Saint Toribio Romo González was murdered at age 27 for being a priest during the Mexican Revolution. He is one of the group of the 25 Martyrs of the Cristero Wars, canonized by Pope John Paul II on May 21, 2000.

Born April 16, 1900, in Santa Ana de Guadalupe, Jalisco, Toribio received a dispensation to be ordained at the young age of 21 for the Archdiocese of Guadalajara.

Most of the 25 Mexican martyrs were priests executed for administering sacraments during the anti-Catholic regime of Plutarco Elías Calles. The Cristero Wars was an uprising against the government. The martyrs feast day is May 25.

Father Toribio was shot in the back by federal soldiers on Feb. 25, 1928, in his rectory in Agua Caliente, Jalisco, Mexico.

This past May 21, the bishop of Tulsa, Okla., in response to his state living under one of the nation’s toughest immigration laws, established a shrine to St. Toribio, who is considered by many to be the patron saint of immigrants.

It is said St. Toribio appears to many Mexican immigrants in the Sonoran Desert — which covers large parts of Arizona and California and the Mexican states of Sonora and Baja California — and assists them as they make their way north seeking work in the United States.