A 24-year-old Mexican layman killed in 1926 for his Catholic faith during the anti-clerical persecution that sparked the Cristero War.

Saint David Roldán Lara (1902–1926) was a Mexican layman from Durango who was put to death at age twenty-four in Chalchihuites, Zacatecas, during the government persecution of the Catholic Church that preceded the Cristero War. He is venerated among the Saints of the Cristero War, a group of Mexican Catholics — mostly laypeople — killed in the 1920s for refusing to abandon their faith. He was beatified in 1992 and canonized by Pope John Paul II in 2000.

Quick Facts

• Died: August 15, 1926 (Chalchihuites, Zacatecas, Mexico, aged 24)
• Venerated as: Lay martyr of the Cristero War
• Beatified: 1992 · Canonized: 2000

Who Was Saint David Roldán Lara?

Saint David Roldán Lara was a young layman from the Mexican state of Durango who was killed at the age of twenty-four during the religious persecution that followed the anti-clerical enforcement of Mexico’s 1917 constitution. He belonged to the wave of lay Catholics who refused to renounce their faith when government forces moved against the Church in the mid-1920s.

Historical Setting

His death came in the opening months of the Cristero War (1926–1929), when the Mexican government’s strict enforcement of anti-clerical laws provoked an uprising of Catholic laypeople across central and western Mexico. Many, like David, were arrested and killed not on any battlefield but simply for their open association with the Church.

Why the Church Remembers Saint David Roldán Lara

He is remembered among the Saints of the Cristero War, a group of Mexican martyrs canonized together for their lay witness to the faith under persecution, most of them ordinary young Catholics rather than clergy or combatants.

Canonization and Feast Day

Saint David Roldán Lara was beatified in 1992 and canonized by Pope John Paul II in 2000 together with a larger group of Mexican martyrs of the twentieth-century persecution.

What Catholics Can Learn Today

His short life is a witness that holiness is not reserved for the ordained or the elderly: a young layman’s plain refusal to deny his faith, even at the cost of his life, is itself a form of Christian courage available to anyone.

A Prayer to Saint David Roldán Lara

Saint David Roldán Lara, young witness who would not deny Christ even facing death, intercede for young Catholics today, that we may hold to our faith with your same quiet courage. Amen.

Sources

• Vatican.va biography from the 2000 canonization of the Mexican Martyrs
• Roman Martyrology