Mateo Correa Magallanes

Mateo Correa Magallanes was a Mexican Catholic diocesan priest and martyr of the Cristero persecution. He was born on 23 July 1866 in Tepechitlán, in the state of Zacatecas, Mexico. He entered the conciliar seminary of Zacatecas in 1881 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1893. He served in parish ministry in the Zacatecas region. Catholic biographies record that, as a young priest, he gave First Communion to Miguel Agustín Pro, later a Jesuit martyr of the same persecution. Correa Magallanes was a member of the Knights of Columbus, belonging to Council 2140 in Zacatecas.

In the mid-1920s the Mexican federal government under President Plutarco Elías Calles enforced severe anticlerical legislation that restricted public worship, closed churches and seminaries, and targeted the clergy. Armed Catholic resistance, known as the Cristero War, followed from 1926. Father Correa Magallanes continued to exercise his priestly ministry despite the danger. In 1927 he was arrested by government forces and taken to Durango.

While he was in custody, General Eulogio Ortiz ordered him to hear the confessions of imprisoned Cristero fighters. After he had done so, the general demanded that he disclose what they had confessed. Correa Magallanes refused, citing the inviolable seal of confession. He was then taken out and shot on 6 February 1927 in Durango.

Pope John Paul II beatified him on 22 November 1992 and canonized him on 21 May 2000 together with other Mexican martyrs of the Cristero period. The Catholic Church commemorates this group of martyrs collectively on 21 May. He is remembered in Catholic tradition above all for his refusal to violate the sacramental seal, at the cost of his life.