Very rare reliquary box with a glass front containing fragments of Saint Sabás Reyes

Very rare reliquary box with a glass front containing fragments of Saint Sabás Reyes

Mexico 2000s “ Mártires Mexicanos “

Size: 3.8 cm diameter X 1.5 cm H

Sabás Reyes Salazar (3 December 1883 – 13 April 1927) was a Mexican Catholic vicar and one of many priests martyred during the Cristero War. Reyes was canonized by Pope John Paul II on 21 May 2000 as one the Martyrs of the Cristero War.

In 1926, at the start of the persecutions during the Cristero War, Reyes became vicar of Tototlán and continued his ministry in secret. He was returning from a baptism when government forces arrived at the village looking for the parish priest, Francisco Vizcarra. Reyes went subsequently into hiding, but was discovered and arrested on orders of general Juan B. Izaguirre on 11 April 1927. Reyes was then beaten and tortured in order to reveal the whereabouts of Vizcarra and other priests; his hands and feet were burned and he was left in the sun with several of his bones broken, with nothing to drink. On 13 April, Wednesday of Holy Week, he was then taken to the cemetery and shot. Reyes's last words were Viva Cristo Rey.