In front of a crowd of 80,000 in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis last weekend canonized a 14-year-old boy martyr who was executed in Mexico’s Cristero (Holy) War of the 1920s.
In elevating José Sánchez del Río to sainthood along with five others, the pope said all had “generous and steadfast hearts.”
Sanchez del Rio was a member of the Catholic Youth Brigade but probably never fired a shot in anger during the rebels’ struggle against the anti-clerical policies of President Elias Calles.
A general agreed to allow the boy to become the flag bearer of his Cristeros troop in Michoacan. Sanchez del Rio is believed to have given his horse to the general when his mount was killed under him. He is alleged to have told the general, “Take him, even though I may be killed. You need him more than I.”
After he was arrested by government forces, Sanchez del Rio insisted that no one intercede on his behalf – he was quite prepared to become a martyr. Before he was shot, he was paraded barefoot around the town of Sahuayo, shouting defiantly, “Viva Cristo Rey” (Long Live Christ the King), the rallying cry of the rebel movement.
The Vatican later determined that the 14-year-old died because of “hatred of the faith.” He was beatified along with 11 other “martyrs” of the Cristero War in 2005.