Bl. Miguel Agustin Pro
Blessed Miguel Agustin Pro was a Jesuit priest who served Mexican Catholics during the time when all public worship was banned in Mexico. Since the government did not know he was a priest, Padre Pro went about clandestinely, sometimes in disguise, celebrating Mass, distributing communion, hearing confessions, and anointing the sick. Someone attempted to assassinate the president by throwing a bomb out of a car that Miguel’s brother used to own. As a result, the president imprisoned Miguel and his brothers and condemned them to death. The president had photographers present, expecting Miguel to die cowardly. Padre Pro refused a blindfold and welcomed the bullets with his arms extended in the form of a cross, crying out, “Viva Cristo Rey!” The president thought that publicly executing Padre Pro would demoralize Catholics, but it had the opposite effect.
“I see God’s hand so palpably in everything that almost—almost I fear they won’t kill me in these adventures. That will be a fiasco for me who sighs to go to heaven and start tossing off arpeggios on the guitar with my guardian angel.” - Blessed Miguel Pro