From 1910 to 1917, Mexico underwent a turbulent revolution that turned the country upside down. The new 1917 Constitution sought to destroy Catholicism and subvert religion in the populace, with disastrous consequences. What followed in the 1920s and '30s under the atheistic, communist government of Plutarco Calles was a series of harsh, bloody persecutions and a counter-revolution by Catholics, collectively titled the Cristero War.

Mexican Martyrdom is a collection of true stories from these terrible anti-Catholic persecutions. Told by Jesuit Fr. Wilfrid Parson, these stories are based upon cases he had seen himself or that had been described to him personally by the people who had undergone the atrocities of those times. These pages are filled with intense stories of those who chose to die rather than forsake Christ the King.

The Cristero martyrs bear witness to the radical willingness we all must share to lose our own blood in profession of the Christian Faith. In our own times, when Christ the King is discarded and derided, such persecutions as happened only a century ago in Mexico do not seem far off from us. We must learn to be prepared like the martyrs of these pages. Riveting and haunting, Mexican Martyrdom will feed your faith with the blood of the Mexican martyrs.

­¡Viva Cristo Rey!