Juan Bautista and Jacinto de los Ángeles

As prosecutors (fiscales), Juan Bautista and Jacinto de los Ángeles collaborated closely with the Dominican missionaries, notably Fathers Gaspar de los Reyes and Alonso de Vargas, who were in charge of the parish of San Francisco Cajonos. Their main mission consisted of watching over the purity of the Catholic faith and preventing moral deviations or clandestine returns to pre-Columbian idolatrous practices, which were still frequent in this recently evangelized region. Their commitment took a dramatic turn on the night of September 14, 1700. While performing their watch, the two prosecutors discovered that a group of inhabitants from San Francisco Cajonos and neighboring villages had gathered clandestinely in the house of an indigenous man named José Flores to celebrate an ancestral ritual of idolatry. Faithful to their duty, they immediately informed the Dominican fathers. Accompanied by the missionaries and the Spanish captain Antonio Rodríguez Pinelo, they went to the scene, interrupted the ceremony, and confiscated the ritual offerings to place them in safety at the Dominican convent. The next day, September 15, anger grew among the supporters of the ancestral cults. A large crowd of Zapotecs, armed with spears, axes, and machetes, stormed the Dominican convent, demanding the return of the offerings and the surrender of the two prosecutors. Faced with the refusal of the religious and the threat of seeing the convent burned and all its occupants massacred, Captain Rodríguez Pinelo made the decision to hand over Juan Bautista and Jacinto de los Ángeles, despite the opposition of the Dominican fathers. Showing heroic courage, the two men agreed to surrender to save the lives of the missionaries. They prepared for death by confessing and receiving Holy Communion. It was at this moment that Juan Bautista uttered these words of faith: "We are going to die for the law of God; since I have His Divine Majesty, I fear nothing and I have no need of weapons."

After being handed over to the angry crowd, Juan Bautista and Jacinto de los Ángeles were immediately subjected to violent torments. They were publicly flogged in the village square. While undergoing these tortures, they addressed the priests watching them from the convent windows, saying: "Fathers, commend us to God." On September 16, 1700, their executioners led them toward the neighboring village of San Pedro, and then to the slopes of Mount Xagacía (formerly called "Mount of the Leaves"). Throughout the journey, they were offered their lives if they would agree to renounce the Christian faith and return to the worship of idols. They refused categorically, responding firmly: "Since we have professed baptism, we will always follow the true religion." Upon reaching the summit of Mount Xagacía, they were thrown from the top of the cliff and then finished off with machete blows. Their executioners opened their chests to tear out their hearts and throw them to the dogs (which, according to tradition, refused to touch them). Some of the executioners even drank their blood as a sign of hatred and to appropriate their strength. Their bodies were thrown into a pit on that same mountain, which was from then on renamed by the faithful "Monte Fiscal Santos" (the Mount of the Holy Prosecutors). Their mortal remains were later recovered and kept at the church of Villa Alta. In 1889, at the initiative of Msgr. Eulogio Gillow y Zavalza, Archbishop of Oaxaca, the relics of the martyrs were solemnly transferred to the Cathedral of Oaxaca, where they are still venerated today. Msgr. Gillow actively relaunched the historical study of their martyrdom by publishing the work Apuntes históricos in 1889, thus laying the foundations for the modern resumption of their cause for beatification.

The cause for the beatification of the "Martyrs of Cajonos," although delayed by the political upheavals and religious persecutions that Mexico experienced in the 19th and 20th centuries, was officially relaunched in the late 1980s. On August 1, 2002, during his fifth and final pastoral visit to Mexico, Pope John Paul II presided over the solemn beatification ceremony of Juan Bautista and Jacinto de los Ángeles at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City. In his homily, the Holy Father emphasized the greatness of their witness: "The Blessed Juan Bautista and Jacinto de los Ángeles are the fruit of the holiness of the first evangelization among the Zapotec Indians." He also recalled that their sacrifice is a shining example of fidelity to the promises of baptism, showing that nothing, not even earthly life, should be placed before the commitment to Christ.

The spirituality of the Blessed Juan Bautista and Jacinto de los Ángeles is based on absolute fidelity to the commitments of baptism and on selfless service to the community. As laymen, husbands, and fathers, they demonstrate that holiness is not reserved for religious alone, but is fulfilled in the duties of daily and civic life. Their figure is also a model of the inculturation of the faith. As John Paul II emphasized, they did not have to reject their Zapotec culture to become perfect Christians; on the contrary, they exercised traditional civic functions while allowing themselves to be guided by the light of the Gospel. Although their denunciation of clandestine rituals sparked historical tensions within their community—some having long considered them traitors to their ancestral traditions—the Church sees in them heroic defenders of the truth and spiritual freedom brought by Christ. Today, the Martyrs of Cajonos are deeply venerated in the state of Oaxaca and throughout Mexico. The mountain of their martyrdom remains an important place of pilgrimage, and their liturgical feast is celebrated on September 15 (according to the Roman Martyrology) or September 18 (local feast in Mexico).