Courtesy of Zenit:

Thirteen Mexicans martyred during the religious persecution of the 1920s will be beatified in Guadalajara next Sunday according to Benedict XVI's new guidelines. Among the martyrs who died during the so-called Cristero war of 1926-1929, the most outstanding is Anacleto González Flores. He was a lay leader who was very active from 1915 until the year of his martyrdom, 1927, at the hands of the federal army commanded by Mexican President Plutarco Elías Calles. González Flores founded the Popular Union, better known as the "U," a movement that included labor, women and farmers. It promoted catechesis and actively opposed the local and federal governments in their measures to suppress religious freedom.

González Flores was arrested on March 31, 1927, and martyred the following day. His executioners hanged him by his thumbs and then, at bayonet point, kept torturing him to disclose the whereabouts of the archbishop of Guadalajara and other leaders of the Cristero Revolution. Finally, the steel blade fatally pierced his heart. At the same time, his companions in the struggle and martyrdom were shot in the courtyard of the same prison.

Flores asked to be killed after his companions, so as to be able to console them. Before dying, González Flores told the general in charge: "I forgive you from my heart; we will soon meet before the divine tribunal, the same judge who will judge me will judge you; then you will have an intercessor in me with God."

You would think living in the neighboring country, we would hear more about the Mexican martyrs. This month the Knights of Columbus Magazine, "Columbia" had a short piece on some of these martyrs, but in general they are off the radar screen. Even growing up attending Catholic schools, we never heard of Catholic persecution in Mexico-or perhaps I wasn't paying attention?. [This would be a good subject for book - (maybe bi-lingual) for Requiem Press - any authors out there?]