¡Viva Cristo Rey!

May 1, 2026

A century ago, as Catholics in Mexico faced persecution and martyrdom, the Knights of Columbus mounted an international campaign to defend the Church

By Columbia staff

May 1, 2026

Luis Segura Vilchis, an engineer and member of the Catholic Youth Association, faces a firing squad in Mexico City on Nov. 23, 1927. — Luis Segura Vilchis, an engineer and member of the Catholic Youth Association, faces a firing squad in Mexico City on Nov. 23, 1927, beside the body of Blessed Miguel Agustín Pro, a Jesuit priest executed moments earlier. (Bettmann Archive / Getty Images)

“Situation is normal,” Mexican President Plutarco Elías Calles insisted in 1926 — even as churches across Mexico were preparing for the suspension of all public worship. Priests hurried to administer the sacraments and the faithful crowded into parishes for their last public Mass for some time. Baptisms surged, confessions stretched late into the night, and an uneasy urgency settled over Catholic life.

The crisis — soon to erupt into the Cristero War — had been years in the making. The Mexican Constitution of 1917 imposed sweeping anticlerical restrictions: churches were stripped of legal status, religious education was banned, religious orders suppressed, public worship outside churches forbidden, and clergy placed under strict government control.

But Catholics did not simply recede. Among the most organized and consequential lay forces were the Knights of Columbus. Established in Mexico in 1905, the Order had built a nationwide network linking Mexican Catholics not only with one another but with brother Knights in the United States and beyond. That international structure would prove critical in giving voice to the persecuted as the crisis deepened.

Pope Pius XI later recognized that role explicitly in his encyclical Iniquis Afflictisque, published Nov. 18, 1926, in response to the persecution in Mexico: “First of all we mention the Knights of Columbus … made up of active and industrious members who, because of their practical lives and open profession of the Faith, as well as by their zeal in assisting the Church, have brought great honor upon themselves.”

A 2005 painting by Mexican artist Martha Orozco portrays the six Knights of Columbus priest-martyrs canonized on May 21, 2000. — A 2005 painting by Mexican artist Martha Orozco portrays the six Knights of Columbus priest-martyrs who were canonized on May 21, 2000. (Knights of Columbus Multimedia Archives)

A CHURCH UNDER PRESSURE

By the mid-1920s, varying enforcement of the governmental restrictions gave way to open persecution.

In this tense time, however, the Order in Mexico expanded rapidly as an organized Catholic lay force. From 1918 to 1923, dozens of councils formed, as membership grew from roughly 400 to more than 6,000. Responding to both dire poverty and religious restrictions, the Knights founded and ran dozens of schools, clinics and other charitable works, while supporting clergy as conditions worsened.

Defense of clergy sometimes took on a literal meaning. In February 1921, Archbishop José Mora y del Río’s residence in Mexico City was bombed, prompting the Knights of Columbus to organize a 15-man protective detail.

A decisive turn came in January 1923 at Cubilete Hill (Cerro del Cubilete) in Guanajuato, where the Diocese of León laid the cornerstone for a monument to Christ the King before a crowd of tens of thousands. Archbishop Ernesto Filippi, the pope’s representative to Mexico, presided. Authorities condemned the event as illegal, and two days later Filippi was expelled from the country.

W.F. Buckley Sr.’s March 1923 Columbia article, “What’s Wrong in Mexico?”, reported that Archbishop Filippi believed the real reason for his expulsion was “the growth in Mexico of the Knights of Columbus and the Catholic Daughters of America.” A protest issued by Catholic leaders underscored the scale of the moment: “More than 50,000 Mexicans were there united to proclaim Jesus Christ the King of Mexico.”

This took place two years before Pope Pius XI established the feast of Christ the King for the universal Church — a declaration that would soon take on particular resonance in Mexico.

Recognizing religious liberty as more than a one-organization concern, the Knights expanded their advocacy. For example, then-State Deputy Luis G. Bustos soon organized the Pacto de Honor de las Organizaciones Católicas (Honor Agreement of Catholic Organizations), and in March 1925 helped found the Liga Nacional de la Defensa de la Libertad Religiosa (National League for the Defense of Religious Liberty) with the support of the Order. More than half of its founding members were Knights, and hundreds more served as local officers.

By 1926, enforcement had become systematic under President Calles. In June, the so-called Calles Law introduced penalties that made religious practice legally perilous, with sentences of up to six years in prison.

This was the reality that prompted Mexico’s bishops to take an extraordinary step: On July 31, 1926, public worship ceased nationwide.

The shutdown of public worship did not end Catholic life in Mexico. It forced the crisis into a new, underground phase — and the Knights of Columbus responded in a far more public, coordinated and international way.

A K of C delegation meets with President Calvin Coolidge on Sept. 1, 1926, to discuss religious persecution in Mexico. Pictured from left: Supreme Advocate Luke E. Hart, Deputy Supreme Knight Martin Carmody, Supreme Knight James A. Flaherty, President Coolidge, Supreme Secretary William J. McGinley, Supreme Director William C. Prout, and Assistant Supreme Secretary John Conway. (Bettman / Corbis)

THE KNIGHTS RESPOND

Providentially, the 44th Supreme Convention opened in Philadelphia on Aug. 4, 1926, just days after the suspension of services. There, Supreme Knight James Flaherty gave the Order’s response its public voice. “We behold our brothers suffering for their Faith in one of the most violent and unjust religious persecutions of modern times,” he declared. Many Americans argued the persecution was the affair of an independent state. “But we shall not hold our peace,” Flaherty said. “We shall protest against this persecution in the names of humanity and liberty.”

The convention adopted a formal resolution condemning President Calles’ persecution and authorized the raising of $1 million for what became the Mexican Fund — a campaign to educate the public and assist those affected.

The Order quickly carried that campaign beyond the convention hall. In a short time, lectures across the country — sometimes drawing thousands — shed light on the situation. Five million pamphlets were produced and distributed detailing the persecution and its ideology, along with 2 million copies of the bishops’ pastoral on Mexico. Refugees escaping the persecution were aided as well.

On Sept. 1, 1926, Flaherty and other Supreme Officers met with President Calvin Coolidge to discuss the Mexican crisis, helping move the issue from the margins of public concern into the sphere of national policy.

Meanwhile, Columbia’s coverage was sharp enough to have real consequences. The October 1926 issue stated flatly: “The Mexican government cannot stand publicity. In the white light of fact and history, the red of the blood it spills and the ideas it sponsors are revealed as great blots on modern civilization. The Mexican government has, accordingly, forbidden Columbia from Mexico.”

The October, November and December 1926 issues of Columbia forcefully denounced the persecution of the Church in Mexico. — The October, November and December 1926 issues of Columbia forcefully denounced the persecution of the Church in Mexico; the magazine was soon banned by the Mexican government. (Knights of Columbus Multimedia Archives)

The Mexican legislature denounced the Supreme Convention, and the November 1926 Columbia issue was cited in an effort to discredit the Order — a response that underscored how seriously the regime took the Knights’ campaign.

Knights employed by federal, state and municipal governments — and even by the railroads — were being dismissed, and there was a movement to strip them of citizenship.

The Knights’ campaign unfolded in continuity with the Vatican’s own response. In Iniquis Afflictisque, Pope Pius XI commended the Knights especially for helping Catholics organize and instruct one another to present “a united invincible front to the enemy.” He also described the suffering endured by Catholic organizations: members arrested, handcuffed, dragged through public streets, jailed, fined and, in some cases, dying “with the rosary in their hands and the name of Christ the King on their lips.”

By the end of 1926, the Order’s response was no longer a matter of concern or protest alone. It had become a coordinated campaign that reached from local Mexican councils to the president of the United States and to the Holy See.

THE WITNESS OF BLOOD

“Lord, I want to be a martyr,” said Father Luis Batis Sáinz, a parish priest from Durango. “Although I am your unworthy servant, I want to shed my blood, drop by drop, in your name.”

On Aug. 14, 1926, two weeks after the Calles Law took effect, Father Batis was arrested. His crime, federal officers told him, was simple: “You have been offering Mass and baptizing and marrying in secret.” The next day — the feast of the Assumption — he and three laymen were executed by firing squad. One of them, Manuel Morales, president of the local chapter of the National League for the Defense of Religious Liberty, declined an offer to be spared, replying, “I am dying for God, and God will care for my children.”

The persecution soon escalated into the Cristero War, a three-year conflict between federal forces (federales) and Catholic resistance fighters known as “Cristeros” for their rallying cry: “¡Viva Cristo Rey!” — “Long live Christ the King!” For the faithful, the cry was a final profession of faith; for the government, it was treated as an act of defiance.

A silver reliquary containing bone fragments of the six saints, presented to the Supreme Council by Mexican Knights. — A silver reliquary containing bone fragments of the six saints, presented to the Supreme Council by Mexican Knights following the canonization, is often hosted by local councils for veneration. (Knights of Columbus Multimedia Archives)

Simply belonging to the Knights of Columbus could invite suspicion, arrest or death. Indeed, more than 20 of the approximately 90 priests killed during the conflict were Knights, some executed alongside brother Knights from their own councils. Father Batis — a member of Fray Diego de la Cadena Council 2367 in Durango — was among the first.

Their “crimes” were acts of sacramental fidelity: celebrating Mass, hearing confessions, administering the Eucharist and continuing their ministry in secret.

Father Mateo Correa Magallanes, a member of Nuestra Señora del Patrocinio Council 2140 in Zacatecas, was arrested while bringing the Eucharist to a sick woman. On Feb. 5, 1927, a general ordered him to hear the confessions of fellow prisoners — and then demanded he reveal what had been said. “You know well, General, that a priest must keep secret all he hears in confession,” Father Correa replied. “I am willing to die.” He was executed the following day.

Others met similar fates. Father José María Robles Hurtado, a member of Antonio Alcalde Council 1979 in Guadalajara, was captured while preparing to celebrate Mass and hanged June 26, 1927. Father Miguel de la Mora de la Mora, another member of Council 2140 in Zacatecas, was executed Aug. 7, 1927, after continuing his clandestine ministry. Father Rodrigo Aguilar Alemán, a member of San José de Zapotlán Council 2330 in Ciudad Guzmán, was killed after refusing to betray seminarians under his care.

Some died together. Father Andrés Solá y Molist and Leonardo Pérez Larios, both members of Diez de Sollano Council 1963 in León, and Father José Trinidad Rangel Montaño of Godofredo de Bouillon Council 2484 in San Felipe were executed after continuing their ministry in a safe house. Before they were shot, the men spread their arms in the sign of the cross.

In the face of imprisonment, exile and death, Knights across Mexico remained visible witnesses — defending the Church, sustaining sacramental life and, in many cases, sealing their fidelity with their blood.

DESTRUCTION, SURVIVAL AND REBUILDING

As the persecution intensified, the Mexican government turned its efforts toward dismantling the Church’s visible presence — both its hierarchy and its physical structures.

On Jan. 28, 1928, the former offices of the Knights of Columbus and the Catholic League in Mexico City were raided by secret police; all documents were seized and soldiers were ordered to bayonet a painting of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Days later, the Calles regime dynamited the statue of Christ the King atop Cubilete Hill in Silao, Guanajuato. Two pieces survived the blast: Christ’s head and his sacred heart.

Pope John Paul II greets the faithful as he is driven through Oaxaca, Mexico, on Jan. 28, 1979, during the first papal visit to the country. The visit was a watershed moment for the Church in Mexico. (Photo by Pool LOCHON / SIMON / Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)

The next fall, the Mexican bishops, meeting in San Antonio, Texas, issued a pastoral letter thanking the Knights of Columbus and other groups for their support while urging fidelity among the faithful and an end to the persecution.

“We bishops give our word of honor that the clergy and people of Mexico … will accept whole-heartedly whatever agreement the Holy See may approve,” the letter said.

That agreement came in June 1929, brokered by Archbishop Leopoldo Ruiz y Flóres of Morelia on behalf of Pope Pius XI and President Emilio Portes Gil. Churches reopened and some restrictions were lifted.

The reprieve was brief. Within weeks, the government resumed executing Cristero leaders, killing all but two by the end of the year; over the next six years, some 5,000 Cristeros would be executed.

The period has been described as “a war of the destitute, without resources, without support.” Knights of Columbus leaders appealed to President Franklin Roosevelt, and in 1935, U.S. Rep. William Connery noted that in 14 of 30 Mexican states, no priests were approved for ministry.

A year earlier, Frederick Vincent Williams, a faithful navigator from San Francisco, spent six weeks in Mexico documenting the persecution, smuggling nearly 100 documents sewn into his clothing. “The situation is worse than it has been painted,” he wrote to Supreme Knight Martin Carmody in January 1934. “It is almost beyond the conception of the American mind. The Russian Soviet is at our door.”

Mexican clergy and laity devised creative means of sustaining sacramental life. Around 1931, Bishop Rafael Guízar y Valencia of Veracruz — a member of Francisco Suárez Peredo Council 2311 who would be canonized in 2006 — established “Eucharistic Centers” in private homes, where priests celebrated Mass in hiding and consecrated hosts for lay distribution.

The violent persecution persisted into the late 1930s. Father Pedro de Jesús Maldonado Lucero, a member of Fray Alonso Briones Council 2419 in Chihuahua, was beaten after hearing confessions on Ash Wednesday, Feb. 10, 1937, and died the following day in Chihuahua. He became the final martyr of the Cristero persecution; two months after his death, churches reopened, and over the next decade, conditions gradually improved. The Calles Law was repealed in 1938, and in 1940 Manuel Ávila Camacho, a practicing Catholic, was elected president.

The Church in Mexico slowly rebuilt. In 1944, Bishop Emeterio Valverde Téllez of León laid the cornerstone for a new shrine atop Cubilete Hill. Six years later, Bishop Manuel Martín del Campo Padilla blessed a new 65-foot-tall bronze statue of Christ the King overlooking the region.

FROM PERSECUTION TO RECOGNITION

On Jan. 27, 1979, Pope John Paul II celebrated Mass outside the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City. It was the first papal visit to Mexico, and for a Church that had endured decades of restriction and periodic persecution, the moment marked a visible return to public life.

Not until 1992, however, were the constitutional provisions that had long governed Church-state relations formally revised. Reforms restored diplomatic relations with the Holy See and lifted key restrictions on the Church, while maintaining the separation of church and state. That same year, John Paul II beatified 25 martyrs of the Mexican persecution, including six Knights of Columbus priests; he later canonized them in St. Peter’s Square on May 21, 2000.

Delegates venerate relics of the Mexican martyrs at the 142nd Supreme Convention in Québec City in 2024. The Order’s Christ the King reliquary contains relics from 25 saints and 13 blesseds — including nine Knights — who were martyred in Mexico in the 1920s and ’30s. (Photo by Matthew Barrick)

In his homily, the Holy Father pointed to the enduring fruit of their witness: “After the harsh trials that the Church endured in Mexico during those turbulent years, today Mexican Christians … can live in peace and harmony, contributing the wealth of Gospel values to society,” he said. “The Church grows and advances, since she is the crucible in which many priestly and religious vocations are born, where families are formed according to God’s plan, and where young people … can grow up with the hope of a better future.”

Recognition continued on Nov. 20, 2005, when 13 Mexican martyrs were beatified in Guadalajara, including three Knights of Columbus, as well as José “Joselito” Sánchez del Río, who was executed at age 14 in 1928 for refusing to renounce his faith. Pope Benedict XVI would later visit Mexico in 2012, celebrating Mass at Cubilete Hill, and Pope Francis visited in 2016 before canonizing Joselito later that year.

In recent decades, the Knights of Columbus has increasingly promoted devotion to the martyrs (see more here). Since 2005, relics of the Knight-martyrs have traveled widely across Mexico and the United States. The Order has also supported major shrines associated with the martyrs, including the Sanctuary of the Martyrs of Christ the King near Guadalajara, where construction began in 2007.

In March 2011, then-Supreme Knight Carl Anderson joined approximately 400 Knights and their families on pilgrimage to the Sanctuary of Christ the King at Cubilete Hill. The event marked the renewal of an annual national Knights of Columbus pilgrimage to the site.

A century after the persecution, the witness of the martyrs endures in the devotion of the Knights who continue to honor them. As the past supreme knight observed at Cubilete, the martyrs’ blood “has united forever the Order of the Knights of Columbus with the people and the land of Mexico. The Order’s history is forever linked to the history of this great nation.”

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Editor’s Note: Maureen Walther, co-author of The Knights of Columbus: An Illustrated History (2020), and Luis Guevara, executive director for Hispanic development, contributed research to this article.