José Trinidad Rangel Montaño and companions

The work of these three blessed ones is rooted in their clandestine ministry and testimony at the height of the religious persecution led by President Plutarco Elías Calles. Starting in 1926, refusing to submit to the "Calles Law," Father José Trinidad Rangel Montaño took refuge in León in the house of the sisters Josefina and Jovita Alba. It was there that Father Andrés Solá y Molist, targeted by a decree of expulsion for foreign priests, was also hiding. Together, they celebrated Mass in secret and administered the sacraments. Leonardo Pérez Larios frequented this house daily to attend services and support the priests. In April 1927, Father Rangel agreed to celebrate the Holy Week services in secret at the home of the Mínimas sisters in San Francisco del Rincón, where he was arrested on April 22. On April 24, soldiers searched the Alba sisters' house and arrested Father Solá as well as Leonardo Pérez Larios. Although a layman, Leonardo was arrested because the soldiers mistook him for a priest due to his devout demeanor.

The three prisoners underwent a mock military trial on April 24, 1927, in León, falsely accused of having caused the derailment of a passenger train. On April 25, 1927, at dawn, they were taken by military train near the Rancho de San Joaquín. Led to the bottom of a ravine, the two priests gave each other absolution and granted it to Leonardo. They stood in the form of a cross and were shot in the back. Father Rangel and the layman Leonardo Pérez Larios died instantly. Father Andrés Solá y Molist, seriously wounded, agonized for nearly three hours in the tar, bearing witness to his faith to the railway workers who came to his aid before passing away around noon.

The official decree recognizing that the three servants of God were killed in hatred of the faith (in odium fidei) was signed by Pope John Paul II on June 22, 2004. The solemn ceremony of beatification was celebrated on November 20, 2005, at the Jalisco Stadium in Guadalajara, Mexico, presided over by Cardinal José Saraiva Martins, delegate of Pope Benedict XVI. Their common liturgical feast is set for November 20, and they are individually inscribed in the Roman Martyrology on the date of April 25.

The spirituality of this group of martyrs rests on the total offering of self, the acceptance of the divine will, and absolute fidelity to Christ in the face of persecution. Father Rangel embodied pastoral humility, Father Solá missionary zeal and forgiveness for his executioners, and Leonardo Pérez Larios lay holiness lived through Eucharistic devotion. Today, their relics are kept and venerated in the Templo Expiatorio del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús in León, in the state of Guanajuato. They are invoked as intercessors for peace, religious freedom, and the support of persecuted Christians.