Saturday, February 20, 2010

Blessed Miguel Pro

Last updated: March 30, 2010

Placing This Site Under His Care

Blessed Miguel Pro holds a special place in my heart. With his wonderful sense of humor, playfulness, creativity and deep strong faith, Blessed Miguel Pro is like a spiritual brother to me. And I place
Paper Dali under his patronage.

I first discovered Blessed Miguel in a little Mexican bookshop in Los Angeles years ago and picked up Ann Ball's book "Blessed Miguel Pro: 20th Century Mexican Martyr." I had not known there was a Catholic persecution in Mexico, wrongfully assuming it's always been highly pro-Catholic. And it just pulled me in. I'd never read of such an outrageously funny, brave and devout person saint like him before. And now here I am, placing a site under his patronage and spreading the word about him.

Read About Bl. Miguel Pro
If you do not know about this marvelous Mexican priest and martyr, I encourage you to read about him and get to learn more about him. A good starting point for almost all things Miguel is the Blessed Miguel site once maintained by Ann Ball (may she rest in peace) and now under the direction of Lawrence LeLeux and Father Ray Bucko.

A few months ago, I read another Ann Ball book dedicated to Miguel Pro. She wrote it for her grandchildren to know and love this saint as much as she does. The book is called "Jose Finds the King" (Behold Publications). Right now, I'm working on a project inspired by this lovely book. If you've not read it before, do put the book on your reading list.

Paper Dali Miguel Pro
On this site, Miguel has been Paper Dali-fied. You can find him and a few drawings of his disguises that he wore during his underground work in Mexico. In this photograph on the left, you can see Bl. Miguel Pro dressed as a dandy. I love his expression here and his nonchalant stance. The best part of the picture, though, is that a policeman is passing him in the background. Wanted by the police for his being a Catholic priest, Miguel looks amused by it all.

On Paper Dali, Blessed Miguel Pro is one of the more popular saints. (He's only a little behind St. Joseph and St. Juan Diego.) Every now and then, I receive emails from people who are having fun with his little set.

If you do use his Paper Dali, do drop me a note or comment here and let me see how he's doing. Here are some friends of Paper Dali Miguel:
Rosario at Beads4Prayer
Lori at Catholic Baby Steps


De Todo Un Poco (A Little of Everything)
This video montage shows pictures spanning Bl. Miguel's life, his martyrdom and relics of his adventurous, loving life.

Author Ann Ball's site has a page dedicated to this "merry Mexican saint." Though she is now with the angels, a priest friend continues running her site and spreading the word of Blessed Miguel Pro.

The Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe has a page dedicated to the martyr Miguel Pro. The site is in Spanish, but even if you do not speak Spanish, you will enjoy seeing the rare images of Miguel Pro's belongings, including the sweater that he wore, the pocket watch he had, etc.

Get the superquick rundown of his life in a short video by the Catholic News Agency.

Viva Cristo Rey!

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