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On December 14, 2023, Pope Francis authorized the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints to promulgate the decree concerning the miracle for the beatification of the Mexican Servant of God Moisés Lira Serafín, Missionary of the Holy Spirit. The celebration will take place on September 14 in the National Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico.
The beneficiaries of the miracle were couple who were expecting a child, facing a pregnancy full of difficulties. Doctors gave no chance for the child to survive. However, after reading a book about the life of Fr. Moisés, the couple prayed a novena and the child was born healthy.
To get to know Venerable Moisés Lira better, Aleteia consulted Luis Enrique Lara Córdova, an expert on the lives of the saints. This is what he shared with us.
Spiritual son of Conchita Cabrera de Armida
Moisés Lira Serafín was born on September 16, 1893, in Zacatlán, Puebla (Mexico). His mother died when he was 5. He was an altar boy as a child, and then entered the Palafoxiano Seminary in Puebla.
When he met the Venerable Felix de Jesus Rougier, he became enthusiastic about the spirituality that the Lord was developing in him and Blessed Concepcion Cabrera de Armida. Fr. Felix considered him “the firstborn” of the new religious congregation, since he was the first member of the community to take vows.
His humility led him to occupy the last place in everything, living with authenticity the spirit of the Works of the Cross, just as the Lord inspired him to Blessed Conchita, whom he always loved with the affection of a son for his mother.
He was extremely kind and also embodied spiritual childhood, being part of the army of “little souls” inspired by the path marked by St. Thérèse of Lisieux. His motto was, “It is necessary to be very small to be a great saint.”
Work and priestly ordination
He served as local superior of the congregation in various places and as general treasurer. In 1922 he received ordination to the priesthood in Morelia, and from 1926 to 1928, he studied dogmatic theology at the Gregorian University in Rome. He returned to Mexico on July 17, 1928. In 1931 his superiors assigned him to the Expiatory Church of San Felipe de Jesus, as a confessor.
Fr. Moisés’ collaboration with St. Rafael Guízar y Valencia in some popular missions marked his missionary spirit. He stood out as spiritual director and confessor; he was an apostle of the charity of Christ to the point of forgetting about himself.
He had special care and attention for children, whom he taught to be altar boys, many of whom eventually entered the seminary or the apostolic school of the Missionaries of the Holy Spirit.
Founder and Superior General
In 1934 he founded the Congregation of the Missionaries of Charity of Mary Immaculate. Some time later, from 1936 to 1938, his superiors sent him to the Community that the Missionaries founded in Celaya, to be the rector of the church of La Merced. After the death of the superior general, Venerable Felix Rougier, he became the new superior general of the congregation.
Years later, his health declined. He died on June 25, 1950, in Mexico City, with a great reputation for holiness. In 2000, the process of sainthood began, and Pope Francis declared him venerable in 2013.
His tomb can be visited in the left aisle of the National Expiatory Church of San Felipe de Jesus, in the Historic Center of Mexico City.
Click on the Photo Gallery below to see images of the soon-to-be blessed:
And today we celebrate...