“Christ said, ‘I am the Truth’; he did not say ‘I am the custom.’”

Toribio was born in 1900 of a very poor family in the small farming town of Santa Ana de Guadalupe in Jalisco. Early on he stood out from the other children with his intelligence, contemplative nature and his desire to attend a seminary. At the age of 21 he became a priest, one of the youngest to be ordained in Mexico, requiring special permission from the Vatican.

He was known for having a fine mind and a gentle nature.

Like many Catholic priests of the time, Romo discouraged people from leaving their small towns to seek work in the United States and to remain for the care of their families. At the age of 20 he even wrote a play to demonstrate the dire consequences of one’s actions and their family if they ventured North.

He found himself in the middle of the Cristero Rebellion, a brutal conflict which pitted rural Catholic lay people and clergymen against the forces of the anti-Catholic, anti-clerical central government in Mexico City. It was a result of a long struggle of Church versus State. By 1927, all priests were prohibited from celebrating the Mass and ordered to be confined to their residences. Many of the priests, like Father Toribio, defied the authorities and continued performing Catholic rites.

Rome condemned the Mexican government.

Even though he never took up arms or antagonized the authorities, on Friday, February 24th, 1928, just a year before the end of the war, soldiers broke into the bedroom of Father Toribio and shot him twice.

Since his canonization in 2000, great interest has developed in the saint and thousands of people flock to his tiny town to visit his shrine. It was said that Santo Toribio managed to accomplish in death what he couldn’t in life as the local population is more permanent now, not needing to travel elsewhere for work.

He is the patron saint of immigrants.

His feast day is May 21.

For God’s Glory.