Blessed Miguel Pro – site of his martrydom
November 23, 2007
In honor of the Feast Day of Blessed Miguel Pro, I’ve uploaded a few images to Flickr showing the site of his martyrdom in present-day Mexico City. The photos were taken in 2005.
Here is a cartoon showing the basics of Blessed Miguel Pro’s life and martyrdom. There are other biographies available on the web, but this gives the basics of his life and martrydom. It also seemed like an appropriate way of showing his life in a visual site like Flickr.
Here are actual photographs of Blessed Miguel Pro’s martrydom.
There are 3 photos (clockwise from upper left):
1. Blessed Miguel Pro’s last request was to be allowed to kneel and pray before his execution.
2. Declining the customary blindfold, Blessed Miguel Pro stands with arms outstretched in imiation of Christ on the cross. As he dies, he yells &161;Vivo Cristo Rey” (Long live Christ the King).
3. When the initial shots of the firing squad failed to kill him, a soldier shot him point blank in the head.
When in Mexico, we tried to find the actual site where this martrydom took place. As you can see in the next photos in this set, it can be somewhat hard to find.
The following photo iis a bank in Mexico – the site of Blessed Miguel Pro’s martyrdom is actually to the left of this building (as you’re facing it), down a side street.
The next photo shows the wall holding the plaque which commemorates the site of Miguel Pro’s martrydom. It’s somewhat hard to find – the plaque is in the upper left, almost behind a metal pipe which contains electric wires running up the wall.
The next two photos show the plaque in more detail – the first shows the plaque itself, and the second shows the photo as it appeared in 2005.
The plaque is a bit misleading – the actual site of the martyrdom is across the street, below a staircase. Other than this plaque there is no indication that this is the site of Blessed Miguel Pro’s martrydom.
If you’re looking at the plaque and you turn around, you see the staircase shown in the photo below. Blessed Miguel Pro was apparently shot at the spot shown below, just below the staircase.
¡VIVO CRISTO REY!
For more information on Blessed Miguel Pro, see the following sites:
“My name is Cheryl Solis and I am a Catholic artist in Savannah, GA. I am writing because I have my gallery now online, and one of the special paintings is of Blessed Miguel Pro. I learned about him many years ago while reading “Modern Saints”, and have been a devotee of him and his cause ever since. Blessed Miguel Pro has helped me many times when times were difficult–I have felt his influence and presence in my life and, subsequently have told many people about him. While living in Beijing– a dream of a lifetime, to which I credit, in part, the divine help of Father Pro–I made Blessed Miguel a promise that I would paint his portrait and tell his story to others. I created a portrait of him, including an image of his martyrdom and various emblems of his life, and have put that portrait–and a short biography–on my gallery website, Angel Illuminations.
My website address is http://www.angelilluminations.com and you can find Father Pro’s portrait on the first page of the Sacred Images Gallery.”
Comment by Cheryl Solis — November 4, 2008 @ 6:27 pm