Blessed Ceferino Jimenez Malla, Spanish Gypsy, layman and martyr, popularly known as El Pele, he was also a Third Order Franciscan.
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In 1936 during the Spanish Civil War, Pele was detained for defending a priest who was being dragged through the streets of Barbastro and for carrying a rosary in his pocket. He refused to throw away his rosary in exchange for his life and thus embraced martyrdom. On August 8, 1936 he was shot while holding his rosary in his hands and shouting, “Long Live Christ the King.” - Source
This dear man must have known the secret of the rosary! :>
ReplyDeletehttp://www.pacifier.com/~rosarweb/secret.htm
When I lived in El Paso I attended a traditionalist parish. One of the parishioners was Mr. Maldonado. His uncle was San Pedro de Jesus Maldonado, one of the great mexican martyrs. Mr. Maldonado was 93 years old. There was also a seminary of Franciscans and a number of convents established in El Paso by religious who fled the persecutions in Mexico. Mexico was largely de-Catholicised among the rich and middle class and the revolutionary party (PRI). Americans by and large do not understand the Mexican revolution and its devastating effect on Mexican culture. One of the results is the rise of the drug lords. Another the endless cycle of corruption and poverty. Remember Our Lady of Guadalupe took the Mexican people for herself and she cannot be pleased with the way things are turning out with the influence of godless revolutionary and social movements on the nation once dedicated to her.
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