Jacinto de los Ángeles

About Jacinto de los Ángeles

Jacinto was a Zapotec Catholic from San Francisco Cajonos in Oaxaca. He served as a fiscal, a local official with religious and civic responsibilities.

He married Petrona de los Ángeles and had two children, Juan and Nicolasa. The historical account cites parish marriage and baptismal books for his family; these original registers have not been independently examined for this profile. Only a few details of his individual life survive in the accounts of the Cajonos conflict.

In September 1700, the village became the scene of a violent confrontation over an ancestral religious ceremony. The historian David Tavárez places the conflict within struggles over local autonomy and colonial religious authority.

Jacinto and his fellow fiscal Juan Bautista reported the ceremony to Dominican priests and were later seized during the resulting confrontation. They were killed on September 16.

The killings were followed by colonial prosecutions and further violence. Tavárez records fifteen executions in January 1702, followed by the commutation of other death sentences under Bishop Ángel Maldonado.

Later accounts preserved memories of the men and their deaths. Archbishop Eulogio Gillow gathered testimony and documents in the nineteenth century as part of efforts to advance their cause.

John Paul II beatified Jacinto and his companion at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe on August 1, 2002. The pope honored them as married laymen and fathers, connecting their Catholic witness with ordinary family and public responsibilities. He also called for respect for Indigenous cultures, languages and dignity.