Saint Manuel Morales

Manuel Morales Cervantes was a Mexican layman who was killed during the Cristero War. A pro-Catholic activist during the anticlerical period under President Plutarco Elías Calles, he was captured by government forces, and was executed for refusing to renounce his position. Morales was canonized by Pope John Paul II on 21 May 2000 as one of 25 Saints of the Cristero War. Morales was born on 8 February 1898 in the village of Mesillas 22 kilometers south from Sombrerete, Zacatecas, Mexico. Shortly after his birth, the Morales family relocated to Chalchihuites. He entered the seminary of the Archdiocese of Durango in Durango City, but dropped out to support his poor family. After leaving the seminary, Morales became a baker, married, and had three children. He was secretary of his local Catholic Workers Union, a member of Catholic Action (ACJM), and president of the National League for the Defense of Religious Liberty (LNDNR). On 29 July 1926, Morales led an LNDNR meeting which drew a crowd of around 600 people. He spoke about the aims and methods of the group, and was quoted as saying: After the meeting, the priest Luis Batiz Sáinz was arrested at his home by a group of soldiers. A few days later, the three LNDNR leaders, President Morales, Vice President David Roldán, and Secretary Salvador Lara, met at Lara's home to discuss how to free Batiz through legal means. A group of soldiers broke into the home and arrested the three men, imprisoning them in the town hall, where they were beaten and tortured. After several days of imprisonment, on 15 August 1926, Batiz, Morales, Roldán, and Lara were taken out of their cells by a group of soldiers. At about noon of that day, the four men were loaded into two cars, and told that they were being taken to the state capital of Zacatecas City to explain their position to government officials. Instead of driving to the capital, the soldiers stopped the car in the mountains near Chalchihuites, and the prisoners were taken out.