Who Was Blessed Miguel Pro?
Blessed Miguel Pro was a Jesuit priest who was executed by a firing squad in Mexico for exercising his priestly ministry during the persecution of the Catholic Church in Mexico during the presidency of Elias Plutarco Calles. On November 23, 1927, as Fr. Pro walked from his cell to the courtyard and the firing squad, he blessed the soldiers, knelt, and briefly prayed quietly. Declining a blindfold, he faced his executioners with a crucifix in one hand and a rosary in the other and held his arms out in imitation of the crucified Christ and shouted out,
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“May God have mercy on you! May God bless you! Lord, Thou knowest that I am innocent! With all my heart I forgive my enemies!”
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Before the firing squad was ordered to shoot, Pro raised his arms in imitation of Christ and shouted,
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“Viva Cristo Rey!” – “Long Live Christ the King"
At Pro’s beatification in Saint Peter’s Square on September 25, 1988, Pope John Paul II said:
Neither suffering nor serious illness, nor the exhausting ministerial activity, frequently carried out in difficult and dangerous circumstances, could stifle the radiating and contagious joy which he brought to his life for Christ and which nothing could take away. Indeed, the deepest root of self-sacrificing surrender for the lowly was his passionate love for Jesus Christ and his ardent desire to be conformed to him, even unto death.
In 2025, our Operations Manager, Viviana Chavez, and her family visited Mexico City. Before going, Viviana felt called in Adoration to visit the place where Blessed Miguel Pro's remains are interred. She shared with the church that she worked for Blessed Miguel Pro Catholic Academy, the only Catholic school in the United States that had Blessed Miguel Pro as its namesake. The church then generously gifted a first-class relic of Blessed Miguel Pro to our school. Read more about this beautiful story here!
In November 2025, Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila accepted the Blessed Miguel Pro relic for Holy Trinity Catholic Parish. The community had a chance to venerate the relic, and the students touched their Blessed Miguel Pro medals to it, making the medals third-class relics!
During Spring Break 2026, our principal, Mr. Jim Schoepflin, and his wife also decided to visit the church where Blessed Miguel Pro's remains are interred. It was a joy to visit the church and share more about our school with them. Mr. Schoepflin gave the church this fingerprinted shield of our school crest as a gift from our community to theirs!
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Blessed Miguel Pro means so much to our community, and we know that he is praying for us and looking out for us.
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Blessed Miguel Pro, pray for us!