St. Rafael Guizar y Valencia

The Bishop of the Poor

Rafael Guizar y Valencia was born on April 26, 1878, in Cotija de la Paz, Michoacan, Mexico, to Prudencio Guizar and Natividad Valencia, devout parents who raised their eleven children in the Catholic faith. Orphaned of his mother at the age of nine, young Rafael continued his studies at a Jesuit college, where he discerned a vocation to the priesthood. He entered the minor seminary of Cotija in 1891 and the major seminary of Zamora in 1896. He was ordained a priest on June 1, 1901, at the age of twenty three.

In his early priesthood, Father Guizar threw himself into popular missions across Mexico, preaching in rural villages and cultivating vocations. Named spiritual director of the seminary of Zamora in 1905, he instilled in seminarians a burning love for the Eucharist and a tender devotion to Our Lady. When anti-Catholic persecution erupted during the Mexican Revolution beginning in 1911, he ministered in disguise, assuming the identities of a street musician, a beggar, a vendor, and even a doctor to continue serving the faithful.

On August 1, 1919, he was appointed Bishop of Veracruz and was consecrated at the Cathedral of Havana, Cuba, on November 30 of that year. He took possession of his devastated diocese on January 9, 1920, and immediately set about rebuilding the seminary and restoring the spiritual life of his people. When the Cristero War erupted in 1926 and the government intensified its persecution, Bishop Guizar was forced into exile. He established a clandestine seminary in Mexico City that trained seminarians in secret for fifteen years, eventually producing three hundred priests.

After the Cristero War ended in 1929, he returned to Veracruz and continued his tireless work of rebuilding. Known for his radical generosity, he gave away everything he owned to the poor, often arriving at meetings with his shoes mismatched because he had given his own pair to someone in need. He suffered a heart attack and died on June 6, 1938, in Mexico City, at the age of sixty. His body was later found incorrupt. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II on January 29, 1995, and canonized by Pope Benedict XVI on October 15, 2006, becoming the first Mexican bishop raised to the altars.

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