Día del Colegio -- The Story of Miguel Pro

Every year Colegio Miguel Pro celebrates what they call its anniversary on November 23rd but which is really the feast day of its namesake Blessed Miguel Pro.  Miguel Agustín Pro was a Mexican Jesuit priest who was executed by the Mexican government on the 23rd of November in 1927.

I was in the group of teachers responsible for decorating for the day.  While I didn't particularly enjoy having to do it, it did turn out nice.

The ceremony is most remembered for the play telling the story of Miguel Pro's life performed by one of the upper grades of primary.  This year the students from 5th grade were in charge of portraying Miguel Pro's life. 

The 5th graders started out telling about Miguel Pro's childhood.  As the 3rd of 11 children born to a mining family (4 of which died very young during childhood), Miguel's early life was not easy.  His family was quite pious demonstrated by the fact that two of his sisters also became religious.

The class then described the events that led to Miguel joining the Jesuits and his training.  During his training, an anti-clerical government came to power and the Jesuit novitiates had to move to Los Gatos, California (where the present-day California-province Jesuits are based) to continue his studies.  He then went to Spain for 4 years to continue his studies before returning to America and teaching for 3 years in Nicaragua.  He finished his studies with 3 year of theology that he completed in Belgium before being ordained a priest in 1925.  His first assignment as a priest was working with miners in Belgium which he completed while waiting to be able to return to Mexico.

Pro returned to Mexico in July of 1926 and began working clandestinely since the government was strongly enforcing many anti-clerical laws.  He narrowly escaped capture many times (shown as some funny depictions by the students) before being arrested in November of 1927 and having the President order his execution.  Many pictures were taken and published in order to discourage the rebellion that accompanied the harsh laws.