Bl. José Trinidad Rangel

Fr José Trinidad Rangel Montańo was born on 4 June 1887 in Dolores Hidalgo, Guanajuato, Mexico. As a priest, he was known for his humility, simplicity and 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 León, where he sought refuge in the home of Josefina and Jovita Alba and where he met Fr Andrés Solá y Molist, a Claretian missionary who was also in hiding since 1926. In April 1927, Fr Rangel's brother Agustín 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 Rincón. Here he administered the sacraments, especially to those sick in the hospital. On 22 April 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 25 April 1927 in Rancho de San Joaquín, together with Fr Andrés Solá y Molist and Mr Leonardo Pérez Larios.