Saint Jose Isabel Flores Varela - June 21
Memorial
21 June
21 May as one of the Martyrs of the Mexican Revolution
Profile
Seminarian at Guadalajara, Mexico. Parish priest at Zapotlanejo, Jalisco, Mexico in 1900. Strong and gentle father to his flock, he refused to abandon his parish during the persecutions of the Church by the government; he went into hiding, and ministered covertly to his parishioners. The mayor of Zapotlanjejo, Jose Orozco, was virulently anti–Catholic, and offered a reward for the capture of any priest. Father Jose was betrayed for this reward, and arrested; his Judas was Nemesio Bermejo, an ex-seminarian who lived with Flores.
Flores was offered his freedom if he would accept the anti–Church Calles government; he declined. Orozco turned the Zapotlanejo rectory into a jail, threw Flores into it, gave him no food or water for three days, played music outside the gaol so he could not sleep, and repeatedly offered him freedom in exchange for cooperation; …More