Devotion to St. Lawrence, the martyred deacon of the 3rd century, took root on the border of Mexico and the United States more than 300 years ago. Currently this saint is considered one of the patrons, along with Our Lady of Guadalupe, of the Diocese of Ciudad Juárez, adjacent to the American city of El Paso, Texas.
The Catholic Church celebrates the feast of San Lorenzo every August 10, the day he was martyred in the year 258.
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an article published in the weekly Presenciafrom the Diocese of Ciudad Juárez, sheds light on how devotion to San Lorenzo emerged and took root in the region.
The weekly, based on annotations by historian José Mario Sánchez Soledad, points out that “the Spanish crown authorized Don Juan de Oñate in 1595 to colonize the territory that today is the states of New Mexico, northern Chihuahua and Texas mainly.”
“In the area, in 1680 the Indian Popé led the rebellion of the Pueblo Indians that took place on August 10 (Saint Lawrence Day). There were 400 dead and the survivors fled to Santa Fe and Pueblo de Isleta”, which are currently located in New Mexico (United States).
“Then the Spanish went towards the city of El Paso del Norte, current Ciudad Juárez, which then became the capital of the territory of New Mexico,” adds Presencia.
The Mexican weekly then indicates that “the devotion to San Lorenzo in this region deepened when at the head of the flight from Santa Fe, among the few possessions that they were able to rescue, they accompanied a small image of San Lorenzo (which they brought from Spain), who protected them on the way from attacks.”
“The survivors were received at the Guadalupe Mission in Paso del Norte, where the surviving faithful Indians, Spaniards and Governor Don Antonio de Otermín arrived,” he continues.
Presencia points out that “as Paso del Norte was saturated, the survivors of the indigenous rebellion founded a town downstream from Paso del Norte which they called San Lorenzo”, in the current location of the San Lorenzo Sanctuary.
“Originally it was located closer to the Rio Grande but a flood forced it to be rebuilt further to the south, where it is currently located,” he explains.
The small image of San Lorenzo that is currently preserved in the sanctuary would be the one that the Spanish managed to rescue after the indigenous rebellion.
Originally published August 9, 2021. It has been updated for republication.
David Ramos
Graduated in Communication Sciences from the Universidad Privada del Norte in Trujillo, Peru. With more than 12 years of experience in Catholic journalism working at ACI Prensa, I have been based in Mexico since 2018. I have covered Pope Francis’ trips to Ecuador, Paraguay, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Peru and Panama.