Manuel Moralez was a Mexican

layman In religious organizations, the laity () consists of all members who are not part of the clergy, usually including any non-ordained members of religious orders, e.g. a nun or a lay brother. In both religious and wider secular usage, a layper ...

who was killed during the

Cristero War The Cristero War ( es, Guerra Cristera), also known as the Cristero Rebellion or es, La Cristiada, label=none, italics=no , was a widespread struggle in central and western Mexico from 1 August 1926 to 21 June 1929 in response to the implementa ...

. A pro-Catholic activist during the anticlerical period under

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

Plutarco Elías Calles Plutarco Elías Calles (25 September 1877 – 19 October 1945) was a general in the Mexican Revolution and a Sonoran politician, serving as President of Mexico from 1924 to 1928. The 1924 Calles presidential campaign was the first populist ...

, he was captured by government forces, and was executed for refusing to renounce his position. Moralez was canonized by

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

on 21 May 2000 as one of 25

Saints of the Cristero War On May 21, 2000, Pope John Paul II canonized a group of 25 saints and martyrs who had died in the Mexican Cristero War. The vast majority are Catholic priests who were executed for carrying out their ministry despite the suppression under the ant ...

Biography

Early life and education

Moralez was born on 8 February 1898 in the village of Mesillas 22 kilometers south from

Sombrerete Sombrerete () is a town and municipality located in the northwest of the Mexican state of Zacatecas, bordering the state of Durango. It was founded in 1555 by Spanish conquistador Juan de Tolosa as a mining center, due to the wealth that the mine ...

Zacatecas , image_map = Zacatecas in Mexico (location map scheme).svg , map_caption = State of Zacatecas within Mexico , coordinates = , coor_pinpoint = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

. Shortly after his birth, the Moralez family relocated to

Chalchihuites Chalchihuites is a municipality in the Mexican state of Zacatecas in northwest Mexico. The archaeological site of Altavista, at Chalchihuites, is located 137 miles to the northwest of the city of Zacatecas and 102 miles southeast of the city of Dur ...

. He entered the seminary of the

Archdiocese of Durango The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Durango ( la, Archidioecesis Durangensis) is a Metropolitan Archdiocese in Mexico. Based in the city of Durango, it is the metropolitan see for the suffragan dioceses of Gómez Palacio, Mazatlán and Torreón as ...

Durango City Durango City (, stp, Korian), officially Victoria de Durango is the capital and largest city of the Mexican state of Durango. The city, which is located in Northern Mexico has a population of 654,876 as of the 2015 census, and sits at an altitude ...

, but dropped out to support his poor family.

Adulthood and religious activism

After leaving the seminary, Moralez became a baker, married, and had three children. He was secretary of his local Catholic Workers Union, a member of

Catholic Action Catholic Action is the name of groups of lay Catholics who advocate for increased Catholic influence on society. They were especially active in the nineteenth century in historically Catholic countries under anti-clerical regimes such as Spain, I ...

(ACJM), and president of the

National League for the Defense of Religious Liberty National League for the Defense of Religious Liberty ( es, Liga Nacional Defensora de la Libertad Religiosa – LNDLR) was a Mexican Catholic religious civil rights organization formed in March 1925 that played a crucial role in the Cristero War ...

(LNDNR). On 29 July 1926, Moralez 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:

The league should be peaceful and not interfere in political affairs. Our project is to implore the government to remove the articles of the Constitution that prevent religious freedom.

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 Moralez, 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.

Death

After several days of imprisonment, on 15 August 1926, Batiz, Moralez, 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 Zacatecas () is the principal city within the municipality in Mexico of the same name, and the capital and the largest city of the state of Zacatecas. Located in north-central Mexico, the city had its start as a Spanish mining camp in the mid ...

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. The soldiers accused the four men of conspiring to revolt against the government, and were offered freedom if they acknowledged the legitimacy of

Mexican President The president of Mexico ( es, link=no, Presidente de México), officially the president of the United Mexican States ( es, link=no, Presidente de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos), is the head of state and head of government of Mexico. Under the C ...

' anti-religious laws, which all four refused to do. After the men refused to denounce their position, Moralez and Batiz were brought forward. Batiz begged the soldiers to free Moralez because he had children to support, but Moralez said, "I am dying for God, and God will care for my children." According to one account, before his death, Moralez cried, "Long live Christ the King and Our Lady of Guadalupe!" Moralez and Batiz were killed by firing squad, and Roldán and Lara were shot after.

Canonization

Moralez, along with the other 24 Martyrs of the Cristero War, was declared

Venerable The Venerable (''venerabilis'' in Latin) is a style, a title, or an epithet which is used in some Western Christian churches, or it is a translation of similar terms for clerics in Eastern Orthodoxy and monastics in Buddhism. Christianity Cat ...

on 7 March 1992 by

, with a decree of

martyr A martyr (, ''mártys'', "witness", or , ''marturia'', stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an externa ...

dom. The group was

beatified Beatification (from Latin ''beatus'', "blessed" and ''facere'', "to make”) is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a deceased person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in their nam ...

on 22 November 1992 by Pope John Paul II, and then canonized by him on 21 May 2000. The collective feast day of the Martyrs of the Cristero War is 21 May, and the individual feast day of Manuel Moralez is 15 August, the anniversary date of his death.

References