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The saints

St. Christopher Magallanes and Companions

A Mexican priest who absolved his executioners before they shot him.

Feast: 21 May · died 1927 · The modern era · Jalisco, Mexico

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A plain typographic plate: St. Christopher Magallanes and Companions, with the feast day.

Typographic plate by Stone & Incense: we found no public-domain image of this saint we could verify.

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Colotlán, Jalisco, 1927

In the 1920s the Mexican government closed churches and outlawed priests.1

Father Cristóbal Magallanes kept ministering in secret, and opened a seminary in hiding.1

He was arrested on his way to celebrate Mass.

Patronage No official patronage we can cite yet. The Church remembers them as martyrs of the Cristero War in Mexico.

01St. Christopher Magallanes and Companions

Absolving his killers

Before he was shot, he gave his last money to the soldiers and said he forgave them.1

He and twenty-four companions, mostly priests, were beatified in 1992 and canonized eight years later.1

Live it this week

Forgive before you’re asked

Fr. Cristóbal forgave the men about to shoot him. Think of one person who hurt you and hasn’t apologized. Forgive them in prayer this week, out loud, and pray for their good.

Notes

How we know · 1 source for this page
  1. Franciscan Media, Saint of the Day: “Saint Cristóbal Magallanes and Companions”. franciscanmedia.org. franciscanmedia.org

The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913) is in the public domain; we quote the New Advent edition. Texts of the Holy See are quoted briefly from vatican.va. Scripture: World English Bible, Catholic edition (public domain); Verse numbers are modern, with Douay-Rheims numbers in brackets where they differ. Photographs: Wikimedia Commons, credited under each image; full list on the photo credits page.

Lines in the narrator’s voice, without a note, are our reflection, not a historical claim. Stone & Incense restates Church teaching in plain words; our wording is not an official Church text. Report an errorCorrections.