Rafael Guízar Valencia

Before his episcopate, forced into exile by the Mexican religious persecution, Rafael Guízar Valencia deployed intense missionary activity between 1913 and 1919 in Cuba, Guatemala, Colombia, and the southern United States, preaching popular missions with the help of a catechism he had composed himself. Having become Bishop of Veracruz, he continued this apostolic zeal under difficult conditions: his diocese was subject to anticlerical laws, and he experienced several exiles, sometimes living without a fixed residence. His charity toward the sick remained famous, notably his personal devotion to the victims of epidemics, which earned him the nickname of the "bishop of the poor." At the heart of his pastoral action, he placed the formation of the clergy: despite the closures imposed by the authorities, he maintained and reopened his seminary, moving it clandestinely from place to place. In his canonization homily, Benedict XVI recalled this saying which summarizes his conviction: "A bishop can do without the miter, the crosier, and even the cathedral, but he cannot do without the seminary."

The reputation for holiness of Rafael Guízar Valencia was nourished by his detachment from material goods and his refusal of honors: Benedict XVI emphasized that he "had left everything to follow Jesus" and practiced evangelical poverty, declining gifts from the powerful to serve the humble. A courageous pastor, he exercised his ministry in defiance of danger during the years of persecution, using various disguises to reach the faithful deprived of priests and to administer the sacraments. His charity was expressed brilliantly in the care of the sick during epidemics, where he committed himself personally. The Pope presented him as a model for bishops and priests, because of his solicitude for the promotion of vocations and priestly formation according to the heart of Christ. This consistency between the faith professed and the life led, in a hostile context, forged a popular veneration during his lifetime that was strengthened after his death.

The cause of Rafael Guízar Valencia led to his beatification by Pope John Paul II on January 29, 1995, in St. Peter's Basilica. He was canonized by Pope Benedict XVI on October 15, 2006, during a celebration in St. Peter's Square where four new saints were raised to the honors of the altars, among whom were the Italian Filippo Smaldone, the Italian Rosa Venerini, and the American Théodore Guérin. According to Mexican sources, the miracle accepted for the canonization concerned a child in whom a cleft lip and palate had been detected during pregnancy and who was born healthy after the invocation of the blessed, a healing recognized in 2005. His liturgical feast is set for October 24, a day that corresponded to an ancient local devotion at his tomb and to the former feast of the Archangel Raphael, his patron saint; the anniversary of his death, June 6, also remains commemorated, particularly in the Diocese of Veracruz.

The legacy of Rafael Guízar Valencia remains vibrant in Mexico, where he is considered one of the great saints of the 20th century and where the seminary he defended so strongly continues his work of priestly formation. During the exhumation of his remains in 1950, his body was found preserved, a phenomenon that amplified popular devotion; his remains, which have remained incorrupt, are today venerated in an urn within the Metropolitan Cathedral of Xalapa, in the state of Veracruz, which has become an important place of pilgrimage. Presented by Benedict XVI as a model of a pastor committed to evangelical poverty and the formation of the clergy, he is invoked in a privileged way as a patron of bishops and his example is regularly recalled in the pastoral care of vocations. His figure as the "bishop of the poor," faithful to his people even in exile and clandestinity, remains a reference for the Church in Latin America.