Mexican Martyrdom

Mexican Martyrdom is a series of true stories of the terrible anti-Catholic persecutions which took place in Mexico in the 1920s. Told by the Jesuit priest, Fr. Wilfrid Parson, these stories are based upon cases he had seen himself or that had been described to him personally by the people who had undergone the atrocities of those times.

Though most contemporary readers don t know it, a full-fledged persecution of the Church, with thousands of martyrdoms, took place in modern times, just south of our own border including the famous Jesuit priest, Fr. Miguel Pro, was martyred before a firing squad during this persecution.

Between the conquest of Mexico by Cortes in 1521, and the Mexican Independence from Spain in 1821, Spain created in Mexico a great Catholic civilization to rival that of any nation in Europe. But when the Great Mexican Revolution began in 1810, this flourishing country began to wither and die. That Revolution was not to end until 1928, with the end of the brutal rule of President Plutarco Elias Calles, though in many ways it continues still. The heroic resistance of Mexican Catholics during this persecution is a great inspiration to Catholics today.

Mexican Martyrdom proves that hatred for the Catholic Church exists even in our times and can still flare into open and bloody persecution in this so-called enlightened age.

The Rev. Father Wilfrid Parsons, S.J., was a Jesuit priest and author of the twentieth century. His Mexican Martyrdom: Firsthand Experiences of the Religious Persecution in Mexico was originally published in 1936 by The Macmillan Company, New York. It narrates the harrowing and true persecution stories of 1920's Mexico, as witnessed or personally heard of by the author. Father Parsons' work was also printed by TAN in 1987.