AMERICA/MEXICO - Mexico celebrates: the child Martyrs of Tlaxcala, protomartyrs of America will be canonized

Friday, 24 March 2017

Mexico City (Agenzia Fides) - "With happiness and joy we share the news that the Holy Father Francis received Cardinal Angelo Amato S.D.B., prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in audience. During the audience, the Holy Father approved the votes of the Ordinary session of Cardinals and Bishop Members of the Congregation regarding the canonization of the following Blesseds: Cristobal, Antonio and Juan, teenagers, martyrs, killed in hatred of the faith in Mexico in 1529". This is the statement of the Mexican Episcopal Conference issued yesterday afternoon and sent to Fides.
"The child Martyrs of Tlaxcala, are martyrs of Latin America, because they were the first to bear witness to the faith", said His Exc. Mgr. Francisco Moreno Barron, Bishop of Tlaxcala, on November 14, 2015 at the celebration of the V Centenary of the birth of the three children (see Fides 16/11/2015).
The beatification process was concluded by St. Giovanni Paolo II on May 6, 1990 at the Basilica of Guadalupe, during his second pastoral visit to Mexico. They are among the first natives of American ethnicity who converted to the Catholic faith and are also Promartyrs of America, the first to shed their blood for Christ on this continent.
Cristobal was probably born in the year 1514, Antonio and Juan around 1516. They were cruelly killed by their countrymen because, in the name of the Catholic faith, they rejected idolatry and polygamy: Cristobal died in 1527, Antonio and Juan in 1529.
Archbishop Moreno Barron, was in Rome on June 29, 2016 for the blessing of the pallium from Pope Francis, as the new Archbishop of Tijuana. On this occasion he received a copy of the Decree of patronage by the Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, with which the Child Matyrs of Tlaxcala are declared Patrons of Mexican childhood (see Fides 30/06/2016). (CE) (Agenzia Fides 24/03/2017)


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