdecristorey.jimdo.com/ Padre Pro, Martir de Cristo Rey] By Capellania del Padre Pro

{{Persecution of Christians}}
{{Subject bar |portal1=Saints |portal2= Biography |portal3= Catholicism |portal4= Mexico}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pro, Miguel Agustin}}
[[Category:1891 births]]
[[Category:1927 deaths]]
[[Category:Christ the King]]
[[Category:Cristero War]]
[[Category:Martyred Roman Catholic priests]]
[[Category:Jesuit martyrs]]
[[Category:Mexican Jesuits]]
[[Category:Mexican beatified people]]
[[Category:Executed Mexican people]]
[[Category:People executed by Mexico by firing squad]]
[[Category:Victims of anti-Catholic violence in Mexico]]
[[Category:20th-century Roman Catholic martyrs]]
[[Category:20th-century venerated Christians]]
[[Category:People celebrated in the Lutheran liturgical calendar]]
[[Category:Religious persecution]]
[[Category:20th-century Mexican Roman Catholic priests]]
[[Category:Beatified Jesuits]]