Jose Sanchez del Rio
niño martil (1913–1928)
Feast: 10 February (not on the universal Roman calendar; kept in the Roman Martyrology or local calendars)
The Vatican record
- 21 January 2016 — Miracle through their intercession approved (decree list, 2016)
Who they were
José Sánchez del Río, 'Joselito', was born in Sahuayo, Mexico, on 28 March 1913. During the persecution of the Church in Mexico he joined the Cristero fighters as a boy of fourteen. Captured, he was tortured and forced to watch the hanging of another boy, but would not renounce his faith; he was killed on 10 February 1928, crying 'Viva Cristo Rey!'
He was beatified in 2005 as a martyr, with other young lay Mexican martyrs of the persecution.
The miracles
A little girl — Zamora, Mexico
A girl suffered pulmonary tuberculosis that spread to cause multiple strokes in both sides of the brain, with continuous seizures that no treatment could stop. She recovered, and on 21 December 2015 the Vatican's medical board found unanimously that her healing was scientifically inexplicable.
As a martyr he was beatified without a miracle. In 2013 his cause was separated from his companions' because a healing was attributed to him alone; it became the miracle for his canonisation.
Why that counted as sanctity
Beatification followed on 20 November 2005. The case of a little girl was examined by the Church's doctors and theologians and approved as a miracle on 21 January 2016, opening the way to canonisation. Canonisation followed on 16 October 2016 by Francis.
- Dicastery for the Causes of Saints - biography of St José Sánchez del Río, with the miracle
- Dicastery for the Causes of Saints — promulgated decrees (causesanti.va), summarised in our own words
- Wikidata Q2642317 — dates, feast day and identifiers (CC0)
- English Wikipedia — José Sánchez del Río (CC BY-SA)
Checked against the sources listed on 21 September 2026. Corrections welcome.