Saint Toribio Romo González

Toribio Romo González, known as Saint Toribio Romo was a Mexican Catholic priest and martyr who was killed during the anti-clerical persecutions of the Cristero War. Beatified and later canonized by Pope John Paul II along with 24 other saints and martyrs of the Cristero War, he is popularly venerated in Mexico and among Mexican immigrants, particularly for his reported miraculous appearances to migrants seeking to cross the Mexico–United States border. Toribio was born on April 16, 1900, to farmers Juana González Romo and Patricio Romo Pérez in the ranchería of Santa Ana de Guadalupe, located about 11 kilometres (6.8 mi) from the municipal seat of Jalostotitlán, Jalisco. He had two siblings: a sister, María, and a younger brother, Román, who would also go on to become a priest. Though initially countered by his parents, in 1912, at age thirteen, he entered the Auxiliary Seminary of San Juan de los Lagos, before transferring to the Major Diocesan Seminary of Guadalajara in 1920. He was created a deacon on September 22, 1922, and ordained a priest a few months later, on December 23, at the age of twenty-two, after being granted a dispensation due to his exceedingly young age. He celebrated his first public mass on January 5, 1923. Toribio's ministry was characterized by a heavy emphasis on catechesis to the poor, as well as the centrality of the Eucharist to Christian life. During his brief priesthood, he served in parishes in the towns of Sayula, Tuxpan, Yahualica and Cuquío, all of them in his native state of Jalisco. Starting in November 1926, after a revolt in the town of Cuquío against the anti-clerical persecutions of Mexican president Plutarco Elías Calles, he was forced to take up an itinerant lifestyle along with Justino Orona, the parish priest of Cuquío.