BL. JOSE TRINIDAD RANGEL MONTANO, PRIEST AND MARTYR - 25 APRIL

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN APRIL

Saints celebrated on the 25th of April

Prayer to the Angels and the Saints

Heavenly Father, in praising Your Angels and Saints we praise Your glory, for by honouring them we honour You, their Creator. Their splendour shows us Your greatness, which infinitely surpasses that of all creation.

In Your loving providence, You saw fit to send Your Angels to watch over us. Grant that we may always be under their protection and one day enjoy their company in heaven.

Heavenly Father, You are glorified in Your Saints, for their glory is the crowning of Your gifts. You provide an example for us by their lives on earth, You give us their friendship by our communion with them, You grant us strength and protection through their prayer for the Church, and You spur us on to victory over evil and the prize of eternal glory by this great company of witnesses.

Grant that we who aspire to take part in their joy may be filled with the Spirit that blessed their lives, so that, after sharing their faith on earth, we may also experience their peace in heaven. Amen.

BLESSED JOSE TRINIDAD RANGEL MONTANO, PRIEST AND MARTYR 

Fr Jose Trinidad Rangel Montano was born June 4, 1887 in Dolores Hidalgo, Guanajuato, Mexico. As a priest, he was known for his humility, simplicity and zeal for the salvation of souls.

ZEAL FOR THE SALVATION OF SOULS

In 1927, Fr Rangel was obliged to leave his parish church at Silao due to the fact that he had not enrolled as a priest in the government register for priests; he went to Leon, where he sought refuge in the home of Josefina and Jovita Alba and where he met Fr Andres Sola y Molist, a Claretian missionary who was also in hiding since 1926.

HE STAYED AND ADMINISTERED THE SACRAMENTS TO THE SICK

In April 1927, Fr Rangel's brother Agustin encouraged him to seek refuge in the United States; instead, Fr Rangel accepted the invitation of the ecclesiastical superior of the Diocese to secretly celebrate Holy Week with the Minims in San Francisco del Rincon. Here he administered the sacraments, especially to those sick in the hospital.

HE WAS ARRESTED AND TORTURED

On April 22 Fr Rangel was discovered and arrested. He never denied the fact that he was a priest, and after interrogation and torture, he was shot on April 25, 1927 in Rancho de San Joaquin, together with Fr Andres Sola y Molist and Mr Leonardo Perez Larios.

(Source: https://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/saints/ns_lit_doc_20051120_rangel_en.html)

PRAYER:

Grant to your Church, we beseech you, O Lord, through the intercession of your holy martyr Jose, not to think high-mindedly, but to grow in humility pleasing to you; that, despising what is base, she may with unbounded love diligently do whatever is right. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.